''The Surrender of Barcelona'', also known as ''The Siege of Barcelona'', is a 1934–1937 painting by the English artist Wyndham Lewis.

Description and history

The painting shows the fortified medieval city of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and can be divided into five planes. At the very top, the bright blue sea of the harbour can be seen. Below it are the walls and buildings of the city, stylised as orange-brown geometrical shapes. The next plane consists of three large towers: to the sides two rectangular towers and in the middle a circular one which has been captured by simplified, stick-figure like humans and draped in banners. In front of the towers, a bridge leads over a moat, a dead man hangs from a scaffold, and to the right are a horseman with a yellow standard and a group of followers, all armoured and carrying lances. At the very front are nine men in metal armour and helmets, larger and more detailed than other humans in the picture. ''The Surrender of Barcelona'' was made in 1934–1937 and is also known as ''The Siege of Barcelona''. Wyndham Lewis wrote in 1950: "In the ''Surrender of Barcelona'' I set out to paint a

Fourteenth Century As a means of recording the passage of time, the 14th century was a century lasting from 1 January 1301 ( MCCCI), to 31 December 1400 ( MCD). It is estimated that the century witnessed the death of more than 45 million lives from political and n ...

scene as I should do it could I be transported there, without too great change in the time adjustment involved. So that is a little outside the natural-non-natural categories dominating controversy today." The painting was made around the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. This conflict was the setting of Lewis' novel ''The Revenge for Love'' (1937), but Lewis denied any intended connection between the painting and novel. It is similar to ''The Armada'', another painting Lewis made around the same period, which belongs to the Vancouver Art Gallery in Canada.

Jeffrey Meyers Jeffrey Meyers (born April 1, 1939 in New York City) is an American biographer, literary, art and film critic. He currently lives in Berkeley, California. Biography Jeffrey Meyers was born in New York City in 1939 and grew up in New York. He wa ...

calls ''The Surrender of Barcelona'' Lewis' masterpiece. He connects it to Barcelona's role as a Republican stronghold and eventual fall in the Spanish Civil War, and writes: "The theme of the picture is the fall of a peaceful open city, the submission to a brutal military occupation, and the effect of war, siege and surrender on a civilian metropolis". The painting was purchased by

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in 1947.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Surrender Of Barcelona 1937 paintings Paintings by Wyndham Lewis Collection of the Tate galleries Barcelona in popular culture