Catalogue entry

Eileen Agar b. 1904

T00707 Three Symbols 1930

Inscr. ‘Agar’ b.r.
Canvas, 39½ x 22 (100 x 56).
Purchased from the Brook Street Gallery (Grant-in-Aid) 1964.
Exh: Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Collages 1930–64, Brook Street Gallery, October–November 1964 (repr., not numbered) as ‘Flying Pillar’.

The artist told the compiler (21 December 1964) that she would prefer the picture to be known as ‘Three Symbols’, her intention having been to represent three cultures, the ancient Greco-Roman world by the pillar, medieval Christianity by Notre Dame on the right, and modern technical inventions by the bridge built by Eiffel, which she had seen reproduced. It was her first imaginative essay, painted while she was still studying in Paris.
