Jankel Adler

Catalogue entry

Jankel Adler 1895-1949

N06202 No-Man's Land 1943

Inscribed 'Adler' b.r. and '1943' on back of frame
Oil on canvas, 33 7/8 x 43 5/8 (86 x 111)
Presented by C.R. Churchill 1953
Prov: Charles Collingwood, London (purchased from the artist through the Redfern Gallery, London, 1943, and later exchanged for another work); the artist; C.R. Churchill, Lower Chicksgrove, Wilts., 1946 or 1947
Exh: Jankel Adler, Redfern Gallery, London, June-July 1943 (2); Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Jankel Adler 1895-1949, Arts Council, London, November-December 1951 (not in catalogue)
Repr: Stanley William Hayter, Jankel Adler (London-Paris-Brussels 1948), pl.31; Paul Fierens, Jankel Adler (London-Paris-Brussels 1948), pl.31

On a thorn bush, under a dark night sky, is a singing bird. The moon is on the left.

Adler told the donor that this picture was painted as the result of an experience he had when one evening he walked late in the fields. It was summer and very warm and quiet. A solitary bird sang - and it seemed the only life present in the still, calm, warm evening (letter from C.R. Churchill, 27 November 1953).

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.2, reproduced p.2

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