Graham Sutherland, O.M. (1903-1980)

Ronald Alley writes of this subject 'a view down a shadowy pergola towards a lighted distance with a far-off figure, and birds flitting about the trees in the foreground. The depth is suggested mainly through the stage-by-stage diminuation of the trellis-work and by the colour modulations. Sutherland told Douglas Cooper about 1959 that he had begun since 1954 to have a much better understanding of Cézanne's work, 'and I find myself drawing closer to his fragmentary analyses in recent subjects such as certain "Wood Interiors"'. No doubt this was helped by direct contact with the landscape of Provence which Cézanne had painted.' (R. Alley, Graham Sutherland, 1982 Tate Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, p.123).