Silent Partners - Esther

During lockdown my partner & I have said it many times. 

“Thank GOD we get on! Thank god we like each other. Thank god we’ve got stuff in common. Can you imagine how bad this would be without you?”     

We say “thank god” but we mean “well done us.” That we’ve maintained our relationship, taken care of it & looked after each other for well over twenty years; we’ve not taken the other for granted & we don’t row.

We know not everyone is in the same position.

It got me wondering about artists of the past & how they might have coped cooped up with their partners for over a year. Which remained in the shadows of their partner’s talents, who sacrificed their careers for the other? 

Egon Schiele, Portrait of Edith (the artist’s wife), 1915

Sadly we know exactly how Egon & Edith fared, both having been taken by the influenza pandemic that swept through Europe in 1918. They died within days of each other. In happier times, Egon painted this strikingly unusual portrait of his wife. It’s so ahead of its time in terms of his typically spare background & detailed patterning. Edith smiles sweetly for her husband in this sitting & presents the dress much more than herself, as if it was wearing her. There is nevertheless an awkward confidence in her pose, as if she has had to do this many times & knows the drill. One wonders whether she’d still be so keen if they were not newly coupled & had spent many years together already.

Gustav Klimt, Emilie Flöge, 1902

Another victim of the 1918 pandemic - which over three years infected a third of the world’s population - was Gustav Klimt, friend & mentor to Schiele. Here his partner Emilie Louise Flöge sits for him in one of his most well-known paintings. She wears a gown of her own design. She & her sister Helene founded their own highly successful fashion house producing dresses in the Reform style. This movement sought to develop less restrictive, looser, more practical & more comfortable clothing for women. At a time when the emancipation of women saw education, suffrage & emerging opportunities, the developments in fashion also extended to more practical underwear, albeit with close consideration given to the potential for the wearer’s embarrassment if it was too unseemly…

Francis Bacon, Portrait of George Dyer Talking, 1966

To say one senses a deep tension between the sitter & artist of this work would be an understatement. It seems unlikely the couple would have done well together during lockdown since theirs was an already turbulent relationship. Indeed, George Dyer struggled with severe depression & finally took his own life at 37. His vulnerability caused him to revel in Bacon’s fame & success to an extent where he allowed his personality to be consumed by it. In Bacon, Dyer’s death provoked guilt & a change in his emotional approach to some elements of his work. 

Salvador Dalí, Gala Placidia, Galatea of the Spheres, 1952

Gala features prominently in hundreds of Dalí’s works & in many guises. Though married to one of the most famous artists in the world, she was herself a writer, collaborator & shrewd businesswoman. She was single-minded about her privacy & distance in her relationship with Dalí, to the point of having her own home (frankly, a castle) nevertheless she recognised & nurtured talent in others throughout her life & in her relationships with artists, intellectuals & writers. As with all great muses, there are conflicting rumours, stories of rows & mysteries about her life.

James McBey, Marguerite, 1937

Marguerite McBey was a painter, bookbinder & photographer who also attracted & inspired the artists in her life. James depicts her as confident, beautiful & in the warm, glowing colours he associates with his beloved Morocco. Marguerite perhaps felt overwhelmed by her husband’s talents & achievements during his lifetime since she took up watercolours after his death & became an exhibited artist, as well as collaborating with others on book publishing. As gatekeeper of his legacy, she has ensured his work is seen across the world. 

Margaret Clarke, Harry Clarke on Inis Oírr, 1914

Margaret’s portraits of her husband, artist Harry Clarke depict him as the melancholy, worried type he surely - at times - was. She portrays his sensitivity & anxiety & reflects his lack of good health. Although with time Harry’s career has overshadowed hers, Margaret was considered by William Orpen to be one of his most gifted & promising pupils. One of her more esteemed commissions was that of political leader Éamon de Valera. That said, she was a practical & protective partner & it has been said that she & Harry lived well together as they both had traits the other lacked. 

John Byrne, Tilda Swinton, 1990

John Byrne has made several famed images of his then partner & they’re remarkable as a group in that they deal with so many different facets of what we might see as her personality. As an actress, Swinton is fascinating & peerless, turning her hand to the most unusual, varied & often more difficult roles. Byrne’s various portrayals of her come across as just that – less a sitter & more an actress. Even in this setting, she appears as a woman able to create different characters for herself. 

William Orpen, Lady Orpen, 1907

Here Lady Orpen sits in a traditional pose against an imagined stormy background, yet there’s a fond perhaps capricious spark about her expression. Similarly to many families during lockdown, the couple enjoyed dressing up & in this painting her get-up is perhaps not to be taken entirely seriously. Also like many locked-down couples, they did not remain together.

Alasdair Gray, Two Views of Inge, 1961

Another couple destined to part (in 1970), Inge was included in many of Alasdair Gray’s works. Gray would frequently record & respond to what & whoever was around him. The two different studies seem to show assorted sides of Inge’s personality, as well as investigating her features through drawing. 

Grayson Perry, Portrait of Phillipa, 2020

Grayson’s Art Club has been a lockdown staple for many TV viewers in the UK. His assertion that art can save us has encouraged many to take up art or revisit it in order to get through these difficult times. Viewers send in their artwork in digital form & in the end, selected pieces will become part of an exhibition. The programme has become a mainstream hit & key to its success is Grayson’s home studio situation with wife Phillipa (& Colin the Cat). Phillipa participates in the art-making too, whilst offering gentle insights into how people might be feeling or responding informally in her capacity as psychotherapist. Made during the lockdown programmes, this whimsical yet recognisable rendering of his wife is painted on a plate for their Home-themed episode.

Let’s end on that happy note.