The Tube Train, London, 1930's.

From The Met

Linoleum Cut Print by Cyril E. Power, circa 1934,

From The British Museum

Curator's Comments:

"According to the artist's son, Edmund Berry Power DSC (letter to Sheila O'Connell, dated 17 October 2003), the print "was inspired by the rush hour trains on the District line at Hammersmith". Power had a studio in Hammersmith during the 1930s.

Text by Stephen Coppel from Frances Carey & Antony Griffiths, 'Avant-Garde British Printmaking 1914-1960', BMP 1990, no.62. 

An expressionistic distortion similar to that in 'The Exam Room' characterises this depiction of mask-faced commuters enduring the monotonous rocking and rattling of the London Underground District Line train on its nightmarish rush-hour run. 'The Tube Train' is one of several lino-cuts of the Underground made by Power. Annotated sketches of the interior of a Tube train are recorded in an undated sketchbook addressed on the flyleaf "22 Buckingham Street Adelphi" (ff.14 and 19); although these sketches are devoid of human figures, they do include such telling visual details as the hanging straps, overhead lamps, sliding doors and the advertisements found within an Underground train compartment.

An experimental proof of this print (now in the Australian National Gallery in Canberra) shows how the artist at one stage contemplated printing the third block in viridian before finally deciding upon the light cobalt blue used in the edition. The existence of such proofs is evidence of the care with which Power selected his colours in order to achieve an effect of heightened tension.

'The Tube Train' and 'The Exam Room' were each offered for sale at 2 guineas by the Redfern Gallery in 1934. The British Museum's impression of 'The Tube Train' still bears the original price marked by the dealer in the margin".