THE BED OF EMPEDOCLES, c.1957
Gouache or ink. Dimensions unknown.
Provenance
Untraced.
Exhibited
London, Gallery I, 1957, No. 16.
Penzance, Passmore Edwards Gallery, 1960, no. 65.
There are a number of references to Empedocles in Colquhoun’s work. For further details see the entry for Empedocles, 1943.
The volcano in Colquhoun’s novel, Goose of Hermogenes, is named ‘the bed of Empedocles’. In 1955 she executed a suite of watercolour illustrations for the (as then, still unpublished) novel. One of these was also called The Bed of Empedocles. The present work may also have been inspired by Goose of Hermogenes.
The novel, as eventually published, was unillustrated.
Reference
Colquhoun, I. Goose of Hermogenes. Peter Owen, London, 1961. Reprinted 2003.