Force and Reason 1939

John Duncan’s ‘Force and Reason’ presents us with a nude figure, vulnerable yet defiant, facing down the implacable gaze of a sphinx. I wonder what it was like to paint this, balancing the allegorical weight with the sheer physicality of the figures. Did Duncan labour over the man’s form, trying to capture some essence of humanity's potential? Or did the artist relish painting the sphinx, a guardian figure where animal power meets human intellect, all the while negotiating the picture plane? The palette is earthy, as if the scene has emerged from the landscape itself. Look at the way the light falls, softening edges and creating a sense of mystery. It’s a negotiation between light and shadow, just as the figures are locked in a tense dialogue. Painters are always in conversation with one another, with the past. Duncan channels classical mythology, but filters it through his own sensibility, creating something timeless yet deeply personal. It’s in these moments of exchange that painting truly comes alive.