Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-matthew-smith-1958" aria-label="More by Sir Matthew Smith" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Matthew Smith</a>
Cornish Church
Purchased 1949
architecture
church
colour
Cornwall
emotions, concepts and ideas
England
England, South West
England, Southern
formal qualities
graveyard
places
religious
St Columb Major
townscapes / man-made features
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
<p>After a period of prolonged illness Smith spent the autumn and winter of 1920 in the village of St Columb Major in Cornwall. Here he completed a number of landscapes, and this is the view from the window of his room. The intense colours and black sky are reminiscent of the Brücke group of German Expressionist painters, but Smith denied a connection, and felt himself to be closer to French art. In Paris in 1919 he knew well the Irish painter Roderic O'Conor, who like Smith had belonged to Gauguin's circle in Brittany. Smith saw his landscapes and nudes, in which he used radiant colour in a similar constructional way.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
1 February 2001 – 2 June 2003
2003-06-02
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2001-02-01
Modern British Art II
Collection based display
26 June 2010 – 5 September 2010
2010-09-05
26 June 2010 – 5 September 2010
2010-09-05
2010-06-26
Victoria Art Gallery (Bath, UK)
2010-06-26
Matthew Smith Landscapes
Loan-out
14 October 2017 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
14 October 2017 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
2017-10-14
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2017-10-14
Modern Art and St Ives
Collection based display
Cornish Church
support: 533 × 648 mm
frame: 735 × 845 × 100
Purchased 1949
<p>After a period of prolonged illness Smith spent the autumn and winter of 1920 in the village of St Columb Major in Cornwall. Here he completed a number of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a>, and this is the view from the window of his room. The intense colours and black sky are reminiscent of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/b/brucke" title="Glossary definition for 'Brücke'"><span>Brücke</span></a> group of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/expressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Expressionism'"><span>German Expressionist</span></a> painters, but Smith denied a connection, and felt himself to be closer to French art. In Paris in 1919 he knew well the Irish painter Roderic O'Conor, who like Smith had belonged to Gauguin's circle in Brittany. Smith saw his landscapes and nudes, in which he used radiant colour in a similar constructional way.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05903</b> CORNISH CHURCH 1920</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘MS 20’ t.r. and ‘1920’ on back of canvas.
<br/>Canvas, 21×25  1/2 (53·5×64·5).
<br/>Purchased from the Mayor Gallery (Knapping Fund) 1949.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased from the artist by T. W. Earp, who afterwards sold it to F. Mayor <i>c.</i>
1947.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Tate Gallery, September–October 1953 (11, repr. pl.7), and Arts Council tour, November 1953–February 1954 (9); R.A., October–December 1960 (31).
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Hendy, Halliday and Russell, 1962, pl.15 (in colour); John Rothenstein, <i>The Tate Gallery</i>, 1962, p.257.</p>
<p>Painted while the artist was living at St Columb Major, Cornwall, between June and December 1920, the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> shows a view of the parish church seen from an upstairs window of the house in which the artist was staying. It is one of several Cornish <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a> painted in a predominantly purple, green and dark red palette which seems to reflect the artist's anxious pessimism at this time.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
architecture church colour Cornwall emotions, concepts and ideas England England, Southern England, South West formal qualities graveyard places religious St Columb Major townscapes / man-made features UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions