Edward Burra 1905-1976

Lefevre Gallery, (Alex Reid & Lefevre Ltd), London
Private Collection, London, by 1982

London, Lefevre Gallery, (Alex Reid & Lefevre Ltd), Recent Works by Edward Burra, 22 April – 15 May 1971, no.5, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue;
New York, Grey Art Gallery, A Sense of Place: The Paintings of Edward Burra and Paul Nash, February – April 1982;
London, Lefevre Fine Art Limited, Edward Burra 1905-1976, May – June 2005, no.20, illustrated in colour in the exhibition catalogue, p. 49.

'His world is not pestered by vain attempts to rationalize. It is the topsy-turvy world we somehow live in very clearly realised by him with relentless trompe-l'oeuil exploding into a grotesque distortion such as a wild event of a William Burroughs type - horrific and comic' (John Banting).
 
It is precisely this concoction of both comedy and macabre that so enlivens the present work. Painted in 1970-1, Punch Hitting Topsy over the Head with a Baby perfectly encapsulates the slapstick humour that has provided such ticklish entertainment for Punch and Judy audiences since the late 18th century. Yet the very title of the image also alludes to deeper truths punctuating every Punch and Judy story, seemingly aimed at young children but invariably appealing to the adult spectator. Punch's gleeful smile symbolizes a child's initial response to the scene and yet the overly dramatic expressions of mock-horror on the characters by the left and right edges also carry a more serious message and are evidence of the very real sense of unease imbued in the situation.  

As ever, Burra fuses the various strands of his imagery through his typically bold colour combinations and ingenious handling of the watercolour medium. He cleverly sets up a dynamic interaction between foreground and background through the inclusion of the animated skeleton in the background, a nod to Walt Disney's The Skeleton Dance, from his series of 'Silly Symphony' cartoons and again subtly underlining the contradictions between child and adult messages contained within the comic medium.