Circe and Anatol 1926

Robert Lewis Reid painted Circe and Anatol with oils, although when it was created, I couldn’t tell you. What strikes me about this piece is the way Reid blends figures into the decorative background. There's a flattening effect, where the bodies and objects become part of this tapestry of colour and shape. You can see that particularly around the edges of the figure on the right, where there’s this melding of flesh and floral decoration. The paint is applied in layers, in certain areas you can see these expressive strokes of colour—soft blues and ochres. The texture is built up, and these tactile qualities give the painting a real physical presence. The crane in the background almost feels stencilled, or embossed. You get the impression that Reid wasn’t necessarily aiming for perfect representation. Instead, he was after something more subjective—something more felt. For me, it has echoes of Whistler’s aestheticism. It’s that search for beauty, the idea of art for art’s sake. It’s all about visual poetry and the endless possibilities of form and colour.