Studies for 'Form in a Landscape'

This fine sheet of studies is typical of Sutherland’s working method of taking an idea and subjecting it to a process of simplification and stringent enquiry. These ‘variations on a theme’ were a rich source of ideas for larger works, and contain in essence much of the vocabulary of forms that Sutherland originated and explored in these years. Although primarily black and white, this sheet of six studies bears touches of Sutherland colour — green, red, ochre — and demonstrates how his thought was developing as he worked. A previous owner was the writer and critic Robert Melville, who wrote an excellent monograph on Sutherland in 1950, suggesting that he might be called ‘the Cézanne of metamorphosis, for his draughtsmanship has a faltering, anxious quality, and, like Cézanne, he has had to be on guard against his talents and the pride of hand that could so easily make firm, precise, plausible inventions.’

A.L.