Works: Painters' Crime Scenes
What the painter saw. And what the painter thought.
In her painting of an 18th century drawing room, Laura references Hogarth’s painting ‘The Lady’s Last Stake’ painted at the time of the enclosures by Act of Parliament. The protagonists have been removed leaving the viewer to consider their absence, the setting and the view out the window. It is the proprietorial view, that of the land owning aristocracy, whose decadence led them to dress as peasants and act out pastoral fantasy. Painting an incongruous white outline, Laura has turned this painting into a crime scene. What is the crime?
Continuing the crime scene series, Laura’s attention has turned to look at the landowners themselves and their relationship to the landscape they were so fond of having themselves painted in. The story behind Gainsborough’s well-known portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews is of an arranged marriage and familial financial opportunism. Gainsborough himself was more interested in the landscape. Laura is interested in what Gainsborough really thought about his sitters.
From left to right:
- Hogarth crime scene. Oil on canvas 2010 40 x 50 cm
- WIP: Gainsborough crime scene. Oil on canvas 2010 70 x 120 cm
- Millais crime scene. Oil on canvas 2010 30 x 40 cm