WHAT THE PAINTER SAW
Gainsborough Property Crime, 2009. Oil on canvas 69.8 × 119.4cm.
Learning from the traditions of painting and the politics hidden in old master paintings, this painting is a copy of Mr and Mrs Andrews made thinking about what the painter really saw. The original was painted by Thomas Gainsborough, around 1850. In my version, Mrs Frances Andrews is painted out, replaced with an imagined bench, true to the rococo style typical of the period. It is a portrait of Mr Robert with his land only. Land that he acquired from his child bride. Theirs was an arranged marriage, which as was customary, saw ownership of the young woman’s land pass to her husband. Her painted outline evidences a crime has taken place.