In 1944, on Henry Moore's advice, the Reverend Walter Hussey of St. Matthew's Church, Northampton asked Sutherland if he would be interested in an ecclesiastical commission that might compliment Moore's recently completed commission 'Madonna and Child'. Sutherland accepted and chose the classic theme of the 'Crucifixion'. The commission became the biggest and most difficult for the artist to date. In 1946, the artist finally began to tackle the project. He took as inspiration Durer's Crucifixion drawings, Grunewalde's expressionistic figures, and most importantly the gruesome American document and film footage in the concentration camp, as they were found by liberating troops. The artist wrote of the research: 'The whole idea of the depiction of Christ crucified became more real to me after having seen this book, and it seemed to me possible to do the subject again. In any case, the continuing beastliness and cruetly of mankind, amounting at times to madness, seems eternal and classic' (R. Berthoud, Sutherland A Biography, London, 1982, pp.112, 126-27).

The final eight by seven feet version was hung at Northampton and various other studies are in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London, British Council and in the artist's estate