Star of Bethlehem (1968)

John Bellany

oil on hardboard

Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Classification:

Painting

Materials:

Oil, Hardboard

Physical Object Description:

Inscribed, bottom left: ‘Bellany’

Dimensions:

184.1 x 245.4 cm

Accession Number:

T02336

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society to mark the opening of the Tate Gallery extension, 1979

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Purchaser (1914-2008)

Ownership history:

Purchased from the artist by Gabrielle Keiller (1908-1995) for the Contemporary Art Society, 30 May 1979; presented to the Tate Gallery, 1979

Relationship:

Gabrielle Muriel Keiller Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

‘Star of Bethlehem’ was the name of an actual fishing boat based in Eyemouth, south-east of Edinburgh, Scotland. Many boats had names with Christian connections as religion played a dominant part in the lives of fishermen and their families. According to John Bellany there were twelve churches in Port Seton where he was born and brought up. His father and grandfather had been fishermen at both Port Seton and Eyemouth and while still a schoolboy Bellany often worked at gutting fish. Accounts of the Eyemouth Disaster of 1881 in which almost the whole male population of that village, 150 men, was wiped out in one great storm had a lifelong impact on the artist, who painted Star of Bethlehmem (1968) (one of many with a similar theme) whilst a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Art (1965-68) after studying at Edinburgh College of Art (1960-65).

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