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Creator:
John Tunnard, 1900–1971
Title:

Forecast

Former Title(s):

Bulletin météorologique (Meteorological Bulletin)

Date:
1945
Medium:
Oil on gesso-prepared board
Dimensions:
24 x 22 3/4 inches (61 x 57.8 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in pencil, lower left: "0.97"

Signed and dated in pencil, lower left: "John Tunnard 45"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Friends of British Art Fund
Copyright Status:
© Estate of the Artist
Accession Number:
B1999.25
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1999.25FR
Subject Terms:
abstract art | coastguards | collage | dark | dream | landscape | musical instruments | navy | sea | seascape | ship | sky | war | water | waves (natural events) | world war | World War 1939-1945
Associated Places:
Cornwall | England | United Kingdom
Access:
Not on view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:33185
Export:
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IIIF Manifest:
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Painted at the end of the Second World War, Forecast resembles the tangled memory of an anxious dream. John Tunnard was a conscientious objector during the war but compromised by serving as a coast guard in Cornwall, a modernist haven in Britain’s southwestern corner. Forecast suggests the forms of the Cornish coast, barometrical instruments for predicting the weather, and an ominous sky. Like other British surrealists, Tunnard sought to balance modernism with a traditional sense of British identity. In Forecast he captures a sense of place as well as the anxiety of its near loss to war and invasion.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016


When first exhibited in Paris in 1945, this work was entitled "Bulletin meteorologique" (Meteorological Bulletin). The composition works as a dream-collage of elements from the artist's life as a coastguard in Cornwall during World War II, hinting at the forms of coastal landscape, sensitive measuring instruments, communication lines, and a heavily laden, ominous sky.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 1999

Revisiting Traditions [BAC 20th century painting & sculpture] (Yale Center for British Art, 2002-04-30 - 2005-05-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Bloomsbury Contemporaries (Yale Center for British Art, 2000-05-20 - 2000-09-03) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

20th Century Paintings and Sculpture (Yale Center for British Art, 2000-01-27 - 2000-04-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Forecast, ART News, vol. 45, February 1947, p. 27, N1 A415 OVERSIZE (HAAS) [ORBIS]

Forecast, 1945, Art Digest, vol. 22, October 1947, p. 13, N1 A415 OVERSIZE (HAAS) [ORBIS]

John Haldane, Durham, John Tunnard , Burlington Magazine, Vol.142, No.1173, December 2000, pp. 789-90, fig. 62, N1 B87 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) Alao available online in JSTOR [YCBA]

Paul Mellon's Legacy, a passion for British art. [large print labels] , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 +P381 2007, Mellon Shelf (YCBA) [YCBA]

Alan Peat, John Tunnard, his life and work , Scolar Press, Brookfield, Vt., 1997, pl. 23, NJ18 T8183 A12 P42 1997 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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