Madam Le Brun came to Royal Court after her art-dealer husband had gambled away her earnings and it was rumoured that she used every avenue possible to get ahead even possibly carrying on a long-standing affair with the Finance Minister of France. I guess if you’re going to have an affair, it may as well be with the person who has the keys to the Royal Treasury!

It was about this time, however, that Lebrun was given the almighty task of trying to humanise the promiscuous Marie-Antoinette and portray to the French people that she was actually a devoted wife and mother. It was widely rumoured that none of the children were actually fathered by the King, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette was the epitome of excess; she loved the high life and as we know it was this extravagance and mindset that would eventually be her undoing. Le Brun would paint a total of 30 portraits for Marie-Antoinette and the royal family.. so it seems she definitely earned her keep!

In this painting; Marie-Antoinette is pictured with her 3 children. The prince, Louis-Joseph, brings our attention to an empty cradle and to the child that Marie-Antoinette had lost in infancy… this was hopefully to garner sympathy and respect for the Queen that she too – like so many mothers at the time – knew the sorrow of losing a child. The princess, Marie Therese Charlotte, looks adoringly at her mother and the two boys are adorned with the colours of the French Royal family. It was a great PR stunt by all involved – although we all know that the public didn’t really buy into the story and the rest, as they say, is history.

When the Revolution broke out in 1789 – Lebrun, with her daughter Julie, fled France disguised as a working woman and exiled herself in Italy & Russia where she gained popularity by painting a number of important portraitures and immersing herself into the society of each country. She was vigorously condemned in France though and hailed a “Royal Sympathiser” for her association with Marie Antoinette & Versailles before the Revolution. It was finally in 1802 that she regained her citizenship and was allowed to return to her homeland.

I don’t know about you – but I think she’s a fascinating woman – she supported herself and her daughter (and most of the men in her life) financially and lived with such vigour that she definitely deserves the attention she received as a painter and as a bad-ass modern woman. She’s also a pretty damned fine artist.

#respect

The painting features a man in an overcoat with a bowler hat standing in front of a low wall that overlooks the ocean. The mans face is hiding behind a large green apple – however, if you look closely you can just make out the man’s eyes peeking over the edge of the apple. Another bizarre feature is the fact that the mans left arm appears to bend backwards at the elbow creating an unnatural and slightly off-kilter body position.

According to Magritte himself, the painting represents the conflict between the hidden and the visible. He states

“Everything we see hides another thing….. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.”

Breaking this down – I love the statement that “Everything we see hides another thing” so while we’re busy focusing on what is in front of us – there is a whole other reality of things going on behind that we can never see because we’re occupied with what is directly in front of us. While we may try and peek out around the object(s) in front of us and maybe catch a glimpse of the broader picture – we are still tainted by the objects that obscure our view.

Or…. (as has also been suggested) Magritte just really wasn’t good at painting faces… so he stuck an apple in front of the man’s face to make life easier for himself!

This is one of many pictures that Magritte painted with the face obscured. Some have meaningfully traced this back to the fact that his mother drowned herself in the river close by their house while he was still a child and as they pulled her from the water, her face was covered with her dress and it was this image that made such an indelible mark in Magritte’s mind that he used it in his later work.

As it happened Perseus (the hero who had just come from beheading Medusa) happened to pass by Andromeda chained to the rock and killed the sea monster before it could hurt Andromeda. He set Andromeda free and later married her.

“When Perseus saw the princess, her arms chained to the hard rock, he would have taken her for a marble statue, had not the light breeze stirred her hair, and warm tears streamed from her eyes. Without realizing it, he fell in love. Amazed at the sight of such rare beauty, he stood still in wonder, and almost forgot to keep his wings moving in the air. As he came to a halt, he called out: “You should not be wearing such chains as these–the proper bonds for you are those which bind the hearts of fond lovers! Tell me your name, I pray, and the name of your country, and why you are in chains.”

When Andromeda died she was placed among the constellations in the northern sky – she is represented as a figure of a woman with her arms outstretched and chained at the wrists.

Gustav Doré was a prolific artist and is probably best remembered for his illustration work for books such as Danté’s Divine Comedy. He produced over 100,000 sketches in his lifetime which averaged out to be about 6 sketches per day for every day he lived. He was self-taught and reportedly never used live models. He lived with his mother his whole life and when she passed away, its said he lost the will to live and died at the early age of 50.

He painted this beautiful picture in 1869.

The model for the artwork is largely credited to Dorothy Dene (aka Ada Pullen) a British actress who quite possibly was having a romantic relationship with Leighton just before he died. She was his principal model for the last decade of his life and he ended up leaving the equivalent of £1 million (in today’s money) in a trust for Dorothy and her 3 sisters. (Sidenote: the 4 sisters names were: Ada, Hetty, Edith & Lena – their parents were genius… all-time favourite collection of sisters names ever!)

Dorothy is said to be tall, have large violet eyes and a flawless complexion. Leighton was supportive of her acting career – even paying for her to have elocution and drama lessons. In fact, its rumoured that George Bernard Shaw used Leighton and Dorothy’s relationship as the basis for the characters of Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (Aka: My Fair Lady)

All of this put together makes Flaming June an interesting piece – however there’s even more to this story! After the painting was finished it became part of a private collection and then somehow ended up at a shop on Fulham Road in the early 1960’s with a $50 price tag on it (!!) – a young Andrew Lloyd Webber happened to be in the shop one day and spotted the artwork and wanted to buy it – he went back to his grandmother to ask to borrow the £50 and she promptly refused quoting:

“I will not have Victorian junk in my flat”

It was later bought by an art dealer and confirmed as an original and now resides in the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico. Webber has since offered £6m to buy it off the museum but has been very politely refused.

As recently as last year – another piece of the Flaming June puzzle was put together, with the discovery of a pencil and chalk head study of Flaming June uncovered in a closed up room of a recently deceased Duchess. The piece was sold for an estimated $135,000 pounds after being ‘heart-stoppingly’ discovered hanging behind a door in a small antechamber room used by servants just off the Duchess’ bedroom.

Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. It was well known that he was a quiet introverted man who painted “ short isolated moments, saturated with suggestion” and this painting, The Automat, is dripping with suggestion.

We have a girl – a fashionable and well-dressed girl – who sits quietly with her hat pulled low and seems tired and pensive. And even though there are presumably other people in the restaurant (automat’s were generally a busy place to be) she is totally alone from the perspective we are viewing it from. The window behind her shows nothing but darkness and the reflective lights give a tunnel effect of leading to nowhere. This lonely solitary moment is caught in time. Hopper has challenged us to make up our own story about this girl – what is happening in her life that has drawn her to this moment – to be so alone yet almost distracted (note that she has removed one glove only).

Though the painting is a solitary painting, its not a sad painting. The colour scheme is comforting, there is a certain warmth to it, and while there are parts that make you feel uncomfortable, (eg: the too bright legs intentionally making the viewer into a voyeur) I think its a painting that you can view over and over and get something new from it every time depending on how you are feeling.

“If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint-– Edward Hopper.”

What do you think of this painting and more importantly, RU OK? Its OK not to be, but please make sure you tell someone and start the conversation. Its not the load that breaks you down, its how you carry it.