ID: 1851
Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph: The Genesis of the Great Tapestry in Coventry Cathedral.
SUTHERLAND, Graham

Category: Art, Autograph Letters/Manuscripts, Science/Environment, Signed

Place/Publisher/Date:
London, The Redfern Gallery, 1964.

Description: Text edited by Andrew Revai, based on conversations with the artist. Introduction by Eric Newton. First edition; 8vo; original boards and dust jacket. Loosely inserted are two letters signed by Graham Sutherland to a Mr Park. Nine pages, incorporating a thumbnail sketch, written on pale blue air mail paper, printed address, 8vo, La Villa Blanche, Route de Castellar, Menton, 12 April 1962 and 6 April 1963. Park was responsible for the hanging of the tapestry. Sutherland congratulates Park on his "understanding & sympathetic attitude" and provides detailed instructions on how it should be hung in order to achieve the desired effect ("...This is a work which depends very much on colour & the colours of the original skeins of wool were brilliant. When I saw the tapestry last August my only fear was that the 'rippling' in the darker parts was in fact lightening these parts in tone owing to the ripples catching the light from above & below. I would not think it would be good if the ripples entirely disappeared but certainly the dark backgrounds would benefit if they did..."). "The hanging looks excellent. For your information the most important thing is that the centre line going straight through the centre of the head of the Christ & right through the centre of the little man between His feet should be absolutely perpendicular... A certain amount of undulation is good but it is owing to the very great size of this work that there is as much as appears in the photos. So long as the strict 'horizontalism & perpendicularism' is preserved (this having been calculated to a hairs breadth to try to give the figure a taut ascending feeling, I shall be happy". Sutherland originally accepted the commission to design a tapestry for Coventry Cathedral in 1952 and worked on it over ten years, making nine visits to its weavers in France to check on their progress as they worked from photographic enlargements of his cartoons or finished sketches: It remains the most controversial as well as the largest single item in the rebuilt cathedral. The book and the letters are in fine condition.

Price £1,500.00