DIAGRAMS OF LOVE, 1940
Watercolour. 3¼ x 5in. (8.4 x 13cm.)
Inscribed on the reverse with the title and the year.
Provenance
National Trust bequest.
Diagrams of Love appears as the title of a number of small watercolours dated 1940 and 1941 and as an inscription on the verso of others: The Comet (1940); The Concealed Mouth (1940); Fruit (1940); Heart of Corn (1940); The Heart’s Directions (1940): Fire and Water (1941), King and Centre (1941); The Tree of Veins I (1941); The Tree of Veins II (1941); The Trees (1941): Christian Marriage I (c.1942) and Christian Marriage II. (c.1942).Two verse sequences, Diagrams of Love also exist.
The theme was evidently a major preoccupation during these years. Qabalistic and alchemical associations are common in these works. Taken together they form an exploration of the occult aspects of love and sexuality: physical and spiritual, Christian and pantheistic.