Love at first sight.
My friend Claire got married last weekend in Tours, France, where she’s been living and studying for the last few years. Though I couldn’t attend the wedding, I was sure to send along an emissary in the form of a gift (thanks to Claire’s parents for delivering it!). I created a pair of portraits of Claire and her husband, and the diptych is special in a few ways, just like the couple it represents.
Claire met her Dénes in the archives at Tours where all the documents of this very old city are kept. They were both doing research about the same semi-obscure 500 year old family, their focuses separated by just one generation.
Though I knew that the archives contained everything from declarations of faith to laundry lists, I always imagined the two of them poring over wedding contracts together. And it’s for that reason that I asked them to write one of their own in old French:
Le sabmedy dix-huictiesme jour d’avril l’an deux mille neuf en l’esglise réformée de Tours furent présens en leurs personnes honnorable homme sire Dénes Harai demourant à Paris d’une part et honneste fille Claire Taylor Barker demourante en ladicte ville de Tours d’autre part, lesquelles partyes, par l’advys et consentemens de leurs parens et amys, ont fait et font leurs promesses de mariage à trois heures de l’après-mydy.
I incorporated the text into the background of the diptych.
It ends where Claire begins and begins where Dénes ends, so it’s not actually legible when the pair are presented as they’re meant to be seen (Claire on the left and Dénes on the right), but it’s important that the contract is part of the work.
When I asked Claire about potential sizes for the paintings, she thought small would be best—not something I love to hear as I have a real affinity for working large.
Still, I could see her point: she and her husband live in France but they may be moving around a lot in the next few years, as young couples often do.
Since she is originally from the United States and Dénes’ parents still live in his native Hungary, they would have a hard time storing larger paintings somewhere. And, besides, smaller works meant that they might actually be able to take the portraits with them on their adventures.
It’s for these same reasons that I decided to work on panel instead of a stretched material. Panel is more resilient to dents (though maybe not to scratches!) than stretched fabrics.
That said, panel is hardly my support of choice. The last time I worked on panel was over a year ago and I was certain I never would again. Panel does not take the paint in the same way as a fabric and it reveals more about my brushstrokes than the softening texture of canvas does—it’s definitely a little uncomfortable working with such a candid support.
Gwenn Seemel
Claire
2009
acrylic on panel
8 x 8 inches
(detail below)
But, in the end, I’m very glad I chose panel—and not only because it makes more sense for my friend’s lifestyle. Claire’s portrait (and Dénes’ too!) opened my eyes to the delicious possibilities of working in miniature on panel. In making this diptych, I realized that part of my problem with panel had been in trying to work too large. With Claire’s help I discovered a new way of working!
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I’ll post Dénes Thursday along with a view of how I framed them, because I think it was the cleverest thing I’ve come up with in a while!
I was sorry to have missed out too! Thanks for posting pictures of the festivities…it was almost like I was there!
karina...
beautiful! i had no idea that you painted their portraits! i’d love to see the one of Denes too
We missed you last weekend, it was great fun as you can imagine.
--- -- - --- - ---- - - --- ----- -- -take care
karina