Since this blog is now The Illustrated Nige, here's a Sickert that caught my eye the other day in Tate Britain. I think it must have been hung quite recently, as I'd never spotted it before. The reproduction here (to go by what's on my screen) is too blue. On the canvas, it's a stunning picture to see, with that off-centre composition, the masterly brushwork, and the bittersweet evocation of the indignity of old age still forlornly in thrall to the pleasures of youth. The Latin epigraph is from Ovid, its gist being that love, like war, is a young man's game. Sickert was 70 when he painted it. What a painter - and it's good to see his critical stock is steadily rising now.
Hmm that's odd - seems you have to click on the little cross...
ReplyDeleteNige, you should read "Starting Out in the Evening" by Brian Morton. Great novel, on the theme of this painting.
ReplyDeleteGive us all a clue Nige.
ReplyDeleteAh, I see what you've done Nige. You've tried to insert a picture but then pasted the address of the page on which the picture resides rather than the address of the picture itself.
ReplyDeleteYou merely need to point at the picture on the gallery page, right click (assuming you're on a PC) and Copy Image Location (if you're using Firefox). That's the address you then past into your Insert Image box.
If you need any help, feel free to ask. You have my email address and I'm always around. Looking for somebody to talk to now the series has finished and I haven't got anything to do. Or anybody to talk to...
Sigh...
And that little red hat just lifts it. But for my money, nobody did the pathos of old age better than Rembrandt.
ReplyDeleteWoohoo - done it! Thanks Dick. couldn't sort out the door of my understair cupboard while you're at it, could you? Have to use a bread knife to prise it open...
ReplyDelete