Moonlit Walk, Oct 1939
Moonlit Walk is currently hanging at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. This psychiatric hospital twice featured prominently in Edwin's life. He was a conscientious objector during the Second World War and the Royal Ed was one of the hospitals he was posted to work in. Then, in the 1980s, he was an in-patient at the Royal Ed when suffering from depression.
The hospital (and more broadly NHS Lothian) has a notable art collection and Edwin decided to donate a painting when was he was discharged. He chose one called The Resurrection, but in recent years its religious subject matter restricted opportunities to display it, so the Lucas family agreed to swap it with Moonlit Walk.
This was painted in October 1939, just a couple of months after Edwin started painting in a Surrealist style. Most of his work in this period was related to dreams and/or psychoanalysis and one imagines this is a dreamscape. It's unique in the way he combines local landscape (the Pentland Hills) with surreal imagery such as the shepherd with wonky legs, his dog and the ghostly cows. And what on earth is the green worm-like object in the foreground?
The hospital (and more broadly NHS Lothian) has a notable art collection and Edwin decided to donate a painting when was he was discharged. He chose one called The Resurrection, but in recent years its religious subject matter restricted opportunities to display it, so the Lucas family agreed to swap it with Moonlit Walk.
This was painted in October 1939, just a couple of months after Edwin started painting in a Surrealist style. Most of his work in this period was related to dreams and/or psychoanalysis and one imagines this is a dreamscape. It's unique in the way he combines local landscape (the Pentland Hills) with surreal imagery such as the shepherd with wonky legs, his dog and the ghostly cows. And what on earth is the green worm-like object in the foreground?
The painting currently shares a corridor in Mackinnon House with some works painted by patients in 2017.
Moonlit Walk at Royal Edinburgh Hospital
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Other works in the same corridor
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