York from the Walls

Painted in the year following his appointment as a full Academician at the Royal Academy, From the Walls, York (1954) is a dramatic representation of the northern city with ominous clouds dominating the composition. The unsettling atmosphere that pervades is quite possibly related to York's struggle during the war when the so called Baedecker raids targeted and devastated large swathes of the city. The artist's view is across the rooftops of the Roman defences and takes in domestic dwellings, an industrial cooling tower and of course the celebrated gothic minster. As in the York Festival Triptych, there is a degree of artistic licence as Eurich uses his imagination to bring together the various elements that comprise the painting.