'Welsh Landscape with Roads', Graham Sutherland OM

Artwork details

Artist

Graham Sutherland OM (1903‑1980)

Title

Welsh Landscape with Roads

Date 1936

MediumOil paint on canvas

Dimensionssupport: 610 x 914 mm frame: 798 x 1107 x 85 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1946

Reference

N05666

On display at Tate Britain

Theme: Looking at the View

Room: Looking at the View

Display caption

This work derived from the hills and valley near Porthclais on the outskirts of St David's, Pembrokeshire. Sutherland wrote that such paintings expressed the 'intellectual and emotional' essence of a place. He conjures up a sense of the landscape's ancient past through the inclusion of the animal skull and what may be standing stones in the distance. The unnaturalistic colouring, dramatic shaft of sunlight and minuscule fleeing figure create a threatening atmosphere. While the theme of a tiny man dwarfed by nature was common in eighteenth century painting, Sutherland's transformation of the landscape into a eerie, primordial scene is distinctly modern.

August 2004