Tristram Paul Hillier

The Artist
Arthur Tooth and Sons, London, where acquired by the Beaverbrook family in 1965 and thence to the present ownership

London, Arthur Tooth and Sons, The Crucifixion and Other Recent Paintings by Tristram Hillier, 12th October - 6th November 1954, cat. no.1, illustrated;
London, Redfern Gallery, The Christian Vision, 1958 (catalogue details untraced);
Worthing, Worthing Art Gallery, Tristram Hillier A.R.A.: A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings, 10th September - 8th October 1960, cat. no.45;
Fredericton, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Sargent to Freud: Modern British Paintings and Drawings in the Beaverbrook Collection, 24th May - 13th September 1998, cat. no.14, illustrated p.91;
Fredericton, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Art in Dispute, 1st July 2005 - 5th March 2006.

Jenny Pery, Painter Pilgrim: The Art and Life of Tristram Hillier, Royal Academy Publications, London 2008, pp.118-122, illustrated.

Original canvas. There are some faint old stretcher bar marks across the centre of the composition. There are some minor fine lines of craquelure in isolated areas in the sky. The artist's pedimenti is faintly visible just above the cross bar of the crucifixion. There is some very minor surface dirt. Otherwise the work appears in good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals no apparent signs of retouching. Held in a painted plaster frame with a canvas inset. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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The present work is unusual in Hillier's oeuvre, both in its physical scale and its direct approach of the subject. Mostly known for his rather surreal treatment of empty landscapes and ruined buildings, this apparently traditional rendering of the Crucifixion is actually quietly subverted by the way in which the momentous events are only of significance to a few, the crowd having passed by with scarcely a look.

At the time it was painted, Hillier was working in Somerset and some elements of the town on the horizon bear resemblance to buildings of Bath, although Dublin has also been suggested. Regardless of the actual location, Hillier's usage of a contemporary landscape for a biblical episode is reminiscent of the example of the painters of the Renaissance, and helps to firmly place his vision of events into a time contemporary with the painting's execution.