The Queen c. 1898

Curator: This is Edwin Austin Abbey’s watercolor from around 1898, entitled “The Queen.” It’s fascinating to me because of how unfinished it feels, yet so powerful. Editor: My first impression is a study in delicacy. The watercolor gives a lightness to the regal figure, an almost ethereal quality that contradicts the implied power of "The Queen." Curator: Precisely! And look how Abbey suggests her costume with such economy. The flowing lines, the barely-there details… he's hinting at royalty rather than portraying it in a literal sense. It feels almost like a memory. Editor: Agreed. Semiotically, the colour choices contribute a significant level of refinement and formality. The strategic use of pink hues suggests something almost otherworldly, set against her pale complexion. There is also the composition. The flat background and placement of colour behind her seem to act in opposition to the ideas of pictorial recession, pushing forward, so to speak. Curator: You know, Abbey was American, but he spent a great deal of his career in England, illustrating Shakespeare and painting historical subjects. He truly brought his stories alive. This image is believed to be a costume design for Shakespeare's "Richard III". Imagine seeing this come alive on stage. Editor: It's also interesting how Abbey uses the watercolor medium here. The transparency lends a softness to the otherwise rigid historical subject matter. This imbues an element of vulnerable beauty that a heavy, oily impasto couldn’t ever capture. Curator: Exactly! It becomes more than just a costume study; it hints at the person beneath the robes and crown. The red tones around the neck and the trim of the garment imply a certain dramatic intensity... even hints at tragedy perhaps. I can almost hear the echoes of the theatre now. Editor: Thinking about colour theory, if this image was awash with a deeper, warmer palette, a completely different symbolic and emotional idea would come through, which proves how masterful a manipulator of affect and emotion Abbey was as a technical formalist. This is much more than a painting to me, this is the study of character revealed through considered composition and artful constraint. Curator: I feel a powerful presence conveyed with subtle gestures that captures more of an essence, more like catching a glimpse than a full picture, that’s all.