Code: 10490
Dimensions:
'Má Vlást' 2019 oil on stretched canvas 1650 x 2135mm Peter Howson (born 1958) OBE, signed and dated '19 to lower left. The first image is of the finished painting, the second is the preparatory work for the painting and the third is Peter working on the painting.
'Má Vlast' “My Homeland” painted by Peter Howson in 2019 is a powerful and deeply unsettling vision of Britain at a moment of political and social fracture. Created during the height of the Brexit crisis, the painting reflects Howson’s growing concern about nationalism, extremism, and the collapse of social cohesion. Rather than presenting patriotism as noble or unifying he depicts a homeland consumed by anger, tribalism, and moral confusion.
The composition is crowded with distorted, muscular figures wrapped in Union Jack imagery, surging violently through a burning urban landscape. Their exaggerated bodies and grimacing faces make them appear less like individuals than embodiments of collective rage and fear. Among them appears an 'EDL' armband, directly invoking far-right street nationalism, while skulls, debris, and fire suggest a society sliding toward destruction.
At the centre of the painting’s symbolism lies the torn European Union flag, which far from being incidental, acts as a visual statement about Britain’s rupture with Europe and the emotional violence surrounding Brexit. The contrast is stark: British nationalism is worn aggressively on the bodies of the figures, while the European symbol lies ripped apart beneath them, however, Howson does not present this destruction as triumph but rather the opposite with the figures themselves looking grotesque and spiritually damaged, suggesting that the rejection of shared identity has unleashed something dangerous and self-destructive.
The title Má Vlast references Bedřich Smetana’s famous patriotic Czech symphonic cycle celebrating homeland and national identity. Howson deliberately subverts that romantic tradition presenting his 'homeland' not as harmonious or heroic, but fractured and unstable - a nation turning against itself.
The biblical phrase 'Mene Mene Tekel Parsin' ~ the writing on the wall ~ from the Book of Daniel, where the words foretell the downfall of a corrupt kingdom that has lost its moral balance. Here, Howson, transforms the painting from political commentary into something broader and more apocalyptic: a vision of a society consumed by division, hostility, and the loss of compassion all of which deepens the sense of warning.
Seen in the context of Howson’s public concerns during the Brexit years - including fears that division could tear apart the United Kingdom itself - Má Vlast emerges not as a partisan statement, but as a lament and a warning. It is a painting that clearly highlights what happens when identity hardens into tribalism and patriotism becomes detached from humanity.
