Station of the Cross No. 10: "Jesus is Stripped of His Garments" c. 1936

Geoffrey Holt created "Station of the Cross No. 10: "Jesus is Stripped of His Garments,"" using watercolour. The work is striking for its spatial arrangement, which seems to collapse foreground and background. This flattening effect creates a sense of immediacy, pulling the viewer into the scene. Note the composition, bisected by the figure of Christ, whose body, daubed with red, is a focal point amidst a crowd rendered in flat, almost cartoonish forms. Holt’s rendering nods to medieval modes of representation, yet it avoids any sense of historical pastiche. The faces, with their simplified features, resist psychological depth. They function more as signs within a symbolic order. The artist uses colour to underscore this, employing bold contrasts that disrupt any illusion of naturalism. Ultimately, Holt uses the formal elements of the painting to underscore a profound sense of alienation. The viewer is left to question the systems—social, religious, or aesthetic—that produce and perpetuate such scenes.