Artwork
Going Home
Going Home is a print by Leon Kossoff. It dates from 1984 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Kossoff, a British figurative artist, often drew London life and faces.
This 1984 print by Leon Kossoff shows a quiet scene of return. Kossoff, a British figurative artist, often drew London life and faces. His prints dig deep into line and mark-making, not color.
His etchings weren’t meant to copy Old Masters. Instead, he used them to explore how a line can hold weight or feeling. He reworked plates over and over, chasing the right feel.
Kossoff’s prints live at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Overview
Leon Kossoff’s 1984 print titled “Going Home” captures a subdued moment within Kilburn Underground Station. Executed as an etching, the work relies on dense, gestural lines rather than colour, reflecting the artist’s lifelong focus on the physicality of mark‑making in depictions of everyday London.
Subject & Meaning
The composition presents commuters in a quiet, transitional space, suggesting the routine of return journeys. By emphasizing the architecture of the station and the silhouettes of figures, Kossoff conveys a sense of collective movement while preserving the anonymity of individual passengers.
Technique & Style
Kossoff approached the print as a draughtsman, repeatedly reworking the copper plate to refine line quality. Multiple states of the proof survive, evidencing his practice of revisiting the image even after an edition had been struck, a method that aligns him with contemporaries such as Frank Auerbach and Lucian Freud.
History & Provenance
Created in 1984, the print entered the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it remains part of the institution’s holdings of Kossoff’s graphic work. The plate was printed in collaboration with studio printer Marc Balakjian, whose expertise supported Kossoff’s meticulous revisions.
Context
Kossoff’s printmaking echoed his broader artistic investigations, particularly his 1998 series of etchings after Old Masters. In those works he stripped colour from canonical compositions to focus on line, a concern that also informs the stark, monochrome treatment of “Going Home.”
Artist & collection
Artist
Leon Kossoff (10 December 1926 – 4 July 2019) was a British figurative painter known for portraits, life drawings and cityscapes of London, England.
