Tuesday 17th December - The Love Potion

I think today is the last fairly peaceful day I have now before Christmas so I'm making the most of it. I'm currently under a hot blanket with a hot dog (Blossom), living my best life.  The Chairman is perched atop the hen house in the garden, which is very important work.

Sandra knew their love would last forever. Mr Fluffles wondered where his lunch was.

Today is another instance of a famous picture where I didn't notice the cat really before, although it makes perfect sense.  After all, this lady is a sorceress...

The Love Potion (1903) Evelyn De Morgan

Yes, a black cat is often the familiar of a witch, excuse me, sorceress.  What is the difference?  Is it a rural/urban thing? Does a witch forage for her ingredients in the woods, while a sorceress gets them from Waitrose? Apologies, back to The Love Potion, and we have a woman who does chemical magic (let's not be defined by labels), mixing a potion while out of the window we see a knight and lady embrace.  We are therefore concluding that our sorceress is really good, and the potion isn't even bottled up before the effects are kicking in.  So, everyone is happy and the good old sorceress and her cheery kitten have done good once more.  The end. I'll see you tomorrow.

The Happy Couple (for now)

Alright, I know, I don't get off that easily because I am struck by the fact that our lass is still mixing her potion, so that can't be responsible for what is going on out of the window but as we can see it all happening right above her cup, we know the potion is something to do with them. I think the potion is for the chap but that our sorceress is not making it for the girl to give to him, she has no need.  I think our sorceress is going to magic that knight away (a bit like 'dance the knight away'). That will get you put on Father Christmas's naughty list for certain.

That is a smashing little cat.  I was also struck how the round green eyes of the cat looked awfully like the round glass of the window...

...as if all eyes are on the happy (for now) couple, watching what will happen to them once the potion is put in play.  It reminds me of how the Chairman watches the birds through the window, just keeping an eye before he rains down bloody murder upon them (in his mind only, as he is, in truth, quite comfy just looking at them these days, then going off and eating a bit more food). I love how the sorceress's sleeves look like nets and her belt like a jewelled sword hilt.  This is definitely not a woman to be trifled with as she is a fighter.  She is also a reader...

Look out, she's done her homework! These are not spell books, but works of great philosophy such as Iamblichus (245-325) and Paracelsus (1493-1541), so she's not just musing on eye of newt, but neoplatonic philosophy. Blimey.

The Hour Glass (1904-5)

I saw some people linking The Love Potion and The Hour Glass and I can see why - both are images of slightly older women who are discontent and were both done around the same time.  The Queen newspaper, reviewing Evelyn's 1906 exhibition at the Bruton Galleries declared both paintings to be her best works, and even on Wikipedia it is claimed they share the same model, Jane Morris.  I don't personally agree with that last bit - I think The Love Potion's model is the same as many of her others, such as The Prisoner from 1907...

The Prisoner (1907)

It's the nose that gives it away.

Back to the sorceress and her love potion - I was wondering about the position of the couple in the garden directly above the cup.  It is easy to assume that she is intent on doing something to them, but what if they don't exist? The hair of the girl in the garden and the sorceress looks almost identical, but the girl outside wears it long and free, as if she is younger.  So, I was wondering - is the witch casting a spell so that she, herself, can fall in love with a handsome knight? Is she conjuring so that vision in the garden will come true?  Alternatively, what if that is a vision of the past when our lass was in love with a brave knight.  I wondered if the love potion was a way of bringing back the memory of being young, happy and free, rather than closed in a room with our books and our cat.  Don't get me wrong, the second doesn't sound so shabby but what if the knight went off and died (as knights in art tend to do) and so our lass dedicated herself to philosophy and a single, academic life. Now and then she uses her power to look at the past and remember a time when she was in love. Compared with depictions of Medea or other witches, this woman looks calm, a bit sad, thoughtful and generally not murderous.  Is it because she is older that we suspect she is up to no good?  Is it the cat?  I read that black cats can be harder to rehome from shelters because of certain superstitions (I tend to believe they are good luck, especially if you can get them to come over for a tickle) and so can the same be true of middle-aged women? We are definitely harder to rehome, it's true...

That's a chilling thought, especially as I am one, but the older I get, the more I see how the world works (as reflected in this post). Looking at it, EDM was around my age when she was painting these turn-of-the-century women so must have started to feel what we all feel in our late 40s and 50s. Freedom and imprisonment, power and invisibility, and an awful lot of joint pain. That little black kitten at our sorceress's feet looks at us as if to say 'what you bring to this picture is about you' and I can't help but agree.

I'll see you tomorrow.