Archives: Persephone Post

Another Portrait of a Lady, this one is 1551 and is at the National Gallery in London, which says ‘the sitter is probably from Antwerp in the Low Countries (modern Belgium) where the artist painted many similar portraits of women.’ Rationally one can see that Catharina van Hemessen is not Vermeer; and yet it is maddening that most of us will never have heard of her: we in fact only came across her because this article in Apollo sent us on a ‘women artists’ quest. The piece (by Lily Le Brun)  is full of shattering statistics, for example in 2012 ‘work by women artists made up three to five per cent of major permanent collections in the US and Europe.’ No! Can this be true?

Portrait of a Lady was painted between 1545 and 1554, the year Catharina van Hemessen married Chrétien de Morien, the organist at Antwerp Cathedral: after that she seems never to have painted again… The gesture of the unknown sitter, who plays with the ring on her left hand, suggests that the image is connected with a marriage or betrothal. This painting is now in the Bowes Museum.

Last week on the Post we had William Roberts, who is extraordinary and is certainly neglected. But hey, he was a man.  And although several of ‘our’ writers are men, really the Post should be celebrating subjects as close as possible to our central remit: neglected fiction by (mostly) women writers. So this week a neglected woman artist, although one from centuries and centuries ago – Catharina van Hemessen (1528 – after 1587)  was the earliest female Flemish painter for whom there is verifiable extant work, and is known for a series of small scale female portraits completed between the late 1540s and early 1550s. This self-portrait 1548 (when she was apparently only 20) ‘may be the first self-portrait of an artist at work at the easel, regardless of gender (Wikipedia). What a touching and memorable painting: the perspective of her torso slightly wonky, the beautiful red velvet sleeve – and her expression. She painted this more than four and a half centuries ago but we feel we know and understand her.

The Diners was painted by William Roberts in 1968. Many more of his paintings (more than seventy)  can be seen here.

Punting on the Cherwell was painted in 1939. It’s in the Jerwood Collection and is described here.

The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel 1915 was actually painted in 1951. Here is a useful piece explaining Vorticism. Although the painting says so much one hardly needs an explanation.

The Demolition Squad was painted in 1941 and is probably of Christopher Wren’s Christ Church Greyfriars in Newgate Street, which was virtually destroyed in the extremely severe raid on December 29 1940. All William Roberts work is catalogued by the William Roberts Society.

William Roberts was one of the unsung geniuses of British art. The range of his work, and the distinctiveness of his style, is extraordinary and should be celebrated far more than it is is. Here is an overview of his personality and his work which explains something of his genius. And today: a 1941 painting called The Control Room, it’s at the Salford  Art Gallery via PCF.

And the perfect reading in a holiday cottage – apart from a Persephone book that is. Stoneywell opened last month and will be very interesting viewing (even though described by Pevsner as self-consciously primitive’. It’s open every day but advance booking is essential (because it’s so small).

The perfect corner in the perfect holiday cottage. It’s funny to think that until the eighteenth century no one had ‘comfortable’ sofas or chairs. The cushions aren’t quite right but maybe they are temporary while the Trust sorts things out.