Christie's: THE FORBES COLLECTION OF VICTORIAN PICTURES AND WORKS OF ART: Lot 111
The Hon. John Collier (1850-1924)
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Trouble oil on canvas 40 x 48 in. (101.5 x 122 cm.) PROVENANCE with the Fine Art Society, London, 1981, from whom acquired by the present owner. EXHIBITION London, Royal Academy, 1898, no. 657. Virtue Rewarded, 1988, no. 25. NOTES Collier produced numerous portraits and history pictures but he was best known for his so called 'problem pictures' which had open-ended psychological dramas left for viewers to interpret. In spite of Collier's protestation that 'the little tragedies of modern life' had 'perfectly plain' meanings, Trouble nevertheless remains ambiguous. A younger woman weeps to the left, while an older woman grips her sewing machine while looking anxiously at the shadows. What has transpired, and who is approaching? Are the women transgressors, or victims? Collier specialised in such moments of dramatic tension.
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