Skep beehive

Sutherland worked on a series based on the life of bees following the suggestion by Dr and Mrs Bernhard Baer, who also provided him with much of the research material. Sutherland was intrigued by the strange hermetic world of the bee, with its perfectly ordered existence inside the hive together with a life of such dramatic incidents. A series of prints were made using advanced aquatint techniques in Rome (see R. Alley, exhibition catalogue, Graham Sutherland, London, 1982, p. 165).