An unscheduled trip to Cambridge last Friday. Made good use of the time in Central Library reading up on British history from World War I to World War II. Plenty of books too on Stanley Spencer but none on Graham Sutherland. Detours of this sort have been a feature of the tour as paintings, books and opportunities cross my path out of sequence.
Back to Sutherland today with books on my own shelves. I acquired these as part of an earlier study on a Cain and Abel by Keith Vaughan. Vaughan and Sutherland were both part of a group of British artists labelled 'Neo Romantics'. They were all caught up in World War II one way or another. Sutherland was a War Artist, Vaughan served with the non-combatant Pioneer Corps. After the war their art reflected their experiences for a time. Sutherland produced several religious paintings, Vaughan just the one.
Many of Sutherland's paintings were commissioned for churches and they can be seen as 'religious' in every sense. Vaughan's painting seems more to draw on a well known story to offer a crtique of the times in which the painter lived. Another case that shows how difficult it is to determine what a 'religious painting' is or should be. Answers on a postcard?
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