The Tower of Birds. La Tour des Oiseaux. by Graham Sutherland, 1903-1980

Graham Sutherland, 1903-1980
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The Tower of Birds. La Tour des Oiseaux.

Original lithograph in six colours. 1977. Signed in pencil. Numbered (xlii) from the special edition of 'L' (50) on japan paper. (There was also an edition of 175 on Arches paper; total edition of 225). Printed at the Mourlot Studio, Paris 1977. Issued by Transworld Art, New York 1977.
Ref: Tassi - Sutherland The Graphic Work no 158.

Superb impression with totally fresh colours. On pale cream smooth japan paper. Superb condition; never previously mounted or framed. Full untrimmed sheet; image drawn to the full sheet size, as issued. Sheet: 650x500mm. 25 5/8 x 19 5/8ins.

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Sutherland holds a position of unique importance in the development of British 20th century painting for he epitomises the way that British art has a character, an essential inner essence, which makes it stand apart from the style and aesthetic approach of painting, for example, in France. That essence lies partially in continuity with the traditions of earlier British art. Sutherland was, in many ways, a visionary, a visionary who continued that quality of ecstatic insight into nature which is found, for example, in the work of Palmer and Blake in the 19th century.

Sutherland's earliest works were very much in the Palmer style but by the 1930's he was also exploring the concepts of Surrealism, and the use of forms to express subconscious emotion, which were being explored in Paris. Sutherland remained focussed on landscape as a source for his images, but increasingly he used small elements borrowed from nature, - stones, branches, animals, - as symbols for the whole breadth of landscape, instilling his images with an intensity which is that of the true visionary.

Sutherland was a passionate lithographer, and his graphic work includes some of the most powerful imagery in his oeuvre. 'La Tour des Oiseaux', with its glowing yellow-orange background and the compelling intricacy of the forms, is a typical example of the power of his work in this medium in the later years of his life.