3 February
–
23 April 2006
Section
2: Looking at BritainPrunella Clough 1919-1999
Man Hosing Metal Fish Boxes
1951
© the artist
In the late 1940s and early 1950s the common man or labourer became a dominant subject for Clough. During the years 1946-9 Clough often visited East Anglia, particularly its coast, and this painting is thought to stem from her time there. Although inspired by a certain locality, Clough's work usually turns the particular and the localised into something symbolic and universal. She imparts a sense of monumentality to the figure of the man occupied in a menial task. At the same time Clough suggests the harsh circumstances of the working man's life, a familiar theme in British culture during the 1950s.
