Catherine Dawson Giles:
Crucifixion, 1936
Framed (ref: 10347)

Gouache

Tags: Catherine Dawson Giles gouache allegory religion Hidden Gems Season II: Spirituality

Provenance: G.R.Levy;Lois Lang-Sims;John Quentin

Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, et al. Women Only Works on Paper. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p. 47.

Catherine Giles exhibited with the Roman Catholic Guild of Artists alongside Glyn Philpot and Eric Gill in the 1930s. This composition was presented by Giles to Gertrude Rachel Levy (1883-1966) who commissioned a similar work in tempera for Seaford Church in 1936. Levy was a British author and cultural historian who wrote about comparative mythology, matriarchy, epic poetry and archaeology. Using the faintest of outlines in pencil, the composition is constructed in bold, flat planes of gouache. The ground of the buff coloured paper is left bare in parts to create areas of flesh colour and folds in the drapery, as well as the form of the landscape behind.