Weathercote Cave
Date1943
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed size 837x660x39mm
ClassificationsArtworks/Commemorations/Photographs
Credit LineSouthwark Council/South London Gallery/ artist copyright Piper Estate DACS 2022
Terms
Object numberGA0050
DescriptionRegarded as the most picturesque of Yorkshire caves, Weathercote Cave takes the form of a limestone chasm into which plunges an eighty-foot waterfall. At the mouth of the waterfall is wedged a boulder known locally as Mohammed’s Coffin. John Piper visited in 1943 and produced this painting in response. Piper breaks up the fields of colour in this work with thick black lines, describing the fissures and flaws within the rock. Only the central white flash of the waterfall remains unscathed. In 1944, the painting served as the subject for a lithograph, which emphasized Piper’s compositional allusions to female genitalia.Piper had first trained to be solicitor but, after failing the exams, went on to study art at the Richmond School of Art and then the Royal College of Art. He became an official war artist during the Second World War, documenting the effects of enemy bombing on Britain’s architectural heritage and landscape.
On View
Not on viewCollections
800-146 BC
