Gouache, wax crayon and ink on paper on hardboard
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/graham-sutherland-om-2014" aria-label="More by Graham Sutherland OM" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Graham Sutherland OM</a>
Miner Probing a Drill Hole
Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
‘Recording Britain’ project
adults
British Government, Ministry of Labour
Cornwall
England
England, South West
England, Southern
government and politics
history
industrial and crafts
interiors
man
military: World War II
mine
miner
named groups
people
Pilgrim Trust
places
propaganda
society
UK counties
UK countries and regions
work and occupations
workspaces
paper unique gouache wax crayon ink hardboard
9 April 2003 – 30 April 2004
2004-04-30
9 April 2003 – 9 January 2004
2004-01-09
2003-04-09
Imperial War Museum (London, UK)
http://www.iwm.org.uk/
2003-04-09
1903: War Artist Centenary
Loan-out
15 June 2005 – 14 December 2005
2005-12-14
15 June 2005 – 25 September 2005
2005-09-25
2005-06-15
Dulwich Picture Gallery (London, UK)
15 October 2005 – 14 December 2005
2005-12-14
2005-10-15
Djanogly Art Gallery (Nottingham, UK)
2005-06-15
Graham Sutherland
Loan-out
1 April 2006 – 16 April 2007
2007-04-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-04-01
Blake in the 1940s
Collection based display
15 September 2013 – 24 November 2013
2013-11-24
15 September 2013 – 24 November 2013
2013-11-24
2013-09-15
Penlee House Gallery & Museum (Penzance, UK)
2013-09-15
From Darkness into Light: Graham Sutherland at Geevor
Loan-out
19 May 2014 – 10 August 2014
2014-08-10
19 May 2014 – 10 August 2014
2014-08-10
2014-05-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-05-19
Kenneth Clark
Exhibition
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
Miner Probing a Drill Hole
support: 560 × 512 mm
Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
<p><b>Graham Sutherland </b>1903-80
<br/>
<br/><b>Miner Probing a Drill Hole</b> 1942
<br/>
<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sutherland-miner-probing-a-drill-hole-n05741" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05741</span></a>
<br/>
<br/>Gouache, wax crayon and Indian ink on paper mounted on hardboard
<br/>560 x 512 (22 1/16 x 20 1/8)
<br/>
<br/>Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
<br/>
<br/>Inscribed in white chalk ‘Sutherland’ and incised ‘S’ b.r.
<br/>
<br/>Exhibited:
<br/>?<i>National War Pictures</i>, National Gallery, London, 1942-5
<br/><i>National War Pictures</i>, Royal Academy, London, Oct.-Nov. 1945 (916)
<br/><i>Graham Sutherland</i>, Belfast Museum and Art Gallery and The Whitla Hall, Queen’s University, Belfast, Nov.-Dec. 1959 (7, shown at Belfast Museum and Art Gallery)
<br/>Loan to Arts Council of Great Britain, March 1971-May 1982
<br/><i>Graham Sutherland</i>, Tate Gallery, London, May-July 1982 (97, repr.)
<br/><i>Graham Sutherland</i>, Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt, Aug.-Sept. 1982 (126, repr.)
<br/><i>World War II</i>, Tate Gallery Liverpool, Sept.-Nov. 1989 (69)
<br/>
<br/>Literature:
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>Tate Gallery: The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, II, London 1965, p.706
<br/>Rosalind Thuiller, <i>Graham Sutherland: Inspirations</i>, Guildford 1982, p.52
<br/>
<br/>Reproduced:
<br/><i>Sutherland: Disegni di guerra</i>, exh. cat., British Council, Palazzo Reale, Milan 1979, p.90, pl.81, republished as Roberto Tassi, <i>Sutherland: The Wartime Drawings</i>, trans. Julian Andrews, London 1980, p.94, pl.81
<br/>Michael Tooby, <i>Tate St Ives: An Illustrated Companion</i>, London 1993, p.42
<br/>
<br/><i>Miner Probing a Drill Hole</i> belongs to a series 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/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> based on studies made at Geevor tin mine, near St Just-in-Penwith, Cornwall in June 1942. It was one of three works in the second batch of tin mine pictures that Sutherland submitted to 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/w/war-artists" title="Glossary definition for 'War Artists'"><span>War Artists Advisory Committee</span></a> at the end of the year, when it was given the reference number LD2823. The other two works completed at the same time were LD2822, <i>Two Miners Drilling</i> (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne)<a href="#fn1" name="fnB1">[1]</a> and LD2824, <i>Waiting Miner at Meeting of Tunnels</i>
(Wakefield City Art Gallery).<a href="#fn2" name="fnB2">[2]</a></p>
<p>
<br/>In February 1942, Sutherland had written to Edward Sackville-West, ‘We hope to go to Cardiff for three days (to refresh my memory of the steel works) and then ... we shall try and get down to Cornwall for a few days, where I hope to inspect the tin mines with a view to the possibility of making war pictures’.<a href="#fn3" name="fnB3">[3]</a>
