Many of his last paintings were landscapes, made from earlier sketchbooks and studies, seen through the eye of the print-maker.
Surrealism
From 1907, he painted a series of mythological works, and increasingly turned to landscapes, some of which are most unusual, almost surreal.
His enigmatic paintings of interiors appear cinematic in their composition and lighting, akin to those of cinematographers of the future, not painters of the past.
Originally a portraitist in academic style, he was a Nabi in the early 1890s before developing his own simple but strange figurative paintings.
He continued with extraordinary detailed fantasies of birds and flowers, and developed drawings in silverpoint with crayon.
He developed near-Surrealist fantasies apparently inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, and the Cubist ‘Brooklyn Bridge’, his best-known work.
Some religious stories which may have had personal relevance, and conclusions to his series of Roman spectacles, and his sculpture. Finally, a joke which may have inspired the Surrealists.
Their landscapes developed a magic distinctive to the artist. Only by direct comparison are their similarities and differences made clear.
His final series of Landscapes of the Moon and Aerial Flowers are among his most visionary, and refer to much of his previous work, and that of William Blake.
Appointed as a full-time war artist to the RAF, he was expected to paint portraits of aircrew. He had other, much better ideas.
