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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Graham Sutherland
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(1903–80) Artist who began his career as a printmaker (etching landscapes in a style influenced by the rediscovery of Samuel *Palmer) and did not take up painting until he was almost 30. His inspiration was the scenery of Wales, which he interpreted in a semi-abstract manner, finding in it metaphors for other forms of life and growth. Two new departures brought his art into the public eye. An interest from 1944 in Christian art and symbolism resulted in the great tapestry of Christ in Glory above the altar of *Coventry Cathedral. And his emergence as a vivid portraitist, beginning with Somerset *Maugham (1949, Tate Gallery), led to the commission for an 80th-birthday portrait of Winston *Churchill in 1954. This too was strikingly powerful, but it so distressed the sitter that Lady Churchill destroyed it a year or two later.
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