This piece is a response to the different representations of women inside the Pre Raphaelite galleries at Manchester Art Gallery. Having a young daughter I'm aware of the power and impact of how a woman is chosen to be represented. The idealised and sometimes over sexualised images of women by male artists is something the gallery curators have struggled with and tackled head on with the temporary removal of John William Waterhouses' Hylas and the Nymphs in 2018 despite these pre raphaelite works being the most famed works in the gallery's collection. In my painting my friend Emily is painted as an image of a contemporary woman looking at these representations from the past. Her gaze is locked with the striking painting of Sappho by Charles-Auguste Mengin.
- Subject Matter: Interior
- Created: July 2023
- Collections: Manchester