Whether or not he made it there on that occasion, Sutherland was certainly in Cornwall for three weeks in June making studies at Geevor. Following his established routine, he returned to work up the sketches in his Kent studio. He produced a group of six paintings which were submitted to the WAAC on 2 December. At that time he was still working on the last three - including this one - which, according to Alley, he had begun by 2 November, but which he did not complete until after a further visit to Cornwall between 16 and 28 of that month.<a href="#fn4" name="fnB4">[4]</a> As a result of his practice of working in the studio from studies made before the motif, there are usually several intermediary versions of the artist’s war pictures. <i>Miner Probing a Drill Hole</i> is unusual in that the two known related <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> are markedly different from the final painting.<a href="#fn5" name="fnB5">[5]</a> In contrast to 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/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstracted</span></a> figure draped in undefined clothing, the miner in both studies is rendered more literally and is clearly clad in overalls and wears a helmet and lamp on his head.</p>
<p>
<br/>The technique is, however, typical of many of Sutherland’s WAAC commissions. The medium weight machine-made <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/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> was mounted on 4mm hardboard with a starch paste, the uneven cutting leaving the board exposed in places along the edges. At bottom right and top left, these margins have been filled in with black crayon since the work was first photographed by the Tate Gallery. On the right hand side the paper has creased where it is detached from the board and there is slight damage to the bottom right hand corner. Part of the figure - the legs, right arm and area beneath the back - was painted on a separate piece of paper which was glued over an earlier attempt at the same passage. This addition was trimmed when in place and incisions can be seen in the main support; it adhered badly to the waxy surface of the painting and had to be re-secured in 1964 and 1985.<a href="#fn6" name="fnB6">[6]</a> The various <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>media</span></a> were applied in a typically complex intermingling of layers. A smoky effect towards the upper corners was achieved with a dilute <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> wash while the figure and the tunnel in which he lies is largely of red crayon. The deep blood red colouring of the lower area is made up of a darker red and a black crayon and an ink wash and white <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gouache" title="Glossary definition for 'Gouache'"><span>gouache</span></a> were also used. A typical mottled effect was achieved by the wash and paint being thrown off by the wax and by the light dragging of the black crayon across the bottom, for example. The texturing was enhanced by the working up with a sharp instrument of small, fragile peaks 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/i/impasto" title="Glossary definition for 'Impasto'"><span>impasto</span></a> in the crayon and gouache in the lower right hand area. Finally, the main forms and shapes were strengthened with <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/pen-and-ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Pen and Ink'"><span>pen and ink</span></a> drawing. The paint and ink are liable to flake where they are over the wax crayon; cracked areas were consolidated in 1985 but the work’s continued vulnerability prevents it from travelling.</p>
<p>
<br/>Sutherland recalled that the subject of mines had been suggested by Kenneth Clark, a friend and patron of his and chairman of the WAAC. Except for a brief respite during the First World War, the Cornish tin mining industry had been in decline since the late nineteenth century but, with a lack of foreign imports, several mines were reopened during World War II. In fact, Geevor Mine would remain productive until the 1980s. Clark’s idea was perhaps prompted by its suitability for Sutherland’s painting style - notably the enfolded spaces that characterise such works as <i>Entrance to a Lane</i>, 1939 (Tate Gallery <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sutherland-entrance-to-a-lane-n06190" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06190</span></a>). He might also have been influenced by the fact that, the year before, Henry Moore had followed up the success of his Shelter Drawings with depictions of Yorkshire coal mines. In any case, towards the end of his Cornish trip Sutherland assured Clark that the mine ‘could be hardly more my “line of country”’.<a href="#fn7" name="fnB7">[7]</a></p>
<p>
<br/>In this he was fortunate, as he had feared that the conditions underground would have prompted an attack of claustrophobia to which he had been prone since getting trapped in a railway engine boiler while serving his apprenticeship in 1920.<a href="#fn8" name="fnB8">[8]</a> Thirty years after the war, he recalled his first experiences at Geevor:</p>
<blockquote></blockquote>
<blockquote>The man who first took me round said, ‘Look now, we’ll go down on the bucket’ ... We went down 1,300 feet like a bullet and I didn’t like it at all. I disliked even more the fact that the last floor, the 14th, was not served by a lift. One had to go through a trap-door in the floor and down a ladder ... 100ft of ladder ... Once down and walking through the various tunnels - some a mile along - the problem was to avoid getting lost ... Far from the main shaft the sense of remoteness was tangible and the distances seemed endless. Faintly, far away, was the sound of work on other levels.<a href="#fn9" name="fnB9">[9]</a></blockquote>
