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Lot Essay
Mel Gooding writes, 'A fortuitous catalyst precipitated the extraordinary creative production in 1944 and 1945 of works inspired directly by Dylan Thomas' 1933 poem The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower' (M. Gooding, Ceri Richards, London, 2002, p. 67).
In the No. 11 edition of Poetry London, published in September 1947, there 'was a double-sided inset of lithographed illustrations to Thomas' poem by Richards, dramatic images, dated 1945, that incorporated the text in his own cursive script. It seems likely that Tambimutti [editor of Poetry London] had suggested to Richards that he think about illustrating the poem sometime earlier; possibly in 1943, when he had commissioned from Sutherland, and published, just such an inset (of a poem by Quarles) for issue 9' [see lot 202] (ibid., pp. 67-68).
Gooding continues, 'There is no doubt that when he turned to The Force That Through The Green Fuse in 1943 its impact upon him was startling and revelatory. The words of the poem unleashed a complex of images, expressive visual metaphors for his own vision of the universe of living forms and of the dynamic natural processes which generate their distinctive and recurrent configurations' (ibid., p. 72).
In the No. 11 edition of Poetry London, published in September 1947, there 'was a double-sided inset of lithographed illustrations to Thomas' poem by Richards, dramatic images, dated 1945, that incorporated the text in his own cursive script. It seems likely that Tambimutti [editor of Poetry London] had suggested to Richards that he think about illustrating the poem sometime earlier; possibly in 1943, when he had commissioned from Sutherland, and published, just such an inset (of a poem by Quarles) for issue 9' [see lot 202] (ibid., pp. 67-68).
Gooding continues, 'There is no doubt that when he turned to The Force That Through The Green Fuse in 1943 its impact upon him was startling and revelatory. The words of the poem unleashed a complex of images, expressive visual metaphors for his own vision of the universe of living forms and of the dynamic natural processes which generate their distinctive and recurrent configurations' (ibid., p. 72).