Graham Sutherland, O.M. (Streatham 1903-1980)

During World War II, Sutherland was appointed as an official war artist recording bomb damage in London, Cardiff and France, and the limestone quarries in Derbyshire. In order to study the latter, he was based at Buxton in Derbyshire, where there were quarries belonging to the Lime Division of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. His method throughout was to make rapid notes on the spot which he then worked up at home into more elaborate drawings, culminating in a definitive version which he handed over to the War Artist Advisory Committee.

The group of works he produced during this period, including 'Study for Limestone Quarries', explore the shape of the land, and in more finished works, the half-human, half-organic figures and their interaction within this land. The majority of these works are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. The present work expresses Sutherland's interest in the visceral qualities of underground scenes as he emphasises the repetition of the steep terraces made in quarries.