John Bellany

Kinlochbervie

About this artwork

Kinlochbervie is a small fishing village in the north-west of Scotland. As in many of Bellany’s early paintings, this work combines sea and religious imagery. The fish gutters in the foreground are in a ‘Last Supper’ arrangement and a figure at the top right carries a yoke which gives him the appearance of being crucified. It is one of the first paintings in which Bellany shows a single boat with fishermen outlined against a clear sky. The boat is used symbolically to represent a conveyor of human fate like the mythical boat used to ferry the dead across the river Styx to Hades.

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
    John Bellany (1942 - 2013) Scottish
  • title:
    Kinlochbervie
  • date created:
    1966
  • materials:
    Oil on hardboard (two sheets joined)
  • measurements:
    243.50 x 320.00 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Purchased 1986
  • accession number:
    GMA 2988
  • gallery:
  • subject:
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John Bellany

John Bellany