How one work of art can give rise to another
If you’d like to know more about my novel, Berlin Vertigo, inspired by Lotte Lasterstein’s painting, visit my website.
I’ve loved this painting for more than 20 years. I first saw it on the front cover of a text book I was studying at college and I was immediately enthralled. I was studying philosophy at the time, the image presumably chosen to capture something of the pleasures and difficulties of being alive and full of pressing questions.
I managed to lay my hands on a print of the painting and tacked the image to my study wall. Later, I took…
Examples of compositional energy in art
When a painting is successful, it tends to achieve on certain fundamental levels. The best word to use that captures one of the most important aspects is rhythm.
We tend to associate rhythm with music, or more broadly with anything that has a temporal basis — something that exists over time. Most pieces of music have rhythm. So do poems, novels and films, although their rhythmic patterns may be less easy to tap along to.
Paintings have rhythms too: the idea I’m thinking of is how our experience of a painting occurs over a period of time, and it is…
The tragic heroine who ate a forbidden fruit
This figure represents Proserpine (known as Persephone to the Greeks), daughter of Ceres (also known as Demeter — goddess of agriculture). Here Proserpine holds a pomegranate in her hand, from which she has taken a single bite and in doing so has secured her fate as a prisoner of the Underworld.
What initially draws my eye in Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s depiction of Proserpine is the awkward way she clutches the wrist of her left hand with the fingers of her right. Her arms are drawn across her front in a protective gesture, and the hands link together almost as if…
How to read The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard
At the very heart of this painting is an act of voyeurism. As the original title of this painting makes clear, The Happy Accidents of the Swing, the sweetest pleasure depicted in this painting is supposed to be of a man looking up a woman’s dress.
Everything about the painting is lavish and overgrown. In the verdant grounds of a country estate, the scene is set where the elite of society can role-play as shepherds or milkmaids. The woman is wearing a bergère hat — a shepherdess’ bonnet, and a flowing dress as she swings through the air. Behind her…
If I can’t work at my own pace, then there’s no point to it
The way it happens is subtle. You think you are doing yourself a favour. All those articles that tell you that you need to be producing volumes and volumes of work in order to succeed.
The impact is to courage you to feel perpetually left behind. No matter how hard you work, the sensation is one of constantly trying to catch up. You cannot relax as you used to do because relaxing has turned into a waste of time. Minutes must be used; hours can’t be left just to slip by.
And in this way, the distant plans you have…
Reawakening the pleasure of wandering
Years ago, when I was in my early 20s and scratching my head about what to do with my life, I took a job in a local government office in the town next to mine. Since I had barely enough money to pay my rent, let alone buy a car, I used to walk to and from the job everyday.
It wasn’t far, but it wasn’t close either. I walked 3 miles each morning and 3 miles back home each evening. It took 45 minutes from door to door. Whatever the weather, I walked everyday.
After a few weeks, I…
A powerful image of ageing and personal loss that eludes any concrete reading
When an artist depicts their own image, it is not a typical portrait they undertake. The attention to facial details is charged with a new concern: not merely depiction but representation. With a self-portrait, the artist must play two roles when normally they play just one. They must look and describe; they must also consider the effect of the work on their own reputation.
Many artists have chosen to offer self-portraits as a way of shaping their public image. …
A portrait of wealth containing an allegory of moral judgement
At the very centre of this painting, a woman holds a pair of weighing scales in one hand. She is finely dressed in a fur-lined jacket. On the table before her is an open box overflowing with pieces of jewellery made of pearls and gold, along with a bundle of richly-coloured blue cloth.
The woman is obviously wealthy. She adopts a contemplative expression as she judges the weight — and therefore value — of each item of jewellery. It is possible to detect a delicate smile on her lips as she does so, perhaps a look of satisfaction at the…
Myths of writers and artists that go back centuries
Here are a few clichés about writers and artists: they are guided by destiny to become who they are meant to be. They suffer because they are poor. They are inspired by nature. They are admirable and yet dangerous. They have great teachers but their greatness can’t be taught. They are independent thinkers. Diligence and labour only take them so far, since inspiration is the vital spark. They retain control over their work but they also surrender to it too. They love freely, believe passionately, and think without conventional boundaries. …
From the sublime to the mysterious, a keystone movement in art history
If you’ve ever wondered where we get so many of our ideals about art and artists — from the bohemian poet to the passionate artist inspired by nature — then it’s worth looking to the era of Romanticism for answers.
With its emphasis on individual subjectivity, the Romantic movement valued feeling and imagination more than imposed conventions and standards. …
