Last night I was dog-tired by 9.00 pm. and went to bed very early. Not surprisingly I was awake by 5.00 this morning. It was obvious that I was not going to go back to sleep, so I got up, suddenly aware that ideas were stirring for a new art project. I got on the computer and began to research images that I hoped might get my imagination turning over.
By a serendipitous process of associations I ended up looking at images of Adam and Eve (via the work of William Blake, if you are interested to know.) I was taken by surprise by two things. The first is the huge amount of absolutely dreadful art there is around on the inter-net. There appears to be an inexhaustible supply of naff images of Adan and Eve originating with conservative evangelical sources in the USA. The second surprise was to come across a picture of which a print actually hangs on our bedroom wall.
The picture in question is by Hugh Goldwyn Riviere, and is entitled The Garden of Eden. Probably painted in the late 19th. century, it depicts a young couple (possibly office workers, from their dress) walking through what looks like a civic park, totally absorbed in each other’s company. You can imagine why it is on our wall! It has been a favourite of ours for along time. It is a part of the Guildhall collection, in London, and many years ago we actually went to see it in the Guildhall’s archive, to which they very kindly gave us access. I had forgotten completely that it is entitled The Garden of Eden, and it was a lovely surprise to come across it in this context, and to be reminded of it again.
It is curious how items you have around the home, and which confront you every day, can somehow sink into the background of your consciousness. Maybe I ought to go round the house again and look afresh at things I have been passing every day. Incidentally, we bought the reproduction in 1995, and it is good to think that we still look at each other in that way.