Glacier Crystal, Grindelwald (1950)

Wilhelmina 'Willie' Barns-Graham

oil and graphite pencil on canvas

Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Classification:

Painting

Materials:

Oil, Canvas, Graphite

Physical Object Description:

Inscribed in pencil, bottom left: ‘W. Barns Graham 1950’

Dimensions:

51.4 x 60.9 cm

Accession Number:

T00708

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1964

Scheme:

Harold Paine Widdup Bequest (1962 -1964)

Ownership history:

Purchased from the artist through The Redfern Gallery, London by Dr Harold Widdup (1899-1962), 1952; by whom bequeathed to the Contemporary Art Society; presented to thre Tate Gallery, 1964

Relationship:

The Redfern Gallery, London Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives Harold Paine Widdup

Subject:

Nature, Glacier, Ice, Cubism, Abstract, Blue (colour)

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham visited Grindelwald Glacier in Switzerland in the summer of 1948 with the Brotherton family, her friends from St Ives, Cornwall, where she lived. She climbed it several times and the experience had a profound effect on her and her artistic output. She also recalled it vividly 20, and again 50 years later, in an interview of 1998. In this work she employs a ‘scratch and scrape’ technique capturing the monumental shape of the glacier, its light, and the contrast between solidity and glass-like transparency. Her art also combined natural subjects with the influence of older abstract artists Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) and Naum Gabo. It was purchased at her exhibition at The Redfern Gallery by Dr Harold Paine Widdup (1899-1962) who bequeathed his somewhat avant-garde collection of over 300 works to the Contemporary Art Society.

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