<p>
<br/>Sutherland found the environment thrilling and believed that it could stimulate his finest work. A contemporary letter to Kenneth Clark, which is accompanied by a sketch diagram showing the whereabouts of the subterranean artist,<a href="#fn10" name="fnB10">[10]</a> reveals his enthusiasm:</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote>The mines are stupendous &amp; thrilling to a degree which I wouldn’t have believed possible &amp; life below is awe inspiring &amp; one begins to understand the ?fringe of the “height &amp; the depth &amp; the breadth” especially in this case, the depth &amp; the breadth. I hope I can be equal to the occasion. The records I make shall either be easily the best I’ve done or a failure. At all events the problems widen one’s experience enormously ... I go down in the cage at 9.30 &amp; work until one o’clock when I come up &amp; work on my sketches in the afternoon. I won’t attempt to describe the wonders of inspiration below as I am hoping my paintings will do that or attempt to do so.<a href="#fn11" name="fnB11">[11]</a></blockquote>
<p>
<br/>He went on to tell Clark of a surprise encounter with Ben Nicholson and his circle who had evacuated to Carbis Bay, near St Ives, in 1939: ‘Down here we have contact with Nicholsonia! Our friends with whom we are staying (Head of the Local School of Art) know them. I found Ben N. very agreeable &amp; pleasant &amp; liked Gabo I had met neither before.’<a href="#fn12" name="fnB12">[12]</a> Despite the expectation of hostility between the first painter 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/n/neo-romanticism" title="Glossary definition for 'Neo-Romanticism'"><span>neo-romanticism</span></a> and the leading British advocate of abstraction, Sutherland and Nicholson established a mutual respect for each others’ work and a lasting friendship. One might speculate that this re-encounter with the ideals and debates 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/m/modernism" title="Glossary definition for 'Modernism'"><span>modernism</span></a> - then being radically reviewed in discussions between Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Gabo - prompted the renewed stylisation of the tin mine paintings.</p>
<p>
<br/>The pervasive influence of Henry Moore’s Shelter Drawings is clearly evident in this work. This series of pictures had quickly proved highly successful and, with the help of Clark and the WAAC, were swiftly and widely disseminated. Moore worked on the theme for about a year from September 1940, the first were shown at the National Gallery, London early in 1941 and in New York four months later and were reproduced in <i>Horizon</i> in March and September of that year.<a href="#fn13" name="fnB13">[13]</a> With John Piper, Sutherland and Moore shared similar techniques in their works on paper, the atmospheric effect of the wax-resist suiting the subjects with which they engaged. However, <i>Miner Probing a Drill Hole</i> also echoes Moore’s work in the pose and stylised morphology of the figure. Though the few people that had appeared in Sutherland’s steel works pictures - for example <i>Tapping a Blast Furnace</i> (Tate Gallery <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sutherland-tapping-a-blast-furnace-n05740" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05740</span></a>) - were similarly generalised, this <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> is distinguished by the figure’s dominance. The pose - resting on one elbow - is especially redolent of some of Moore’s small lead <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/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptures</span></a> - <i>Reclining Figure</i>, 1939 (Victoria and Albert Museum)<a href="#fn14" name="fnB14">[14]</a> for example - and recurs in such Shelter Drawings as <i>Tube Shelter Perspective</i>, 1941 (Tate Gallery <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/moore-tube-shelter-perspective-n05709" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05709</span></a>). As well as the pose, the similarity is in part due to Sutherland’s sculptural treatment of the forms, specifically the definition of volume by means of a series of curving lines that is characteristic of Moore’s drawing technique.</p>
<p>
<br/>Sutherland lacked confidence in his drawing of the human <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a>, but his borrowing from Moore may simply reflect his desire for a more organic figure style. He seems to have had an interest in the tin miners that he had not felt for the workers at the steel furnace. In his letter to Clark he described them as ‘grand handsome da Vinci types who move easily. I like them very much, &amp; have ideas for one or two <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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> (perhaps two combined in one design) in addition to any other work’.