Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988)

Rivieres Tiedes (Mediterranee)

Colquhoun encountered Surrealism in Paris in the early 1930s and was influenced by Salvador Dali's double images, where the same part of a picture could be read as different objects. She was a member of the British Surrealist group from 1936 to 1940. Colquhoun shared the Surrealist interest in the occult and alchemy; magical theories were an important element in her life and work.

Rivieres Tiedes is based on a church Colquhoun saw in Corsica. It is a mysterious and disturbing painting: snake-like rivulets of coloured liquid seep from four closed doors. Colquhoun wrote that her paintings at this time had erotic themes and the title comes from a poem about fading love by Mallarme. It has been suggested the coloured fluids may hint at an alchemical transformation occurring inside the building.

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