Graham Sutherland was a British artist. His career began in the 1920s and 30s as a printmaker, producing etchings and lithographs of dark, romantic landscapes. Working in print gave him a strong understanding of structure, rhythm and composition, skills that carried through when he turned to watercolour and, by the 1940s, to oil painting. The landscapes he painted on the Pembrokeshire coast — organic, intense and unmistakably personal — marked a turning point in British modern art and established his reputation.

After the Second World War, France became increasingly important to his life and work. In 1955, Sutherland and his wife Kathleen bought Tempe à Pailla in Menton, a house designed by the modernist architect Eileen Gray. The Mediterranean light and landscape influenced his use of colour and space, bringing a subtle shift in his work. 

Alongside painting, Sutherland continued to value printmaking as a serious artistic practice, working with Fernand Mourlot in Paris on lithographs and posters, including commissions for the French Tourist Board, which helped his work reach a wider international audience.