<a href="#fn15" name="fnB15">[15]</a> The intimacy of the subterranean space, which is emphasised in <i>Miner Probing a Drill Hole</i>, seems to highlight the individual humanity of the miners, while the steel workers are overshadowed by the enormity of the forms and processes around them. Just as Keith Vaughan saw the organicism of <i>Devastation 1941: East End, Burnt Paper Warehouse</i> (Tate Gallery <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sutherland-devastation-1941-east-end-burnt-paper-warehouse-n05737" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05737</span></a>) as symbolic of a potential renewal, so these figures were seen to return to the natural world. In the first monograph on Sutherland, Edward Sackville-West claimed that the success of the tin mine paintings lay in their organic quality: ‘The <i>mystique</i> of Nature, which Sutherland has expressed so eloquently in his <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>, lives again in the inky gloom of these subterranean galleries, and the miners themselves, helmeted and crested with acetylene flame, look as if they were made of the ore they are engaged in extracting ... We are back among the primitive gods.’<a href="#fn16" name="fnB16">[16]</a> The suggestion of a pagan culture evokes an idea of ancient Britain which had special resonances during the war and to which Sutherland’s generalised figure style might be seen as appropriate. Such a reassuring naturalisation of the human body may be thought to deliberately echo a similar aspect in Moore’s drawings, and it is likely to have facilitated the popularisation of both artists’ work. Robert Melville saw a morbid symbolism encoded in such paintings as <i>Tin Miner Probing a Drill Hole</i>: ‘in the strange, elegiac studies of tin mines, where the reddened strata of the tunnellings form flattened spirals that seem to be sinking silently into death.’<a href="#fn17" name="fnB17">[17]</a> However, the resurgent organicism of Sutherland’s style might be seen as optimistic. In defiance of modern industry and modern warfare, the resilient human body is re-associated with the earth.</p>
<p>
<br/>Chris Stephens
<br/>September 1998
<br/></p>
<hr/><div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB1" name="fn1">[1]</a></span>
Repr. Ronald Alley, <i>Graham Sutherland</i>, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London 1982, p.100, no.104
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB2" name="fn2">[2]</a></span>
Repr. Meirion and Susie Harries, <i>The War Artists: British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century</i>, London 1983, p.198</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB3" name="fn3">[3]</a></span>
Letter to Edward Sackville-West, 15 Feb. 1942, Tate Gallery Archive 926.5
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB4" name="fn4">[4]</a></span>
Alley 1982, p.100
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB5" name="fn5">[5]</a></span>
<i>Tin Mine: Miner Working in a Slope</i>, 1942, private collection, repr. Roberto Tassi, <i>Graham Sutherland: The Wartime Drawings</i>, Milan 1979, trans. Julian Andrews, London 1980, p.92, pl.79; <i>Tin Mine: Miner Examining the Roof of a Slope</i>, 1942, private collection, repr. Tassi 1980, p.93, pl.80</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB6" name="fn6">[6]</a></span>
Tate Gallery conservation files</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB7" name="fn7">[7]</a></span>
Letter to Kenneth Clark, nd [June 1942], Tate Gallery Archive 8812.1.3.3131</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB8" name="fn8">[8]</a></span>
Sutherland, letter to Edwin Mullins in <i>Telegraph Magazine</i>, no.359, 10 Sept. 1971, republished in Tassi 1980, p.70</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB9" name="fn9">[9]</a></span>
Ibid.</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB10" name="fn10">[10]</a></span>
Repr. Roger Berthoud, <i>Graham Sutherland: A Biography</i>, London 1982, between pp.64 and 65</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB11" name="fn11">[11]</a></span>
Letter to Kenneth Clark, nd [June 1942], Tate Gallery Archive 8812.1.3.3131</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB12" name="fn12">[12]</a></span>
Ibid.</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB13" name="fn13">[13]</a></span>
Repr. <i>Horizon</i>, vol.3, no.16, March 1941, opposite pp.177 and 192; vol.4, no.21, Sept. 1941, pp.200-206
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB14" name="fn14">[14]</a></span>
Repr. Herbert Read, <i>Henry Moore: Sculpture and Drawings</i>, London 1944, pl.102a</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB15" name="fn15">[15]</a></span>
Letter to Clark, nd [June 1942]
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB16" name="fn16">[16]</a></span>
Edward Sackville-West, <i>Graham Sutherland</i>, Harmondsworth 1943, p.16
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB17" name="fn17">[17]</a></span>
Robert Melville, <i>Graham Sutherland</i>, London 1950, [p.15]</div>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults British Government, Ministry of Labour Cornwall England England, Southern England, South West government and politics history industrial and crafts interiors man military: World War II mine miner named groups people Pilgrim Trust places propaganda ‘Recording Britain’ project society UK counties UK countries and regions work and occupations workspaces