Edward Burra
Large Print Labels
Room 14
Room 14
Irish Street Scene 1948
Watercolour on paper
Frank Cohen Collection
Burra visited Ireland in 1948 with his sister Anne
and admired the eighteenth-century architecture of
the Irish towns. The receding street scene with
figures sitting in doorways and on steps recalls his
images of Harlem and the theatrical spaces of his
stage designs. As viewers we are being observed:
a tiny face peers out of the window of one such
building, a detail that could almost be missed due
to the dominance of two menacing faces in the
immediate foreground.
The Straw Man 1963
Watercolour on paper
Pallant House Gallery (on long term
loan from a private collection)
This remarkable watercolour relates to a painting
by Francisco de Goya in the Museo de Prado
called 'The Straw Manikin' (1791–2). However
Burra has re-imagined Goya's decorative scene in
an urban wasteland where a group of workingclass men kick a headless straw dummy in an
almost ritualistic dance. The violence of the scene
is metaphorical, but the air of brooding menace is
emphasised by details such as the train hurtling
overhead and the indifferent figures standing
alongside.
It's All Boiling Up 1948
Watercolour on paper
Frank Cohen Collection
Although Burra was not overtly political, it is likely
that this painting was a nuanced response to the
political tensions at the time of his trip to Ireland.
The pair of bright eyes shining out from the dark
interior of the kettle suggest that dark spirits are
going to be unleashed once the temperature of the
flesh-like fire reaches boiling point. The shadowy
cloaked figures standing around this Irish square
talking in small huddled groups add to the uneasy
sense of trouble brewing.
Beelzebub c.1937–38
Watercolour on paper
Lefevre Fine Art
In 1935 Burra visited Spain where he witnessed a
church being burnt down in the months before the
Spanish Civil War. In this enormous watercolour a
marauding throng with bloody weapons clash
violently in the ruins of a church. The devilish
monster that goads them on is Beelzebub (literally
'Lord of the Flies') who was one of the seven
princes of Hell. The elongated figures influenced
by Mannerist and Baroque art serve to heighten
the drama of the scene.
The Riot 1948–50
Watercolour on paper
On loan from the Donlea Collection
It is unclear whether this picture represents a
political or religious event. The dark violence is
suggestive of zombie scenes from the horror
movies that Burra enjoyed watching. The intense
red colour with which he has painted the figures
and their burning flares underlines a sense of the
collective anger of the mass in which individual
thought is lessened.
Esso 1952–54
Watercolour on paper
Daniel Katz Collection
The jazz musician George Melly observed of
Burra's work: 'His torturers, his bullies, his soldiers,
some of his phantasmagoria are evil, but many of
his creatures are simply louche and disreputable.
He loved naughtiness. He enjoyed depravity and
bathed it in a glamorous eccentric light. He was
acquainted with imps as well as demons.'
Bird Men and Pots 1946
Watercolour on paper
Royal Pavilion, Museums and Libraries, Brighton
and Hove
Bird folk appear in numerous paintings by Burra.
With their faces covered but human hands
revealed, it is not clear whether these cloaked
figures are actually part-bird, part-human or
whether these are just men wearing Venetian
masks from the 'Commedia dell'Arte', but either
way, it results in a theatrical sense of unease, that
there is something sinister hidden under the
masks and cloaks. In other paintings from the
1940s soldiers are shown wearing masks.
Tulips in a Yellow Pot 1955–7
Watercolour on paper
Private collection
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Burra created a
number of floral still life paintings. The flowers
have an almost human presence, so that the
flower heads appear like eyes looking out. In
Burra's hands the floral still life is never decorative,
but has an eerie quality. The artist John Banting
said, 'I hazard a guess that the mystery of Burra's
paintings begins with an object which turns into a
face with a thought behind it. Or is it the other
way round?'
Punch and Judy c.1959–61
Watercolour on paper
Simon Draper Collection