THEME

Bicycles

These are motifs that seem to compel attention by their frequency. Bicycles even in the age of the motor car are still everywhere. But the most poignant is the soldier struggling to save his bike from the sea in D-Day, Beach Landing. Ladders are instruments of humour or a certain significance: “The Shroud”.

D-Day, Reconstruction - Beach Landing (1944)

This shows the grim determination of the soldiers crawling or striding out of the sea onto the beach. One of them is almost stuck, hindered by the awkward weight of his bicycle as he heaves it out of the sea. The picture is a panorama-shape but the shapes of the men fill the vertical space making the scene more dramatic.