Dimensions: support: 354 x 302 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Helen Lessore | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Helen Lessore's oil on canvas work offers us a striking, intimate portrayal in "Portrait of David Wilkie." Editor: The coloring immediately strikes me – a sickly green and pink that unsettlingly hints at mortality and perhaps speaks to wider anxieties around aging and representation. Curator: Lessore uses color here to create a kind of emotional iconography, reflecting Wilkie's spirit. The upward gaze perhaps speaks to a longing or expectation. Editor: Or maybe it suggests the limited scope available to men of his class during that era. His profile, while dignified, hints at societal constraints, doesn't it? Curator: Indeed, a face that’s both individual and reflective of something greater. Editor: It reminds me of the weight of historical expectations. I leave feeling a sense of melancholic reflection, as if glimpsing a moment in time.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lessore-portrait-of-david-wilkie-t06767
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This portrait by Helen Lessore is of David Wilkie, an English art collector who died in 1992. Wilkie bought his first painting in 1956 and from the outset was drawn to the work of contemporary British figurative painters. He subsequently assembled an outstanding collection which included works by such artists as Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, John Lessore and Winifred Nicholson. It was Wilkie's wish that after his death certain works in his collection be offered to public galleries. Accordingly, in 1992 the Tate Gallery accepted fifteen paintings from Wilkie's collection. All these works are now on show in the display 'The Wilkie Gift' in room 30. (closes 31 August) Gallery label, September 2004
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