Dying Crane
Dying Crane
1130
This is one of the works Leonard Rosoman made as a fireman, tackling blazes and bomb damage in the London Blitz. One of these, 'A House Collapsing on Two Firemen', shows an incident in which a colleague who had just relieved him was killed.
Along with his fellow fireman, Stephen Spender, and others, Rosoman recorded his experiences in a volume titled 'Fire and Water, The London Firefighters' Blitz 1940-42 Remembered', edited by H.S. Ingham, in which one of his illustrations features, to the right of page 27, the same bombed crane he painted in this powerful work.
Rosoman dedicated this work to John Lehmann (1907-87), the poet and publisher who founded the periodicals 'New Writing' and 'The London Magazine'. Lehmann was closely associated with Stephen Spender, who, like Rosoman, was a firefighter in the Blitz and collaborated with him and others on related publications, such as 'Fire and Water'
Dimensions:
1942
Ink and gouache
Signed and dated. Inscribed verso by the artist "John Lehmann" and, possibly in Lehmann's hand, "Dying Crane".
John Lehmann
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