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Born in Birmingham but raised in London, David Bomberg studied with Walter Bayes and Walter Sickert while also receiving assistance from John Singer Sargent to gain a place at the Slade School of Art. Quickly absorbing avantgarde European art ideas, the precocious Bomberg held a one-man show at the Chenil Gallery, Chelsea, in July 1914 that established him as one of Britain’s most experimental and daring artists. After the First World War, due to a disillusionment with modern technological warfare, the machine-age abstraction of his painting in this period gave way to a greater study of nature and landscape. His paint handling became even more expressive and vigorous in the 1920s and 1930s with trips to Palestine, Spain, and Scotland. These did not meet with much approval, but further expeditions to Cornwall and especially Cyprus resulted in fiery and exuberant landscapes suggesting, as here, human and natural vitality.

Gallery label for A Decade of Gifts and Acquisitions (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-06-01 - 2017-08-13)