The Stripping of Our Lord, 1962
Philip Le Bas (1925-2015)
Oil on canvas, 58 x 50 cm. Methodist Modern Art Collection, MCMAC: 030
Image Copyright © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church Registered Charity no. 1132208
Biblical commentary
Matthew 27: 27–28
Jesus stands upright, naked to the waist with a white cloth from the waist down. A soldier in armour stands behind him on his left, with his head and helmet bent forward as he strips him, whilst Jesus looks towards a distant horizon. Writing shortly after completing the painting, Le Bas said, ‘I have tried to show, without sentiment, the sufferings of a man, as I feel in this way the average person will come closer to realizing what agony and loneliness Christ must have endured.’
Commentary based on A Guide to the Methodist Art Collection.
Artist biography
Born: St Quentin de Baron, near Bordeaux, France, 1925
Died: Hampshire, UK, 2015
Early life
Philip Hubert le Bas was born in Bordeaux. His mother was French and his father was from the Channel Islands. They were wine growers. His cousin, Edward le Bas RA, was an eminent English impressionist painter.
Education
Le Bas served in the RAF during the war and then studied painting at the Regent Street Polytechnic (1948-1951) and at Brighton College of Art (1951-1952).
Life and career
Le Bas was a Roman Catholic and created several religious paintings. The Stripping of our Lord (1962) in the Methodist Modern Art Collection is related to a series of painted Stations of the Cross. These were commissioned by the architect David Stokes for a new church built in 1961, the Church of Our Lady of the Visitation at Greenwood, West London. Le Bas was also commissioned to paint a mural of St Dominic Savio for the Roman Catholic church of St Dominic Savio at Hawley, Farnborough. All these works demonstrate considerable skill in depicting the human form. He followed this with a series of religious abstract works, drawing on the symbolism of the elements of the Eucharist. However, these works and his figurative religious works did not prove saleable and after the mid-1960s he did not receive any further commissions.
He returned to realist - and sometimes hyper-realist – painting, concentrating on the everyday world. He painted West End theatres, hotels, railway stations, and street scenes showing London buildings with the famous ‘blue plaque’ and the original occupants visible through the windows. His portraits of actors and popular musicians - including painted busts on pedestals - and his highly realist paintings of cakes, sweets and chocolates proved particularly popular.
He was recognised by election to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1953 and to the New English Art Club in 1956.
Exhibitions and collections
Le Bas’s first solo exhibitions were in the Trafford Gallery, London (1957); and Heffers Gallery, Cambridge (1955, 1956 and 1958). He exhibited exclusively with the Portal Gallery in London after 1966. His work is included in several collections including the UK Government art collection; the English Heritage Collection; and the Michael Codron Theatre Collection. His Last Supper of 1963 is in The Argyll Collection, Oban.
Sources and further reading
David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945: Volume 1 A to L. Vol. 1 of 2 volumes. (Bristol, Art Dictionaries Ltd, 2006), p. 939. The text is also available on the Art UK website: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/le-bas-philip-hubert-19252015 (viewed 18 September 2024)
The Portal Gallery, ‘Philip le Bas’: https://portalpainters.co.uk/artist/philip-le-bas (viewed 18 September 2024)
Seeing the Spiritual: A Guide to the Methodist Modern Art Collection. (Oxford, Methodist Modern Art Collection, 2018), p. 72-73
Roger Wollen, Catalogue of the Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art with an Account of the Collection’s History, (Oxford, The Trustees of the Methodist Collection of Modern Christian Art, 2003), p. 94-96