Last Stage

1946, gouache, 37.3 x 55.4cm

There is often a dilemma when viewing one of Tunnard's works, especially one with a distinctive title. Should one simply enjoy the painting or should one guess what the artist was thinking as he painted? In this case there is a lot to support the idea that the various parts have something to tell. Areas of scarlet in Tunnard's paintings of the late war period and the years immediately afterwards almost always indicate blood, though sometimes he also used a softer red to indicate communism. A brooding black shape in the background indicated fascism, but in this case the war has ended and only half the shape remains. The work was done at a time when the press was full of discussion how justice should be applied to the captured Nazi leaders, which led to the Nuremberg trials in the following autumn. The painting suggests a plank rising from the smoking concentration camps amid a sea of blood and with a small symbol of justice at the upper end. Above the base of the plank the ghosts of the victims of the amps rise up to encourage justice to deal with the Nazi evil.