This display explores the creation of Patrick Heron’s portrait of T.S. Eliot, one of the Gallery’s most celebrated modernist paintings.  According to the artist, it was painted in 1949 ‘from memory very slowly, after a period of nearly three years’.  For the first time this highly abstracted portrait is being shown alongside a selection of the studies from life and imagination that preceded it.  Collectively, these drawings and works in oil illuminate the complex process of depicting one of the twentieth century’s greatest poets. 

Supported by the Quercus Trust

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Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Oil

    A medium in which ground pigments are mixed to produce a paste or liquid that can be applied to a surface by a brush or other tool; the most common oil used by artists is linseed, this can be thinned with turpentine spirit to produce a thinner and more fluid paint. The oil dries with a hard film, and the brightness of the colour is protected. Oil paints are usually opaque and traditionally used on canvas.