Provenance: given by the artist to Francis Greenacre (curator of the first retrospective exhibition of Peter Blake’s work held at the City Art Gallery, Bristol) in 1970. He later assisted in retrospectives at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in 1973, travelling to Hamburg, Brussels and Arnhem

In this monumental sheet Blake has worked out his initial ideas for a set of prints called Side Show which recall the popular entertainers, wrestlers and circus performers he remembered from his youth. Amongst the vignettes recorded on this sheet are Tattooed Lady, the Strongest Man in the World, Bearded Lady, Smallest Man in the World, Fat Lady and Thin Man. These ideas would culminate in the artist’s set of wood-engravings created in the period 1974-78 also called Side Show. This is considered to be one his most important works of graphic art with sets being held by the Metropolitan Museum of Fine and Art and MOMA in New York and the British Museum in London. Blake has written of these prints: “There’s a whole background to it, but really it’s a class thing, a working class thing. When I was a kid these were my interests – the fairgrounds, circuses, rock’n’roll. So, at a certain point in making art, when I had to make a decision about what to do, I thought, “be autobiographical ”.