On the Map
- Artist: Sir William Coldstream
- Date: 1937
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 508 x 508 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the painting “On the Map” by Sir William Coldstream, created in 1937. The canvas measures a little over half a metre on each side and is finished in oil. In the foreground two familiar faces appear: Graham Bell, a fellow painter, stands with a map in his hands, while his friend Igor Anrep sits on the ground. Both are captured from behind, looking out over a Suffolk landscape. Coldstream intentionally left them unaware of his presence, a nod to the “unbiased observation” he admired in Degas’s interior scenes.
The scene was painted on location near Bayham, Suffolk, during a period when Coldstream was experimenting with a systematic, almost scientific approach to composition. He measured and plotted every element, so that the map, the tree, and the distant railway become part of a visual chart. The result is a quiet conversation between two men and the land, framed by the map’s lines that echo the precision of his own brushwork.
Coldstream’s method here foreshadows his later work in which he maintained a respectful distance from his subjects, striving to place himself accurately in relation to them. The painting’s quiet stance, the map as a literal and metaphorical guide, invites the viewer to step into that same measured gaze, turning the landscape into a narrative about observation and place.
See it in person
On the Map is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
