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Lot Essay
Bomberg’s trip to Cyprus in the Summer of 1948 acted as a catalyst for renewed inspiration, in which he continued to develop his earlier landscape paintings depicting Cornwall and Spain. This development led to the production of increasingly expressive and colourful works such as Mount St Hilarion, Cyprus. This expedition to Cyprus was funded by his son-in-law Leslie Marr, and he chose Cyprus following the enthused description of the country’s landscape by his friend, the architect, Austen Harrison. Bomberg’s reinvigorated inspiration in Cyprus led him to believe that artists could redeem the world by re-establishing a relationship with nature, writing, ‘with the approach of the scientific mechanisation and the submerging of individuals, we have urgent need of the affirmation of man’s spiritual significance and his individuality’ (E. King, exhibition catalogue, David Bomberg: Spirit in the Mass, Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 2006, p. 14.).
The painting depicts the richly foliated mountain range next to the famed castle ruins at St Hilarion. Bomberg’s palette is warm and sun-scorched, reflecting the Mediterranean heat of Cyprus. The polychromatic palette combined with the lively and expressive brushstrokes creates an effect of optical mixing. The gestural marks complement the textured and rocky terrain of the subject, and the breadth of the palette shows the effects of the sun’s light off the textured terrain. Bomberg’s painting follows in the Romantic tradition of depicting the sublime and the power of nature.
Bomberg approached his landscapes with spontaneity, with him often painting directly onto the canvas without preliminary drawings. Bomberg reprimed his canvasses to create a surface in which his brush ‘would slip easily’. This is reflected in the fluidity of the marks, and their dynamic and repetitive nature alludes to the fast pace in which Bomberg completed his landscape paintings. Bomberg’s Cypriot works created a fusion of his observations of the landscape and his subjective reactions to it. The abstract and expressionistic handling of the subject captures the dichotomy of these approaches and the fluidity in which Bomberg marries both. Art critic William Lipke remarks that Bomberg’s paintings have ‘reached the ambiguous limit where the painting can be read as both abstract expressionism and as a landscape in the sun’ (W. Lipke, David Bomberg, a critical study of his life and work, London, 1967, p. 91).
The painting depicts the richly foliated mountain range next to the famed castle ruins at St Hilarion. Bomberg’s palette is warm and sun-scorched, reflecting the Mediterranean heat of Cyprus. The polychromatic palette combined with the lively and expressive brushstrokes creates an effect of optical mixing. The gestural marks complement the textured and rocky terrain of the subject, and the breadth of the palette shows the effects of the sun’s light off the textured terrain. Bomberg’s painting follows in the Romantic tradition of depicting the sublime and the power of nature.
Bomberg approached his landscapes with spontaneity, with him often painting directly onto the canvas without preliminary drawings. Bomberg reprimed his canvasses to create a surface in which his brush ‘would slip easily’. This is reflected in the fluidity of the marks, and their dynamic and repetitive nature alludes to the fast pace in which Bomberg completed his landscape paintings. Bomberg’s Cypriot works created a fusion of his observations of the landscape and his subjective reactions to it. The abstract and expressionistic handling of the subject captures the dichotomy of these approaches and the fluidity in which Bomberg marries both. Art critic William Lipke remarks that Bomberg’s paintings have ‘reached the ambiguous limit where the painting can be read as both abstract expressionism and as a landscape in the sun’ (W. Lipke, David Bomberg, a critical study of his life and work, London, 1967, p. 91).