Bottomley Ernest (1 results)

Large, bold watercolor, with pencil or pen-and-ink outlines and perhaps some chalk. 77 by 54 cm, on heavy paper. The painting is nearly monochromatic, with various shades of brown teasing out shadows, details, etc. and contours of the many human figures and the rungs of stairs articulated in black -- pencil or pen. The painting is allegorical in nature, as it shows men groping their way up planks of stairs that form a swirling shape around a tree trunk, and one man triumphant at the narrow top, his arms upraised. The pain, frustration, fatigue and physicality of the men are all vividly captured. And with two lines of struggling men, one coming towards us from the other side, the line in the foreground moving away, we find the composition of the thing also quite clever and memorable. N.d., 1980s probably.