Description
Object description
image: applying a long landscape format the painting features a semi-abstract composition of four figures lying in bunks
in an air-raid shelter. A fifth male figure stands to the left wearing just a vest and trousers.
Label
Robert Colquhoun was a Scottish artist amongst the younger generation of the Neo-Romantic movement, attempting to
establish his reputation during the Second World War. Educated at the Glasgow School of Art, where he had met his long-term partner Robert
MacBryde, Colquhoun served in the Royal Army Medical Corps before being discharged in 1941. He and MacBryde moved to London, where they
socialised in largely Neo-Romantic circles, mixing with fellow artists John Minton, Keith Vaughan and John Craxton. During this period
Colquhoun, like Henry Moore, gained inspiration from civilians sleeping in tube stations and air raid shelters. However, 'Figures in an Air-
Raid Shelter' presents figures that are more particularised than in Moore's work and combines them in a fragmentary composition, reflecting
the disturbed lives of the shelterers. The sombre palette, the scratched paint, the belligerent male figure to the left and the inter-
merged figures in the centre all lend the painting a bleak and oppressive atmosphere.
Label
Robert Colquhoun was a Scottish artist amongst the younger generation of the Neo-Romantics, rapidly establishing his
reputation as the Second World War raged. Educated at the Glasgow School of Art, where he had met his long-term partner Robert MacBryde,
Colquhoun served in the Royal Army Medical Corps before being discharged in 1941. He and MacBryde moved to London, where they socialised in
largely Neo-Romantic circles, mixing with fellow artists John Minton, Keith Vaughan and John Craxton. During this period Colquhoun, like
Henry Moore, gained inspiration from civilians sleeping in tube stations and air raid shelters. However, 'Figures in an Air-Raid Shelter'
presents figures that are more particularised than in Moore's work and combines them in a fragmentary composition, reflecting the disturbed
lives of the shelterers. The sombre palette, the scratched paint, the belligerent male figure to the left and the inter-merged figures in
the centre all lend the painting a bleak and oppressive atmosphere.
Inscription
R. Colquhoun
Inscription
R Colquhoun 41