Matthew Sperling reviews Christopher Wood: Sophisticated Primitive at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, on view through October 2, 2016.

Sperling writes: “Not many figurative painters are as often described as ‘lyrical’ as the Englishman Christopher Wood (1901–30)… It is obvious what is roughly meant by the description ‘lyrical’ or ‘poetic’: it speaks of the freshness and spontaneity in Wood’s vision, the joyful openness to sea air, first in Cornwall, then Brittany, and the enraptured, almost childish intensity of emotion and perception that comes from his best paintings.”