In 2016, Chris Gollon was experimenting with his own form of grisaille, a technique Breughel used in his last works, such as Death of the Virgin. Grisaille means using a very restricted palette, almost always black and white, sometimes with a touch of yellow or burn ochre.
Chris Gollon was a great colourist, and in this image perhaps of the morning after the night before, he chose to make his own grisaille, by using only black, white and burnt Sienna. In 2016, he made a short series of cover versions in grisaille of his own previous works, to experiment, very successfully with the technique. This painting is a version of his previous painting 'Morning', now in a private collection, and featured in Tamsin Pickeral's 2010 monograph 'Chris Gollon: Humanity in Art' (available in our gallery online shop).