Unframed
61 x 57 cm / 24 " x 22"

Framed
82 x 78 cm / 33” x 31"

Oil on board
2019
Signed lower right

Description

This outstanding new painting, larger in scale than many works from the very popular Silence series, captures an intimate moment between two soldiers resting high on a coastal headland.

Possessing a startling realism, this exquisitely painted artwork renders the finest details - leather boots, their eyelets and laces - in an astonishingly accomplished  manner.  Dynamic white and wispy clouds dominate the upper section of sky, indicating a sea breeze, which reinforces the anchored stillness of the young men bathed in bright midday sunshine.

Watson was inspired by observing the making of a film set in Australia during World War I titled  'Always Afternoon’, and this series of paintings has become one of the artist's most sought after. 

Featuring the spectacular and pristine coastline of Noosa National Park in Queensland, Australia, which provides an ideal natural setting for the shirtless young men, who are in fact actors dressed as soldiers. 

Sir James Wolfensohn is a great admirer and collector of the series, and one of his favourite paintings featuring a row of actors on headland hung opposite his desk in his office at the World Bank in Washington.