The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.
From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flamelike as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid, jade-faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion. The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive. The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.
In the centre of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting the artist himself, Basil Hallward, whose sudden disappearance some years ago caused, at the time, such public excitement and gave rise to so many strange conjectures.
As the painter looked at the gracious and comely form he had so skilfully mirrored in his art, a smile of pleasure passed across his face, and seemed about to linger there. But he suddenly started up, and closing his eyes, placed his fingers upon the lids, as though he sought to imprison within his brain some curious dream from which he feared he might awake.
‘An Artist in His Studio.’ (1904) John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Italian painter Ambrogio RaffeleConversation in the Studio, ca. 1905 Gotthard Kuehl (1850 – 1915)Carl Henrik Nordenberg (Swedish, 1857 – 1928) The Artist’s Studio, 1891The Spanish artist, Julio Romero de Torres c1920William Powell Frith – The Sleeping ModelSamuel John Peploe (1871-1935) Interior with Japanese Print , 1919Woman with the easel by Georges Braque, 1936Aleksander Mark Rossi (British, 1840-1916) The Private ViewCarl Stefan Bennet (Swedish, 1800 – 1878), Interior of the Painter’s Home in Stockholm, 1867, Oil on canvasÉmile Friant (French painter) 1863-1932 Le coin favori, portrait de Victor Prouve, 1883Frederico Andreotti (Italian, 1847-1930) The Finishing TouchesArthur Rackham (British 1867-1939), for “The Oval Portrait”, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, 1934Claude Monet (1840-1926) Studio Corner 1960Charles Martin Hardie – The Studio Mirror 1898Alfred Stevens (1823-1906). Famous Belgian painter, In The Artist’s StudioJames Ensor, The Skeleton Painter, c. 1896William McGregor Paxton – Leaving the Studio絵描き (Painting) by Hideko Ise (いせひでこ) 2008
Header painting: Edouard Dammouse – The Sculptor’s Studio 1899
CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)
On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.
Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:
