Craigie Aitchison, R.A.

Oil on canvas

Sale, Christie's London, 25th May 1994, lot 166, where acquired by the late owner

London, Albemarle Gallery, Craigie Aitchison Paintings, 1st April - 1st May 1987, cat. no.29.

Andrew Gibbon Williams, Craigie: The Art of Craigie Aitchison, Canongate Books Limited, Edinburgh 1996, p.114, no.79, illustrated.

Unexamined out of frame. Original canvas. There appears a very minor surface abrasion to the extreme bottom edge, visible upon close inspection, and not detracting from the overall appearance of the work. There appears very minor possible varnish discolouration to areas of the face, but this excepting the work appears in excellent overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals areas of fluorescence and possible retouching to the extreme bottom left corner and in areas up the extreme left hand edge. Housed in a thick, painted Italian-style wooden frame, behind Perspex. Unexamined out of frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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'I paint [the crucifixion] because I want to … it is certainly an event worth recording’ (the Artist, quoted in Craigie Aitchison (exh. cat.), Timothy Taylor Gallery/Waddington Galleries, London 1998, un-numbered).  

Aitchison was fascinated by the symbolic power of the Cross and he returned to the subject periodically in his work. Though not a churchgoer, Aitchison was introduced to religion by his father who despite being Presbyterian, took his family to churches of various denominations. His visit to Italy in 1955 confirmed his delight in the exuberance of the Catholic churches and the vibrant colours in the iconography of religion. Despite the popularity of the Crucifixion scene in art history, Aitchison, in his simplification of the subject and arrangement of colour, found an originally fresh way of telling his story of Christ’s death. In his works from the 1980s he explored the subject in a larger scale and in a brighter palette than earlier works from the 1950s and 1960s. The present work is one of the largest Crucifixion paintings from the series and the scale of the work displays the majesty of his subject.

Crucifixion demonstrates Aitchison’s masterful ability to convey the mood of his paintings through a simple balance of shape, colour and tone. The landscape background is abstracted into four blocks, clearly defined by their changing colour tones. Aitchison comments on his choice of colour: 'It was the Italian landscape that put me onto Raw Umber and I’ve never given it up. A lot of the crucifixions have that in the foreground’ (the Artist, quoted in Craigie Aitchison (exh. cat.), Timothy Taylor Gallery/Waddington Galleries, London 1998, un-numbered). The pink glow of the setting sun draws us to the centre of the composition where the luminous silhouette of Christ dominates. Aitchison was not interested in anatomical detail: the figure of Christ is so reduced that the upper body merges with the shape of the cross, almost appearing to become one. On the horizon, the solitary image of the tree echoes the material of the wooden cross in nature. Aitchison was to take this symbolism further in works such as Crucifixion, 1988-89 (The Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries). In Aitchison’s crucifixions from this period, animals join Christ by the cross playing the role of silent mourners, sometimes peaceful and accepting, like the colourful birds in the present work, and sometimes urgent in their grief as in the baying chimera in Crucifixion, 1986-1987 (Tate Collection, London).