Literature

The precise location of the scene depicted in this painting is not known, although it is likely to be in the environs of Leeds University. A degree of abstraction is employed where organic and architectural forms are represented with the same highly reductive brush marks, meaning you are not entirely sure whether you are looking at a tree or a building. The flattening of the picture plane is a Bombergian device, with little in the way of a horizon line or conventional foreground to help the viewer. Instead one is presented with the view as a visceral blast to the senses, rather than as a more traditional and sanitized representation.