
Asleep in the Sarcophagus in Christ Church, Spitalfields
<p>This startling image of a man sleeping in a coffin was taken by Bill Brandt during the Blitz, a German bombing campaign against London during World War II. Brandt was a talented documentary photographer known for night photography, whose work appeared in British periodicals and his own books, such as A Night in London (1938). He was recruited by Britain’s Ministry of Information to document civilians sheltering from air raids. While many sought shelter in the subway tunnels of the London Underground, Brandt’s photograph attests to the use of even eerier subterranean spaces.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1940
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image/paper: 22.9 × 19.3 cm (9 1/16 × 7 5/8 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Bill Brandt
Artist

Photography
Bill Brandt was a British photographer and photojournalist. Born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his images of British society for such magazines as Lilliput and Picture Post; later he made distorted nudes, portraits of famous artists and landscapes. He is widely considered to be one of the most important British photographers of the 20th century.
Full artist profile →More
More by Bill Brandt
South Kensington, London
1979 · Gelatin silver print
East Sussex Coast
1979 · Gelatin silver print
Nude, Hampstead
1979 · Gelatin silver print
South Kensington, London
1979 · Gelatin silver print
Robert Graves
1978 · Gelatin silver print
East Sussex Coast
1978 · Gelatin silver print
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Bill Brandt
- Year
- 1940
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image/paper: 22.9 × 19.3 cm (9 1/16 × 7 5/8 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1940-142469
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





