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Self-Portrait with Oxygen Mask (from 'The Addenbrookes Hospital Series')
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Self-Portrait with Oxygen Mask (from 'The Addenbrookes Hospital Series') Dated 19 May 1988
  • Scottish Art
Bellany has always used his immediate surroundings and his own experiences as raw material for his art. In 1988 the artist underwent liver transplant surgery. As soon as he came out of the intensive care unit at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, Bellany set to work producing self-portraits, charting the course of his hospitalisation and convalescence, covering the walls of his hospital room with drawings and watercolours. They reflect the inevitable ups and downs of the patient: the intense physical pain, the discomfort and fears that he might not pull through, and then the optimism about a new lease of life, emphasised by the vivid colours in this work.

Glossary Open

Watercolour

A paint with colouring and binding agents diluted with water. It has a transparent quality and is usually applied to paper.

Watercolour

Details

  • Acc. No. GMA 3540
  • Medium Watercolour and black chalk on paper
  • Size 77.00 x 57.00 cm
  • Credit Purchased 1990

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Scottish Art