The excitement of romance

Mon 12 Feb 2018

With Cupid in mind, we look at two works from QAGOMA’s collection with romance as their underlying subject – at the Gallery we believe that love conquers all barriers – and that is the way it should be.

Arthur Boyd: The lady and the unicorn portfolio

Arthur Boyd’s etchings for The lady and the unicorn (portfolio) 1975 reveal a mastery of arabesque line and fine detail in drawing combined with velvety black aquatint that shifts in tone. Boyd created these powerful, dream-like compositions in a series of inter-related scenes including ‘The unicorn sees the lady’, ‘The unicorn’s love dance. The lady’s acceptance’ and ‘The unicorn in love’.

In the portfolio, the unicorn is shown to be a powerful regenerative force – the unicorn falls in love with the lady and she with him… but eventually betrays him. Sadly, hunted down, the unicorn dies for love. Yet he remains a symbol of undying purity and compassion. Boyd creates something potent in this powerful series of etchings – there is anger and anguish in these works, but also a sense of joy and empathy.

The unicorn sees the lady

The unicorn’s love dance. The lady’s acceptance

Interesting facts

The love story is based on a medieval tale that has moved musicians, poets, novelists and artists for centuries. The lady and the unicorn c.1500, a beautiful set of medieval tapestries on this theme are housed in the Musée de Cluny in Paris and were a direct inspiration for Boyd. The tapestry series is on show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until June 2018.

The tapestry series has as its topic – earthly pleasures and courtly culture – each depicts one of the senses: Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing and Sight – in Sight, the lady holds a mirror, which reflects the image of a unicorn that rests in her lap.

Arthur Boyd’s The lady and the unicorn (portfolio) contains 24 works – each sheet 79.6 x 57.2cm.

Chester Earles: Interior with figures

Interior with figures 1872 is the most notable example of Chester Earles work in an Australian public collection. It’s a fine example of Victorian figurative painting, for which Earles was regularly praised when most artists in Australia were already turning to landscape.

It is a courtship picture, perhaps even a proposal, with an unmarried young woman receiving the advances of an evidently worthy man under the approving gaze of a chaperone – you decide.

At the heart of the picture is a tension between the ostensibly romantic subject, and the prevailing anxiety of the period about successful financial provision for gentlewomen: the Married Women’s Property Act wasn’t passed until 1890. The women in the painting are clearly ladies, with evidence of their accomplishments close at hand in the books and fine stitching with which they occupy themselves – the young lady is holding a piece of tatting or lace, similar to the fine lace adorning her dress and thus advertising her refinements of person and skill. As no pater familias is present in this transaction, the viewer is invited to speculate on the social circumstances surrounding the scene and the importance of its eventual outcome.

Interesting facts

The scene in this painting could be set in English or Australian society, however, the combination of Australian and European plants seen through the window suggests that it is set locally.

The precise placement of the two figures against the open window curtains, and the symbolic allusions of the scene: nature and culture seen together, the combination of the world of the outdoors set against the confined world of the domestic setting, all presents them together in the picture as a future couple.

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Feature image detail: Arthur Boyd’s The lady and the unicorn (portfolio) ‘The unicorn sees the lady’ 1975 / © Arthur Boyd’s work reproduced with the permission of Bundanon Trust