Mount enjoyed inspiration from the Nancherrow landscape in Cornwall, where he lived from 1962 until the end of his life. Unlike his fellow St Ives artists, a strong interest in industrial machinery and materials moved his practice from pure, organic shapes into angular and geometric compositions. Crankshaft consists of two highly polished, interlocking bronze pieces to create a machine-like object. Rather than replicating the landscape as a sculptural form, Mount instead looked to create structural metallic sculptures that he envisioned responding and reacting to the wider environment in which they would be placed.

The Walker Art collection was amassed by Patricia Walker over 50 years. Walker studied art at the Arts Student League, New York alongside Hans Hoffman and later studied in Paris with Ferdinand Leger. Moving between Paris, New York and London regularly, Walker collected British and European contemporary works including a number of sculpture, painting and prints.

We are grateful to the estate of Paul Mount for their assistance in cataloguing this work.