Scene in Front of the Cathedral, Perugia

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Carel Weight was born in London. His grandfather came from Hamburg (and was, according to the artist, the first professional chiropodist ever to come to England). Weight studied at Hammersmith College of Art from 1928–30 and at Goldsmiths College from 1931–33. During the Second World War he was an Official War Artist, at the instigation of Kenneth (later Lord) Clark, a close friend with whom he frequently discussed art and history. As a War Artist, Weight visited Austria, Italy and Greece, and the Government Art Collection owns a number of works painted by him at this time. After the War, he taught at the Royal College of Art, becoming Professor of Painting in 1957. He exhibited internationally and is represented in many public collections. A retrospective exhibition of Weight’s work was held in 1982 at the Royal Academy, followed by a smaller show there in 1988 to mark his eightieth birthday. In 1995 a retrospective exhibition of his work as an Official War Artist was held at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Places

Italy, Perugia, Perugia: Cathedral of San Lorenzo

Subjects

statue (as Subject), sculpture (as Subject), topography, WW2 art, genre, townscape/cityscape, man, woman, military uniform, soldier, World War II, piazza, monument, cathedral, column, pillar (architectural feature), steps, plinth (represented)

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Carel Weight (1908 - 1997)

Title

Scene in Front of the Cathedral, Perugia

Date

1945

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 35.50 cm, width: 41.00 cm

Acquisition

Presented via the Imperial War Museum, War Artists' Advisory Committee, April 1946

Inscription

verso: Inscribed on OHMS label on reverse of canvas board, top centre, blue ink, in ?artist's handwriting: "6 [circled] Sch [crossed out] Scene in front / of School [crossed out] Cathedral / Peruggia [sic] / Carel Weight". This label is stuck over a large black and white painted inscription "F 2/K" to the right of which in black paint on white wash rectangle is inscribed "Capt / C. Weight [?] / P3458(7) [?]

Provenance

Gift from Imperial War Museum, War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946

GAC number

529