Peter Lanyon 1918-1964
North Cliff, 1961
oil on canvas
60 by 60 inches
signed and datedLanyon estate no.290

Provenance
Iola Haverstick, USA
Lorin Hodges, USA

Exhibited
St. Ives, The Sail Loft Gallery, Peter Lanyon, 1936-1961, 1961, cat no.31, titled as North Ridge
New York, Catherine Viviano Gallery, Peter Lanyon, 30 January - 17 February 1962, cat no.7
San Antonio, Texas, Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, Peter Lanyon, 1963

Literature
Andrew Causey, Peter Lanyon, Aidan Ellis Publishing, Oxfordshire, 1971, cat no.164, p64
Andrew Lanyon, Peter Lanyon, Cornwall, 1990, p217, illus colour



In a notebook entry, reproduced in Andrew Lanyon's 1990 book, the artist describes his inspiration and his intentions for this specific painting:

" North Cliff, 1961
Figures in a landscape. Associations with bird flight over a cliff face, nesting gulls, scarred mining coast. A happening both in a historic sense; the effect of man on the country and in a moment of time - surprising a nest. My interest in events both at the moment of experience and in ancient history as seen on the surface is beginning to be expressed. To describe a mile of history in a gesture."