Description
Signed, signed and dated 1967 verso, oil on board
Dimensions
122cm x 91cm (48in x 36in)
Footnote
Note: John Bellany's work is characterised by a heavy use of symbolism. For his collectors, part of the pleasure - and frustration! - is that much is left unexplained, meaning viewers must content themselves with conjecture and head-scratching. While a lot of the embedded symbolism references his own personal visual language, rooted in the folklore of the fishing villages of Scotland's east coast, he occasionally also alludes to traditional art historical themes and motifs.
This work of 1967 is from a period where direct portraiture and characterisation played a larger role in his oeuvre. Though the motif of 'The Fish Wife' or 'Woman of the Sea' was to become a recurring theme, here we see the sitter represented as a distinct individual. Women played a big part in Bellany's life, from his grandmother to his wife Helen, and both were repeatedly represented or referenced in his work. This lady is neither of those figures and the likeness, whoever it may be, is deliberately caricaturish and entirely unsympathetic.
Two animals feature here: an extremely idiosyncratic rendering of a cat and a dog, both of which come loaded with art historical references. Cats, for example, have historically represented the easily angered or irritated; the fine line between the domesticated and the wild, anarchy and order. They are generally associated with temptation and the feminine. At the other end of the spectrum, dogs are traditionally symbolic of matrimonial fidelity, loyalty, and the masculine.
In this painting, both play differing but distinct roles. The tiny, effete lapdog is contained in the sitter's grasp, dominated by her much larger form. The cat meanwhile moves freely in the foreground, making aggressive eye contact and hissing at the viewer.