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Lot Essay
Augustus Lunn was born in Lancashire and moved to Surbiton in 1918. Lunn became one of the leading figures amongst a group of artists between the wars who sought to bring about a revival in the technique of tempera painting. Other artists to exhibit alongside Lunn were Edward Wadsworth, John Armstrong, Eliot Hodgkin, Maxwell Armfield and Joseph Southall.
The present work illustrates his rapid response to the International Surrealist Exhibition. He constructs a space which deliberately leaves the spectator disorientated and unsettled. One's eye attempts to survey the tilted perspectives which the image continually prevents. Of his use and choice of tempera he states 'For centuries it was the custom to carry out the painting first with a monochrome underpainting. The monochrome for the flesh painting was in terravert (green); the warm flesh colour was used over this cool green underpainting and produced these so-called optical greys. You can never get those any other way than tempera. I may sound rather cut and dried but I was never interested in oil painting of the 'shove it on and put it around' school. Also, I am never interested in recording a scene. I want to reconstruct.' (see J. Southall, Papers of the Society of Tempera Painters, 1934)
The present work illustrates his rapid response to the International Surrealist Exhibition. He constructs a space which deliberately leaves the spectator disorientated and unsettled. One's eye attempts to survey the tilted perspectives which the image continually prevents. Of his use and choice of tempera he states 'For centuries it was the custom to carry out the painting first with a monochrome underpainting. The monochrome for the flesh painting was in terravert (green); the warm flesh colour was used over this cool green underpainting and produced these so-called optical greys. You can never get those any other way than tempera. I may sound rather cut and dried but I was never interested in oil painting of the 'shove it on and put it around' school. Also, I am never interested in recording a scene. I want to reconstruct.' (see J. Southall, Papers of the Society of Tempera Painters, 1934)