THE SUNSET BIRTH, c.1942
Oil on canvas. 15½ x 28in. (39.3 x 71.2cm.)
Signed and inscribed on the frame Ithell Colquhoun/The Sunset Birth. Signed again on the stretcher Ithell Colquhoun
Provenance
Christies, South Kensington, 3rd June 1999, lot 213. Illustrated in colour in the catalogue.
Exhibited
London, Leicester Galleries, 1942, No. 32.
London, International Art Centre, 1942, no. 5.
A depiction of the Men an Tol, a unique megalithic monument situated in West Penwith, Cornwall.
The title makes reference to Cornish folklore that associates the monument with cures for infertility. The image itself, perhaps surprisingly, contains references to Tantric ideas of the Chakras and the Nadi. For full details, see Ithell Colquhoun: Magician Born of Nature (revised edition).