Graham Sutherland, O.M.

Queen Elizabeth II
Given to the President Georges Pompidou in 1972

There are artist's pinholes in each corner and along some of the edges. There are areas of slight undulation in each corner. Otherwise the canvas is in good overall condition. There are traces of dirt across the surface of the paint. There are some slight abrasions to the paint surface caused by the heads of the pins but otherwise the paint surface is in good overall condition. There is no sign of retouching under ultra-violet light. Held in a simple black rectilinear frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Pembrokeshire was one of Sutherland's favourite painting locations in the late 1930s and 1940s and in 1967, he returned there for the first time in twenty years. Although he was only visiting for two days whilst filming a programme about his work for Italian television, the visit prompted a new-found interest in the unique landscape there and he returned the following year for a longer period. It was during this second stay that he first came across the distinctive U-shaped tree form that inspired the structure of the present work. Found in the estuary at Picton in South Pembrokeshire, the form first appeared in U-Shaped Form (1968, Private Collection) and has become a recognisable motif in other works from the period. 

The use of found natural objects had long been a source of inspiration in his work and he later explained his fascination for the intriguing and contorted tree shapes that he had found at Picton;

'they have the most extraordinarily beautiful, varied and rich shapes which detach them from their proper connotation as trees. One does not think of them so much as trees, more as figures; they have the same urgency that certain movements of figures can have in action' (Sutherland, The Listener, XCVIII, 1977, p.231, quoted in Graham Sutherland, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London, 1982, p.157).

Sutherland's association with Picton was also particularly significant as it was at Picton Castle that the Graham Sutherland Gallery opened in 1976.