While the expression on the face of the taller figure is slightly obscured, the grinning expression on the young boy's face reveals a sense of menace. The figure on the left-hand side of the painting prepares the cross on the ground. This copy of a work by Ritera was part of a collection of 117 works belonging to the industrialist and engineer F.D. Lycett Green and bequeathed to York through the Art Fund, in 1955, in recognition of the remarkable efforts made after the Second World War by its curator to transform it into a gallery of international importance.

Provenance

F.D. Lycett Green.