FAMAG 2005.18.1
Modern Roman ?Salvator Rosa? style frame, with convex top edge, deep scotia; small mouldings to back and sight edge; finished with faux lacquered silver leaf; supplied by Paul Mitchell Limited. Frame conservation sponsored by the Canterbury Auction Galleries.
About this work
view without frame
Newton, Kenneth (1933-1984): Study of a nude by a chair - a student work, oil on hardboard, 71 x 40.5 cms. The Richard Harris Gift.
More information about the frame
This work was purchased after Newton?s death by his friend and patron, Richard Harris. At that time it was unframed. It was framed for Falmouth Art Gallery by Paul Mitchell.
This is a reproduction of the classic Roman gallery frame, as it was used in the palazzi, villas and churches of late seventeenth-century Italy. Completely unornamented, this design depended for its subtle manipulation of light and shade on the Baroque juxtaposition of concave and convex moulding, recessive and projecting surface. Its starkly linear silhouette was ideally calculated to frame portraits, history and religious paintings, in one uniformed hang in which there was no variation or extraneous decoration to distract the eye. Paradoxically, it is used here to strike a different note for this sumptuous nude study from the black and gold frames chosen for his still life paintings.
The plain ?Salvator Rosa? was also used for mythological subjects, and here we see it being invoked for a modern Aphrodite, the linear emphasis creating a tension with the Rubenesque curves of the sitter, and the cool gold of the lacquered ?silver? finish a contrast to the hot shades of the painting.