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| Constant Lambert Portrait of Christopher Wood 1926 oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London |
"Christopher Wood was born in Knowsley, near Liverpool on 7 April 1901, the son of Mrs Clare and Dr Lucius Wood, a GP. At fourteen, Wood began to draw during recuperation from septicaemia, and went on to study architecture briefly at Liverpool University. In London in 1920 the French collector Alphonse Kahn invited him to Paris, where Wood studied drawing at the Académie Julian in 1921. He entered effortlessly into fashionable artistic circles, meeting Augustus John and the Chilean diplomat Antonio de Gandarillas, with whom he began to live. As well as providing financial support, Gandarillas introduced Wood to Picasso, Georges Auric and Jean Cocteau, and to the use of opium. Although his painting was regarded as charmingly untutored, he learnt from these acquaintances, especially adopting the elegant line of Cocteau's drawings."
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| Christopher Wood Constant Lambert as a Young Man 1925 oil on canvas Leicester County Council Artworks Collection |
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| Christopher Wood Constant Lambert 1927 oil on canvas Towner Gallery, Eastbourne |
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| Christopher Wood Self-portrait 1927 oil on canvas Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge |
"By 1926 Wood was in a position to make designs for Romeo and Juliet for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. When these designs were abandoned at the last moment, he concentrated on England, becoming a member of the London Group and the Seven and Five Society. He exhibited with Ben and Winifred Nicholson at the Beaux Arts Gallery, becoming close to them personally and artistically. In particular, Winifred was supportive in the aftermath of his failed elopement with the painter and heiress Meraud Guinness. He painted with the Nicholsons in Cumberland and Cornwall in 1928. On a trip to St Ives, he and Ben Nicholson encountered the fisherman painter Alfred Wallis, whose work answered a shared interest in 'primitive' expression and helped Wood to establish a personal style. A solo exhibition at Tooth's Gallery was followed by an exhibition with Nicholson at the Galerie Bernheim in Paris, in which Wood showed paintings made in Brittany in 1929. The results of a second stay in Brittany were intended to open the Wertheim Gallery in London in October. Travelling with his paintings, Wood met his mother in Salisbury on 21 August 1930. Possibly believing himself pursued (an effect of withdrawal from opium) he threw himself under the London train. In deference to his mother, his death was often subsequently described as accidental."
– curator's notes from the Tate Gallery
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| Christopher Wood The Bather 1927 oil on canvas Bristol Museum & Art Gallery |
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| Christopher Wood Nude Boy in a Bedroom 1930 oil on panel National Galleries of Scotland |
"The 'boy' in this painting is one of Wood's lovers, the artist Francis Rose. The work shows a hotel room in Tréboul, Brittany. Wood suffered from mental instability made worse by an opium habit. The problematic side to Wood's character sometimes surfaces in his art. The tarot cards lying on the bed may allude to worries about money and love, and perhaps also to danger; in any event they seem to tell of his troubled state of mind. A few months after completing this painting, Wood was killed by a train. Whether it was suicide, an accident, drug related or the result of mental instability, remains unclear."
– curator's notes from the National Galleries of Scotland
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| Christopher Wood Ulysses and the Siren (Mermaids) 1929 oil on panel Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge |
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| Christopher Wood French Cyclist with a Girl before 1930 oil on panel Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
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| Christopher Wood Boy with a Cat 1926 oil on canvas Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge |
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| Christopher Wood The Manicure (Portrait of Frosca Munster) 1929 oil on canvas Bradford Museums and Galleries |
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| Christopher Wood Girl in a Chair (Figure for a Screen) before 1930 oil on canvas Towner Gallery, Eastbourne |
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| Christopher Wood Conversation Piece before 1930 oil on canvas Towner Gallery, Eastbourne |
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| Christopher Wood Girl with Cakes before 1930 oil on canvas Dudley Museums Service |
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| Christopher Wood Village in Italy 1925 oil on canvas Ulster Museum |
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| Christopher Wood Dancing Sailors, Brittany 1930 oil on panel New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester |
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| Christopher Wood Cornish Fishermen, The Quay, St Ives 1928 oil on canvas Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums |
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| Christopher Wood The Fisherman's Farewell 1928 oil on panel Tate Gallery |
"This painting dates from the autumn of 1928, which Wood spent in Cornwall. In the extreme foreground, set against a backdrop of St. Ives harbour, a fisherman bids farewell to a woman and a child, his sun-tanned face partially obscured as he leans to kiss the child's head. . . . The figures in the foreground are understood to be portraits of the artists Ben and Winifred Nicholson and their young son Jake. Wood became friends with the Nicholsons in 1926, exhibiting with Ben Nicholson at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London in 1927. In the spring of 1928 he stayed with them at Bankshead, their cottage in the Lake District, and the three artists painted together, often out of doors. In August of that year Wood joined the Nicholsons at Feock in Cornwall. . . . Wood painted The Fisherman's Farewell during this time and it is possible that the painting refers to the actual departure of Ben Nicholson from St. Ives in October 1928. His portrayal of Nicholson as a fisherman in this painting is a sign of esteem for his friend, linking as it does the other artist to the traditional way of life that Cornwall suggested to them. In December, shortly before leaving Cornwall for London and Paris, Wood wrote to Winifred Nicholson: I seem to live on the edge of the world. But what a world it is, I love this place and could stay here for ever if I had those around me for whom I care."
– curator's notes from the Tate Gallery
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