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In the early 1980s, archaeologists began excavating a medieval burial ground on the site of the old royal mint in East Smithfield, London. The skeletons uncovered were the remains of more than two and a half thousand Londoners, all victims of the Black Death that decimated the city’s population in 1348–50. The burial ground was opened specifically to cope with this epidemic with each body being buried in a narrow grave in row after row. Hambling saw a photograph of the excavations in a newspaper and made this large canvas in response to that powerful image, later describing it as a pivotal painting in her career that took death as its explicit subject. As she once put it: "You can fight against the inevitability of death or you can accept it. I think it’s a mistake to ignore it. The greatest art has always been about life and death."

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2020

In the early 1980s, archaeologists began excavating a medieval burial ground on the site of the old royal mint in East Smithfield, London. The skeletons uncovered were the remains of more than two and a half thousand Londoners, all victims of the Black Death that decimated the city’s population in 1348–50. The burial ground was opened specifically to cope with this epidemic with each body being buried in a narrow grave in row after row. Hambling saw a photograph of the excavations in a newspaper and made this large canvas in response to that powerful image, later describing it as a pivotal painting in her career that took death as its explicit subject. As she once put it: “You can fight against the inevitability of death or you can accept it. I think it’s a mistake to ignore it. The greatest art has always been about life and death.”

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016