Brian Clarke’s ‘Imitations of Mortality’ series of two paintings is named after the poem by William Wordsworth from 1807, Ode: Intimations of Mortality, marked out by its irregular and shifting rhymes and styles.

Intimations of Mortality II is painted over Roman Triptych from the ‘Tivoli’ series of 1986. Clarke explains his practice of overpainting in his essay ‘Drawing on Architecture’, produced in the monograph Brian Clarke: Architectural Artist (1994):

‘I suppose about one-half of the paintings I make find their way out of the studio and the other half are painted over. I particularly like overpainting finished works as it gives me such rich grounds to play with.’