Trouble

Details

The Hon. John Collier (1850-1924)
Trouble
oil on canvas
40 x 48 in. (101.5 x 122 cm.)

Provenance

with the Fine Art Society, London, 1981, from whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1898, no. 657.
Virtue Rewarded, 1988, no. 25.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Collier produced numerous portraits and history pictures but he was best known for his so called 'problem pictures' which had open-ended psychological dramas left for viewers to interpret. In spite of Collier's protestation that 'the little tragedies of modern life' had 'perfectly plain' meanings, Trouble nevertheless remains ambiguous. A younger woman weeps to the left, while an older woman grips her sewing machine while looking anxiously at the shadows. What has transpired, and who is approaching? Are the women transgressors, or victims? Collier specialised in such moments of dramatic tension.

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