McCahon's work was difficult to sell and was often ridiculed when it was exhibited. The religious paintings in particular attracted derisory comments from critics such as A.R.D. Fairburn who described them as being like graffiti on the walls of some celestial lavatory.
Formerly in the collection of Charles Brasch, this painting was reproduced in Landfall, the literary magazine he edited and used to help promote artistic reputations. Very few understood the painters need to map the relationship between man and his God as John Caselberg describes it, but without their crucial support McCahon would not have continued painting into the 1950s and beyond.
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