Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/wyndham-lewis-1502" aria-label="More by Wyndham Lewis" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Wyndham Lewis</a>
Red Scene
Purchased 1938
abstraction
adults
figure
figure
from recognisable sources
group
groups
hill
landscape
people
sunset
times of the day
tree
<p>Although this picture is dated 1933, it was not completed until 1936. The concepts of immortality, heaven and hell, and the underworld held a fascination for Lewis which is apparent in this work. The predominantly red-brown subterranean colours and pin-head figures link it to other sinister and surreal canvases by Lewis which have been described as his 'dance of death' series. Lewis observed of the paintings from this period: 'I have varied between realist fantasies and semi-abstraction'. 'Red Scene' was the first of Lewis's works to be acquired by a public collection.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
5 February 2010 – 16 May 2010
2010-05-16
5 February 2010 – 16 May 2010
2010-05-16
2010-02-05
Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain)
http://www.march.es
2010-02-05
Wyndham Lewis
Loan-out
Red Scene
support: 711 × 914 mm
frame: 925 × 1125 × 85 mm
Purchased 1938
<p>Although this picture is dated 1933, it was not completed until 1936. The concepts of immortality, heaven and hell, and the underworld held a fascination for Lewis which is apparent in this work. The predominantly red-brown subterranean colours and pin-head figures link it to other sinister and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/surrealism" title="Glossary definition for 'Surrealism'"><span>surreal</span></a> <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/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvases</span></a> by Lewis which have been described as his 'dance of death' series. Lewis observed 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/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> from this period: 'I have varied between <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/realism" title="Glossary definition for 'Realism'"><span>realist</span></a> fantasies and semi-<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstraction</span></a>'. 'Red Scene' was the first of Lewis's works to be acquired by a public collection.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04913</b> RED SCENE 1933–6
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Wyndham Lewis 1933’ b.l.
<br/>Canvas, 28×36 (71×91·5).
<br/>Purchased from the Leicester Galleries (Clarke Fund and Grant-in-Aid) 1938.
<br/><i>Exh:</i>
Leicester Galleries, December 1937 (50); Tate Gallery, July–August 1956 (128).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Handley-Read, 1951, p.44.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Emporium</i>, CV, 1947, p.169.</p>
<p>The artist told Charles Handley-Read that although this picture is dated 1933 it was not in fact completed until about 1936.</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, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-20T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction adults figure figure from recognisable sources group groups hill landscape people sunset times of the day tree