About this work
As a young man Leonard French worked as a signwriter to support his studio art. When he received the commission in 1963 to make the stained-glass ceiling for the new National Gallery of Victoria designed by Roy Grounds, he became one of the best known artists in the country. Death and transfiguration, with its theme from the gospels, is an early example of his exploration of materials and form. The painting reads as two figures – Christ lying with his head to left, then rising, with arms outstretched, through the top of the canvas.