Η Αποκοιμισμένη Γυναίκα: μια ανάγνωση

Abstract

Sleeping Woman (casein on wood, 84 x 64 cm., 1943) belongs to the corpus of works bequeathed to the Benaki Museum by Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (1906- 1994). The painting depicts a darkened room lit by an oil lamp. A woman is sleeping in an armchair; her head rests on her right shoulder and her arms, bare from the elbow down, lie crossed on a table. On the table are a small basket containing three flowers and foliage, an ashtray with a box of matches, and a pack of cards with the ace of hearts and the four of clubs exposed. On the wall is a square framed mirror which reflects the light of the lamp. To the right is a window with cross bars, hidden by a blue curtain. In an unpublished interview the artist disclosed that the figure of the Sleeping Woman represents his first wife, lying asleep exhausted by the privations of the German Occupation (1941-44) and that the lamp is a menacing object which seems to be falling on her and about to crush her neck. brief description of Ghika's working methods. After deciding on his subject (a choice which was influenced by his environment and by the work of other painters) he proceeded to make sketches and to study the harmonic proportions. The final sketch was transferred to the paint surface. If the artist thought that the picture would be successful commercially, he made a copy on tracing paper after the painting was complete, so that it could be reproduced with variations at a later date. How this methodology was applied in the case of the Sleeping Woman. The scene portrayed here had probably, though not definitely, been witnessed by the artist in real life. The attitude in which the woman lies asleep in the chair is certainly taken from Picasso's well-known Le Rêve, and the atmosphere of menace suffusing the painting comes from the same artist's La dormeuse au miroir. The tonal range, and a detail of the iconography, have their model in Braque's Femme à L· mandoline. Three sketches of the Sleeping Woman survive. In the first, which is considerably different from the final picture in both composition and execution, the artist has already established the basic elements of his subject, but is still in search of details. The following two sketches show him making gradual progress and approaching ever nearer to the final result. The artist transferred the final sketch to the panel and added the paint, making a few small changes in the process. Because of the particular nature of the support, we cannot use X-rays to trace the underlying sketch, but infra-red examination reveals an area where some amendments took place. For the composition, Ghika made use of the 'golden section' and based the structure on a complex system of correspondences, making the axis of symmetry not the central axis of the picture but the lamp. In his decision to use the golden section, the artist was influenced by the quasi-occult literature on harmonic proportions which had at the time been summarised in Matila Ghyka's book, Le Nombre d'Or (1931). The details of the painting illustrate both the marital relationship of artist and model (the use of colour, the treatment of the clothes) and also a fateful symbolism (the woman's corpse-like pose, the menacing position of the lamp and its artificial light etc.) indicative of the uncertainties for the future caused by the horrors of the Occupation. The painting had a special significance for the artist personally. He included it in the two retrospective exhibitions he himself organised. He never sold it and from the outset never had any intention to do so: for this reason no copy on tracing paper was made. The painting was hung in the main room of Ghika's house, together with family portraits and self-portraits. Ghika's work was not generally influenced by social or historical conditions. Sleeping Woman is exceptional in reflecting the historical background and in it the artist reveals his anxiety for his wife's future and also for his own and that of others generally.