Herculaneum Oil Tanks and Foreshore

This is a semi-abstract variation of Bisson’s watercolour ‘Dingle Foreshore’ (WAG 10715), also in the Walker Art Gallery's collection. Three oil tanks have now been added to the composition. In a style reminiscent of the French cubist Fernand Leger (1881-1955), Bisson’s natural objects are reduced to fluid curved shapes, while the oil tanks and brickwork retain their geometric forms. Bisson may have absorbed elements of Surrealism when he visited galleries in Paris in the early 1930s. The shape of the boulders is echoed in the clouds, and the rippling outline of the blue landmass in the distance is repeated in the waves and the rock face on the right. This work was exhibited as part of the 'Roderick Bisson' exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in 1987.