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Dimensions: 66 by 76cm., 26 by 30in.

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Provenance: Professor Trevor-Roper

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Notes: In July 1948, the entire Bomberg family decamped to Cyprus on a painting trip funded by David's son-in-law Leslie Marr, a trip which was to produce the inspiration for some of Bomberg's finest and most freely painted late canvases.

Using Lapithos as a base, the group travelled to a number of sites, many of which were ancient, weathered and difficult of access. The ruins of the castle of St.Hilarion provided the source for a major group of paintings, the keynote of which is the exuberant colour and handling.

The present painting demonstrates these same characteristics to the full, with rich, fiery reds and yellows contrasted against dense blacks, and passages of paint ranging from the almost translucent tones of the sky to the creamily manipulated white highlights of the rolling surf. How dramatic this change and resurgence was in Bomberg's painting can be seen by contrast with the very similarly composed St.Ives of 1947 (sold in these rooms, 3^rd December 2003, lot 47). The group of paintings produced in Cyprus in 1948, together with those painted in Cornwall the previous year have been referred to as 'the triumphant climax of all his landscape painting' (see 1967 Arts Council exhibition catalogue, David Bomberg 1890-1957, p.37).