(From Martin's Journal)
since thomas moved in with us on the thirteenth floor of the hotel nicholas i have done several drawings and paintings to serve as cover illustrations for some of his books. i have done two portraits of him, one for the back of his more serious books and another for the back of his satirical books. in the former he is working at his desk and in the latter he is dressed in a super-hero costume with the quadratic formula on his chest. he shows an amazing amount of understanding of art and literature for someone who specialized in mathematics. he does not try to force complicated interpretations of my paintings. when i paint francesca sitting on an egg , many interpret this as saying that beauty must have intellect and a quality of motherhood. (others say that this represents the oppression of the poor by the "beautiful" rich.) few people see this as a simple representation of reality as thomas does.
herbert got a little jealous when I was doing the portraits of thomas. he made a fuss about the fact that i had thomas sit for his portraits and i do not have him sit for the ones i do of him. i finally was able to convince him that i can remember his features well enough to paint a detailed portrait of him without having him before me, but this was not true where thomas was concerned and he admitted he would not be able to sit without talking and moving about long enough for me to paint his portrait. if thomas and i were doing anything that i would not want herbert to know about i would not tell him about the sittings, herbert has difficulty seeing this. he is a member of the school of action and speech withouht thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment