The figure in the landscape was one of Henry Moore’s enduring themes, one which he never exhausted over his long career. In the early 1950s, Alex Colville was exploring this theme as well, influenced by his own experience of Moore’s work, and his interest in European art history, particularly the art of the Renaissance which he saw in galleries while serving as a war artist. In paintings such as Nudes on Shore (1950) and Coastal Figure (1951) he presented figures as masses in the landscape, sculptural forms contrasted against the horizon and the shoreline. In later years Colville was to concentrate more and more on the figure in the constructed environment, often in relation to machines: to cars, trucks, boats, and trains. But his desire to imbue the day-to-day human world with the metaphorical and symbolic weightiness of the landscape was not something he was able to achieve overnight. Like Moore, he needed to both perfect and then constantly refine the themes that compelled him throughout his long career.
The two figures in this work sit in an indeterminate setting, though the horizon line and the darker band underneath suggests that the figures are on a beach. The figures themselves are somewhat indeterminate as well, the figure on the left could be male of female, while the figure on the right is probably male. Colville has done many figure group paintings, but never two nude males together, so it is a safe assumption that this work depicts a couple, an early example of a theme that he returned to many times. A few years later, with his first serigraph After Swimming, he made a finished work of a couple on a beach, and 1957’s Couple on Beach (1957) is another example. There are many more of course, as the image of a couple, intent on each other and at home in their setting, is one of the most enduring themes of Colville’s painting.
- Ray Cronin, 2023
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