THOMAS DE KEYSER

In a time before mass produced imagery, a painting served as both aesthetic form and, often, advertising. When Thomas de Keyser was commissioned by the guild of Goldsmiths, responsible for ensuring the quality of raw material and products of the cities metal workers, there were certain requirements that the portrait had to meet. It was to be hung in the guildhall, and immediately visible to all customers and members, often as a first impression. It’s purpose then was to communicate immediately and effectively the authority, professionalism, and trustworthiness of the syndics who ran the guild. Set against a black background, and with each subject staring directly at the viewer, the work is an invitation towards them, the open hand of the seated man almost ushering us further into the building. The men clasp various tools of the trade, signalling a practiced knowledge of their work, and are depicted from a slightly lowered angle to emphasise their authority. Yet for all of its utility, it remains a most beautiful work, delicately rendered and dramatically composed. Its function does not overpower, no undermine, its aesthetic value.

JEAN-BAPTISTE LE PRINCE

A whole story is told in a single frame, a narrative unfolds through clues that deepen with each further look. A woman reclines in anything but calm, her nightdress dishevelled and open to reveal her skin underneath. A dog jumps in excitement out of frame, as if excited to see a familiar face unknown to the viewer. Two cups and a cafetière sit on the table, but only one figure exists in the scene. A chair lies tipped on the ground as if knocked over in a hasty retreat. Le Prince titilates us with every element of this painting, giving us just enough information to piece together a narrative but never so much as to be confident in our version of the story. We know an interruption has occurred, though not by who. We can assume a male suitor who was not meant to be in the boudoir of the central character has recently left the scene, just as another, more familiar to her, has entered. It is intriguing and amusing in equal measure, and an extraordinary example of Boudoir Paintings that were popular at this time. Giving the viewer a glimpse behind the curtain into the private lives of women, these paintings were playful in nature but radical in their free depictions of sexuality and the lack of shame or judgement associated with it.

GEORGE TOOKER

Tooker told stories of anxiety. He became, and remains, known for paintings of claustrophobic urbanity, cubicled domestic life, and labyrinthine liminal spaces populated by the seemingly trapped city dweller. His images are often surreal, always disquieting, and filled with a profoundly modern sense of dread. Save, that is, for Meadow I. Painted in the aftermath of his mother’s death when the painter was racked with grief and loneliness, he moved his visual language out of the metropolitan and into the pastoral. The work speaks directly to Renaissance religious works, not only in the parallel he draws between himself and his mother to Joseph and Mary weeping at the crucifixion of Christ but also in the very medium itself. Using a 17th century technique of egg tempera, he painstakingly applied fast drying homemade paint over months to create a scene of misery and calm. Painting became, in this instance, a process of grieving for Tooker - a respite from his pain that existed not only in his self but in the paintings he normally produced were replaced with a meditation of rural beauty.