COMPOSITION IN GREY
2022 | oil on canvas | canvas size 36 x 49 cm | 14.2" x 19.3" | with frame 62 x 74.5 | 24.4" x 29.3"
«When I was alive and had a human heart, I did not know what tears were, for I lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci, where sorrow is not allowed to enter. [...] Round the garden ran a very lofty wall, but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it, everything about me was so beautiful. My courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness.
So I lived, and so I died. »
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The passage taken from Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince in The Happy Prince and other Tales describes the sorrowless but shallow life of a boy sheltered from the hardships of reality. The prince in the tale grew up surrounded by beauty and pleasure, though implying that pleasure doesn't necessarily equal happiness. As the tale goes on, the Happy Prince - now a statue overseeing it's city - gives more and more of himself away in order to milden the hardships of his people until even the last bit of him is gone.
The painting Composition in Grey is meant to depict a state of existence similar to that of the Happy Prince before the actual tale takes place, as recounted by his statue in the beginning of the story. The background of unfolded silk and the puffy sleeves of the same material, the bowl haircut reminiscent of early 16th century portraiture, the opulent jewellery on bare skin, the slender appearance with no trace of scaring and no need for muscles and the neutral expressionless look in his face all reveal the sheltered existence of fictional royalty. Though the same lack of expression and the dull grey color of the fabric reveal the monotony of such a life. Nevertheless the painting aims to depict a romanticised imaginary state of being, lacking the feelings of happiness or woe as well as the desire for them. An unstained state of childlike innocence, unaware, leisurely and spoilt.
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The composition is inspired by portraits like those of Hans Holbein the Younger, especially visible on the model's hair as well as on his stiff posture. Though the model is richly adorned with jewellery (from the GUCCI fall/winter 2022 collection) he is otherwise nude, a clear break with such portraiture traditions. Despite his nudity, his bleak stare and his covering of his intimate parts with his hands have nothing suggestive or sensual about them. The figure is without sexual aims, and due to the ambivalent attire almost genderless as well. The earrings especially add a layer of confusion as to the sex of the sitter, only resolved by his flat boyish chest.