Graham Sutherland ‘Entrance to a lane‘
Entrance to a lane
David Gascoyne
to Elizabeth Jennings
Memento rectangle to lead the gaze
From outer levels to a hub of white,
An elsewhere that recedes from coiling planes
Sequestered rural scene reputed Welsh,
Season’s regalia reduced to tones
Of veld and verdure, leaves to sprays of blotch
A static vortex wherein ochre glows
Softly in strata linked by streaks and zones
Of compact shade and layers of virid light
The felt-floored lane leads to a blank where hues
And perceptions vanish as fast as time
Into the non-lieu beyond mortal reach
Where red is not an opposite of rot
Or devastation the reverse of peace
And all those things that were the case resume
Graham Sutherland ‘Welsh landscape with roads’ 1936
David Gascoyne was born in 1916 and educated at Salisbury Cathedral Choir School and Regent Street Polytechnic Secondary. His first collection of poems was published in 1932, followed by A Short Survey of Surrealism (1935), and Poems 1937 – 42, illustrated by Graham Sutherland, was published during the war. Colledted Poems 1988 (including Night Thoughts, commissioned and broadcast by the BBC in 1954) was published in 1988. His prewar Journals, which appeared in French translation in 1984 have been reissued in one volume, Colected Journals 1936 – 42 (1996) by Skoob Books. David Gascoyne spent about fifteen years in France where he frequented, among other painters, the studios of Helion, Masson and Dubuffet.
Graham Sutherland Welsh Landscape With Yellow Lane 1939-40