What is it about that painting? Ethel Bartlett
Portrait of Ethel Bartlett by Laura Knight
Spending time in galleries for me includes a lot of staring at paintings that I’m drawn to and wondering why I like them. Less just enjoying it and more analysing why. I’m sure that’s not just me. Hence why I’m going to share some thoughts about some paintings I’ve stared at before.
I’m no art critic. In fact if I have any regrets, one might be that I didn’t do art history at university. But hey maybe I wasn’t ready. After I got told off for tracing in year eight art, art probably wasn’t destined for my academic agenda. I definitely liked standing and staring at paintings even then though. So I may not discuss the paint-strokes or use of oils, or what year it was painted and how it comments on such and such. I’m more interested in how it makes me feel. And in turn interested in if you agree.
Next up, a piece I saw at MK Gallery, a space I’m so grateful to have close to me. Their exhibition space transforms every few months and a while ago Dame Laura Knight’s work was the main event.
This painting, a portrait of Ethel Bartlett, a pianist I later found out, caught my eye as I wandered around the exhibition and I wanted to move on in. I think it was the contrast between the background and her figure that probably drew me in, her pose therefore standing out more from a distance. Her facial expression hit me next. Because I was trying to figure it out. What she was thinking, where she was looking. There’s a warmth to it. She’s smiling, but it’s not a laugh, it’s not a strong reaction. Perhaps she is listening to someone else speak, or maybe she is just looking into the middle distance. Whatever is going on, the point is, it’s a composed and calm stance. Maybe even absentminded, the way the hand rests on the other. Making me think perhaps there is no one in her gaze. She’s just contemplating. God we don’t do enough of that do we, when I say we, I mean us worker bees in the UK. Staring out the window frowned upon. Pointless and inefficient. ‘Away with the fairies’, ‘Day-dreaming’, as if that’s the most unproductive and wasteful thing you could do.
As much as I go on about her pose being so relaxed, there’s also undoubtedly a purposeful elegance to her appearance. Hair glossy, earrings gold and not particularly small either. Her dress even suggests an event, is she getting ready to perform or is this just what she wears to practice or contemplate on a regular day? If it’s the latter I think I love her more. Because I do love her. I want to talk to her, hoping she’ll be as thoughtful and interesting as I imagine.
Whenever I see portraits like this I find my mind wandering to construct a whole narrative around them. Where they live, what they do day-to-day, how they hold themselves in the world. I find myself wanting to know more. That’s surely something all art is aiming for. For us to want to know more, to be curious and interested. Well Dame Laura, you got me.
This work is a portrait of Ethel Bartlett by Laura Knight.
Taken from the Tate website:
“Dame Laura Knight (4 August 1877 – 7 July 1970) was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and dry-point. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition, who embraced English Impressionism. In her long career, Knight was among the most successful and popular painters in Britain. Her success in the male-dominated British art establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for women artists.”
