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COLIN MIDDLETON RHA MBE (1910-1983) Jou Jou (1939) Oil on canvas, 76 x 61cms (30 x 24'') Signed Provenance: From the Collection of George and Maura McClelland and on loan from them to IMMA...
COLIN MIDDLETON RHA MBE (1910-1983) Jou Jou (1939) Oil on canvas, 76 x 61cms (30 x 24'') Signed Provenance: From the Collection of George and Maura McClelland and on loan from them to IMMA 1999-2004 Colin Middleton Exhibition, IMMA, Dublin, January-June 2001 Envisage-The Face in Contemporary Art, IMMA, Dublin, October 2001-April 2002 Smidirin?, Dingle, April-May 2003 Exhibited: A Celebration of Irish Art & Modernism, The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye, June- September 2011, Cat. No 34 Literature: Dickon Hall, Colin Middleton-A Study, Joga Press 2001, Cat. No. 8, illustrated p11 Colin Middleton appears to have made a small, loosely-drawn but compositionally resolved preparatory sketch towards many of his paintings from the late 1930s to the early 1950s, of which a remarkable number have survived. The drawing towards 'Jou Jou' is one of the most revealing, both clarifying our reading of the painting and adding complexity to it. While the sign behind the figure is almost partially obscured in the painting, in the drawing it is possible to make out two words with almost complete certainty, 'Pigalle' and 'Vend?me', indicating a street sign towards two of the well-known squares in Paris. The four letters Middleton subsequently leaves visible in the sign in the painting suggest the phrase '? vendre', implying that this girl is 'for sale'. We now know this was not the original full text but, given that Pigalle would have been renowned for its seedy nightlife, it does reinforce the suggestion that she might be a prostitute and that Middleton has deliberately decided to suggest this. Even the title, Jou Jou, might well be the professional name taken on by a streetwalker. The possible reaction to this implication might have discouraged Middleton from including the painting in his 1943 exhibition in Belfast where 'Muriel', a similar work but without such a clear theme, had been included. Both paintings set an isolated elegant female figure in an unpopulated urban space, where she is positioned to confront the viewer and holds her coat half-closed with a sense of temptation. Dickon Hall, October 2011
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