Figurehead c. 1939

Helen E. Gilman made this gouache painting, called ‘Figurehead,’ on paper. I find myself wondering about the act of depicting an object that itself depicts someone—the layers of representation at play! Gilman’s rendering of this ‘Lord Percy’ has such a direct, honest quality. What was she thinking as she mixed her colours to match the original sculpture? Did she feel the weight of history? I get the sense that she was more interested in the here and now, the visual facts in front of her. Notice the red outline along the base of the crown. I can imagine Gilman carefully applying this pigment, making deliberate decisions about where to thicken the line and where to let it fade away. It's this kind of attention to detail that brings the image alive, and it makes me think about the quiet conversations artists have with each other across time.