Wednesday 17th December - Lamplight

Oooh, there is only a week of these left, and I have a busy day ahead so let's find a nice painting to brighten the day...

Lamplight (1908) Jules Emile Crochet

That is absolutely beautiful. I'm a sucker for a bit of chiaroscuro after having a bit of a moment in front of Joseph Wright of Derby. Are these two sisters? One seems absorbed by her book, the other by her thoughts as they share this tiny table and the little pool of light.

The room seems to be well furnished, if a little cramped, there isn't a hint of poverty to be seen, but something seems awry. One sister wears a white blouse and her sister wears a print - now, in my family tree, in the 19th century, there was a bit of scandal, no names no pack-drill, but in one of the family photographs the wife of the family is wearing a print blouse and this was seen as absolutely outrageous because you should always appear in a nice white blouse.  I'm not saying the sister on the right is no better than she should be, but the sister on the left is occupying herself and not staring into space thinking of things that possibly she ought not. Then again, the right-hand sister might be waiting for her turn with the book.

Hang on, is that an apple on the table? Well, I rest my case. She's obviously a wrong 'un.

Telling an Evening Story (1903)

Monsieur Crochet obviously was partial to a bit of mood lighting as I suspect the same pair of girls appear in his 1903 painting Telling an Evening Story where one sister reads to the other under the frilly lampshade. He doesn't seem to have done a vast number of lamplight pictures, but to be honest I am struggling to find much about him at all.  He appears to have been born in 1867 and started exhibiting in the 1890s. The paintings by him that I can find seem to come from the early years of the 20th century but no information has been forthcoming.

I wonder if these sisters are somehow trapped in the smallness of their lives.  They exist in the puddle of light and not beyond. There are rather nice bric-a-brac pieces lurking in the semi-darkness, hinting that they once had a nice middle-class life but now are confined by the light.  Mind you, it might be a comment on new technology enabling women to make more of a dark day, as they are able to read by their lamp light, possibly better (and safer) than candles alone. I would like to know more of these women and their lives but like the rest of their room, it will remain shrouded in darkness.

See you tomorrow.