Triptych - Prometheus
- Artist: Oskar Kokoschka
- Date: (January to July) 1950
- Medium: oil and tempera on canvas
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is the Triptych – “Prometheus” by Oskar Kokoschka. The canvas was painted between January and July 1950, in oil and tempera on canvas, for Count Antoine Seilern’s entrance hall ceiling at 56 Princes Gate, South Kensington. Seilern, an Austrian émigré, had met Kokoschka in London during World II; both were escaping Nazi oppression and sharing a passion for art. After the war, Princes Gate became a hub for scholars, and Kokoschka wanted this work to echo the Baroque grandeur of Rubens and Tiepolo, who were key pieces in Seilern’s collection.
Kokoschka’s brushwork is turbulent, with plunging perspectives that pull you into the scene, countering the cold rationality he saw in contemporary abstract art. At the heart of the triptych lies a dramatic vision of the biblical Apocalypse. Flanking it, the left panel shows Persephone escaping from Hades, while the right panel depicts Prometheus’s punishment. Together, they warn against humanity’s intellectual arrogance—a message sharpened by the recent horrors of WWII, which convinced Kokoschka that civilization had lost compassion in the chase for technological progress.
This piece is a powerful reminder that art can still open society’s eyes to the looming crises that threaten our humanity and civilisation.
See it in person
Triptych - Prometheus hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
