Prunella Clough enjoyed an international reputation as one of the most consistent and inventive female British painters. This work dates from the 1950s when she turned to the urban landscape of factories and wastelands for inspiration. The shapes of cooling towers and pylons become the framework for a composition of lines and tones scraped back and erased to the bare bones. Describing her work she said:

'I like paintings that say a small thing rather edgily'.