Self Portrait 

Curator: William Dobson's "Self Portrait" has an intriguing gravity. Look at the slightly mournful eyes, the almost theatrical sweep of hair. What does it conjure for you? Editor: Brooding. There's a subdued energy. And so much dark fabric! One really gets a sense of the physical weight of those garments, doesn’t one? The texture of the dark oil paint mimics a wool or heavy linen. Curator: Indeed. Dobson was a leading English portrait painter, especially known during the English Civil War. You can almost imagine him at his easel while battles rage around him. There’s something in those eyes that captures the turmoil of the time. Editor: Yes, the painting must be understood in that context: warfare and the materials required to fuel such violence. Where were these materials sourced? Who made the paint, who wove the cloth? Those are the stories that often go unseen. Curator: And what about the pigments he uses? The earthiness is palpable, really grounding the figure despite the Romantic flare of that wild hair. He seems so immediate, yet so firmly placed in history. Editor: Think about how precious those pigments were, where they came from, the labour needed to ground them, and the cost that went into creating that depth of colour, for the benefit of the sitter alone. Dobson shows a particular material awareness. Curator: Exactly! He really emphasizes not just likeness but presence. I see a soul grappling with something beyond just posing for posterity. I wonder if he was thinking about the people he captured who were lost to the war, whose memory depended on the truth held in such expensive materials. Editor: Perhaps... or maybe he was more keenly aware of the materials he lacked access to! We only know about the wealthy elite due to their access to skilled craftspeople and precious resources needed for art. Who was omitted in the picture, in that period? Curator: Perhaps both realities danced in his mind as he painted. Whatever his thought process, it’s clear that every layer is a story, waiting for us to notice. Editor: Indeed, it all accumulates to generate so much more than what is rendered as one figure from a lost, complex age.