Dimensions: support: 1083 x 1012 mm
Copyright: © Maggi Hambling. All Rights Reserved 2010 / Bridgeman Art Library | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Maggi Hambling's portrait of Frances Rose, housed here at the Tate. I'm struck by its raw honesty. What can you tell us about it? Curator: Hambling's unflinching gaze challenges conventional portraiture, doesn't it? It's less about idealization and more about confronting age and the social expectations around representing women. Consider the male gaze prevalent in art history – how does Hambling subvert this? Editor: So it's about pushing back against the traditional role of women in art? Curator: Precisely. Hambling's portrait asserts a different kind of visibility, one rooted in lived experience rather than imposed beauty standards. This shifts the power dynamic. Editor: That's fascinating. I'll definitely look at it differently now. Curator: And that's the point, isn't it? Art makes us question.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hambling-portrait-of-frances-rose-t06786
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From the age of fifteen Hambling studied with the painters Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett Haines at their private art school, Benton End, in Suffolk. Her first London exhibition in 1973 included portraits of people observed in pubs and painted from memory. This portrait is an extremely significant work in Hambling's oeuvre as it marks the beginning of her return to drawing and painting from life, a discipline she was taught at Benton End. Frances Rose was a widow in her early eighties who was Hambling's next-door neighbour in Battersea, and who greatly enjoyed sitting for her portrait. Gallery label, September 2004
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