- Artist
- David Bomberg 1890–1957
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 3042 × 2438 mm
frame: 2513 × 3113 × 75 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1959
- Reference
- T00319
Catalogue entry
T00319 STUDY FOR ‘SAPPERS AT WORK: A CANADIAN TUNNELLING COMPANY. HILL 60, ST ELOI’
c. 1918–19
Not inscribed.
Canvas, 119 3/4×96 (304×244).
Purchased from the artist's widow (Grant-in-Aid) 1959.
One of the full-scale studies for the painting commissioned in 1918 by the Canadian Government for the Canadian War Memorial. The first version was rejected as being too Cubist and was therefore not included in the War Memorial exhibition held at the R.A. in October–November 1919. The final version is now in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and measures 120×96 inches. In the present version the artist attempted to include more realistic detail to satisfy the requirements of the military authorities. An idea of the successive stages of development towards a more figurative design may be gained from a study of the two early Cubist compositions in colour lent to the Arts Council Bomberg exhibition, 1958 (57), and the pen drawing reproduced in the catalogue (58, repr. pl.2), which, with the pen drawing, N03723, are more naturalistic. Basically T00319 retains the same compositional elements as the two drawings except that the right half is here cut short at the figure carrying a load on his head. The composition is also squarer, more compressed, and there is no suggestion of any great recession into the picture.
Explore
- architecture(30,960)
- townscapes / man-made features(21,603)
-
- tunnel(59)
- tools and machinery(1,287)
-
- winch(49)
- cities, towns, villages (non-UK)(13,323)
-
- Ypres(23)
- Ypres, Sint-Elooi(3)
- Belgium(581)
- Belgium, Flanders(64)
- nationality(18,601)
-
- Canadian(155)
- industrial and crafts(1,327)
-
- hammering(7)
- soldier(1,204)