Josef Herman Drawings

The great British realist painter Josef Herman portrays working men - coal-miners in Wales, grape-harvesters in Burgundy, Portuguese fishermen and farm laborers. He gives man's immemorial struggle for existence the quality of an epic. His form is simple and monumental, his drawing, as he says himself, 'true to experience rather than observation.' His subject, the immense dignity of the manual laborer in contact with the realities of nature, is a dying one in an age of automation; and the film mirrors the epic quality of his work. There is no narration. This is a film which proves that it is up to individuals to feel what is great in art rather than simply to accept the opinions of others.

'With his violent pen and brush it is a visual triumph of labor. The director has deliberately chosen the rhythm of the laborer and the effect is monumental.' UNESCO

For more information see section 28