ART REVIEW
The Cook’ Sally Clarke by Catherine Goodman, shows the amazing portrait painting techniques of the celebrated portrait painter. Copyright: Catherine Goodman. Image courtesy of NPG
ART REVIEW
Catherine Goodman reveals her amazing portrait painting techniques in Portraits from Life at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
BY KAZAD
LONDON — The portrait of Sally Clarke unveiled during Catherine Goodman: Portraits of Life at the National Portrait Gallery is very telling. The larger-than-life-sized portrait allows an insight into the life of this celebrated London restaurateur.
Sally Clarke is the owner of CLARKE’S in Kensington, one of London’s most esteemed restaurants. Goodman depicts Clarke wearing her ‘chef’s whites’, reflecting her profession. The painting is the result of regular over six months’ sittings at Goodman’s Chelsea studio. The portrait painting shows Clarke’s head and shoulders, which fill the canvas. Her gaze trails slightly to the left of the viewer as if in deep thought contemplating the next meal to cook.
Clarke’s portrait is just one of the images in Catherine Goodman: Portraits from Life presently at the National Portrait Gallery. The show also includes portraits of film director Stephen Frears, author and broadcaster Daisy Goodwin, and novelist Vikram Seth. Others include Harry Parker, ex-soldier and Prince’s Drawing School student and lawyer Diana Rawstron. Each painting displays portrait painting techniques that have made Catherine Goodman one of the most important portrait painters. All works are on display for the first time.
Sally Clarke and Lucian Freud
While all the portraits are outstanding in their own rights, the piece that continues to gain a lot of attention is Clarke’s portrait. Besides the exceptional skill explored in capturing this celebrity chef, the exhibition also marks the unveiling of the portrait. Interestingly, this is not the first time an exhibition has been devoted to the unveiling of Clarke’s portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. In 2012, Lucian Freud’s 2008 portrait of Clarke was the star attraction at the National Portrait Gallery’s landmark exhibition of the artist works. The portrait was unveiled for the first time during that historic exhibition.
Although Freud’s and Goodman’s portraits of Clarke have not been exhibited side by side, art professionals are already drawing a comparison between the two portraits. Comparing Goodman’s portrait of Clarke with Freud’s, Dr. Charles Saumarez Smith CBE, Secretary and Chief Executive, Royal Academy of Arts, says: ‘Catherine’s portrait stands comparison with Lucian’s. It is equally painterly, less expressionistic, and conveys the depths of Sally’s personality, her thoughtfulness, as well as her reticence and sometimes unknowability.’
Catherine Goodman: Capturing Souls
Catherine Goodman: Portraits from Life is another milestone in the artistic career of this painter and portraitist. This is her first major show at the National Portrait Gallery. Goodman first came to the attention of the RPG back in 2002, when she was awarded first prize in the BP Portrait Award for her painting of Dom Antony Sutch, master of Downside College.
Catherine Goodman: Portraits from Life, at the National Portrait Gallery, London reveals the amazing portrait painting techniques of the celebrated portrait painter. Looking through all the works on display, there is no doubt that Goodman is an outstanding painter. She captures the resemblance of her subjects, including their psychological and emotional representation often hidden from the untrained eyes.
Exposing hidden emotions is a skill the artist nurtured through experience and years of practice. Over the years, Goodman developed a sensibility that drove her to embrace and examine human vulnerability. This rare and exceptional human attribute can be traced back to her relationship with a disabled sister, whom she has drawn and painted for over twenty-five years. This prowess shows Goodman’s amazing ability to excavate the depth of the human soul. For Goodman, this is the essence of portrait painting.
Catherine Goodman: The Essence of Portrait Painting-
‘The process of making a portrait is fundamental for me. The long periods of time spent in the studio together mean that trust develops between us and relationships deepen. For me, good portraits have psychological depth but it’s not something that comes without mining’.
Sarah Howgate, Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery and curator of the exhibition, keenly observed and studied the artist during the process of painting some of the works on display in this show. She describes Goodman:
Catherine believes in direct drawing and painting, piercing observation and constantly re-visiting the subject. As I’ve watched these portraits evolve in the studio I’ve been struck by their shared intensity and how her subjects appear to be looking inwards. It will be fascinating to see how these quiet portraits of the interior sit amongst some of the more official, honorific portraits at the Gallery.’
All the portraits in this show were done in Goodman’s London studio and were completed within the past three years. Each portrait is distinct and bears the characteristics and ambiance that represent the subject. In spite of all the different atmospheres and environments permeating the paintings, they all have one common unifying element: a duck-egg blue chair. