The Music of Dawn (1988)

Cecil Collins

gouache and paint on soft fibrous Sundeala board

Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Photo credit: Tate

Classification:

Painting

Materials:

Gouache

Physical Object Description:

Accession Number:

T05744

Credit:

Presented by a group of donors and an anonymous trust through the Contemporary Art Society in memory of the artist, 1990

Scheme:

Gift

Ownership history:

Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London 1988; from whom purchased by a group of donors and an anonymous trust, 1990; by whom presented to the Tate Gallery, through the Contemporary Art Society, in memory of the artist, 1990

Relationship:

Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Subject:

Dawn, Religion, Woman

The Music of the Dawn (1988), in his characteristic use of ‘glue tempera’ is one of the last, and largest, pictures by the visionary artist Cecil Collins, completed five days after his 80th birthday on 27 March 1988. A lyrical optimism is created by the dominance of warm yellow and ochre pigments. A pilgrim-like figure in flowing drapery, possibly representing a golden priestess, stands on a seashore holding a staff with an orb at the end, anticipating the rising sun. She is probably based on Collin’s wife and muse, Elisabeth Ramsden (1904-2000).

It was acquired by the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London the same year Collins painted it. It was included in his retrospective exhibition organised by the Tate Gallery which also toured to Southampton City Art Gallery and Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno in 1989, the year of the artist's death. In 1990 a group of donors and an anonymous trust presented it to the Tate Gallery through the Contemporary Art Society in his memory which appropriately inspired an orchestral piece by the composer David Matthews.

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