Christ Church, Spitalfields, Spring

Copyright

Maker

(artist)
1926-2019 (Life dates)

Title

Christ Church, Spitalfields, Spring

Date of Production

1992

Medium

etching and aquatint

Dimensions

Height: 77.4 cm (Sheet)
Width: 58.4 cm (Sheet)

Object Number

G.2024.SP.15

Mode of Acquisition

HM Government Cultural Gifts Scheme, 2024

Credit

Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from the archive of Studio Prints gifted by the Balakjian family and allocated to the Courtauld Gallery, 2024.

Location

On display

Label Text

In 1987, Leon Kossoff began a group of paintings depicting Christ Church in Spitalfields, East London. After decades of neglect and threats of demolition, the church was being restored and began to host the celebrated Spitalfields Music Festival. Kossoff grew up nearby, and the building, as he recalled, had ‘always been part of my life’. A few years later, he returned to the subject in this print and two others in the Courtauld Gallery's collection titled Summer (G.2024.SP.16) and Autumn (G.2024.SP.17). Seasonal change, as indicated in the titles of the three prints, is suggested less by clothing or foliage, than by shifts in the clouds and light, most clearly in the open summer sky.

Inscriptions

Verso, lower right, graphite: CGS K16 b

Provenance

Studio Prints, London; accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from the archive of Studio Prints gifted by the Balakjian family and allocated to The Courtauld, 2024.

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