Colin Middleton RHA MBE (1910-1983) The Sister Voice (Opus I, no. 47, Group V) Oil on canvas, 61 x 45.5cm (24 x 18'') Signed with artist's device. Signed with monogram, inscribed with title and...

Colin Middleton RHA MBE (1910-1983) The Sister Voice (Opus I, no. 47, Group V) Oil on canvas, 61 x 45.5cm (24 x 18'') Signed with artist's device. Signed with monogram, inscribed with title and dated 30 Nov. 1942 verso Provenance: The Ava Gallery, Clandeboyne, where purchased The Sister Voice was included in the first exhibition to be held in the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery when it re-opened in 1943 after the blitz of Belfast. Colin Middleton was given the honour of inaugurating the gallery with his first solo exhibition; 115 paintings were included, described by Tom Carr as ''an amazing anthology of modern art''. The exhibition was an organised and consistent exploration of a neo-Romantic philosophy, heavily influenced by the Jungian idea of the symbol. Middleton seemed to be seeking an underlying balance in the natural rhythms of the earth, of the spiritual and physical and finding a style of painting to suit this. The influence of the surrealists was predominant at this time in his work. The Sister Voice is at first glance a straightforwardly surrealist painting. But it also carries much within it that was to dominate Middleton's painting over the next four decades. The artist spoke of the role of the female archetype in his work and its relationship with the landscape. The figure that dominates The Sister Voice is connected with the landscape as if rooted there, but also is related to the bird. The bird is one of the most enduring symbols in Middleton's work, almost always appearing alongside the archetypal female figure. Its meaning is ambiguous, but the bird image throughout Middleton's work appears to represent the spiritual, inner nature of womanhood, not trapped by the body but free and expressive, almost a familiar. It acts as a counterpoint to the fixed and massive strength of the landscape, the other parallel aspect of the female form. Presumably the 'sister voice' refers to a deep inner connection and a communication between figure and bird. The Sister Voice is finished to a degree of exactness that is a feature of much of Middleton's early work and also recurs on occasions in the 1960s and 1970s. There is an obvious debt to Middleton's training and work as a damask designer for his father's company. The emphasis on abstract patterning and the simplification of shapes that recur around the canvas is drawn from this, but throughout his career Middleton was never far away from the element of design; the simplified forms to depict houses, mountains and the landscape reappear in later work. Much as The Sister Voice fits easily into this first exhibition with its interest in cycles of nature, fertility and the female archetype, it also establishes images and themes to which Middleton kept returning. Even technically, it looks forward to the more abstract work of later years and as such is an important painting within Middleton's career. Dickon Hall

View more View less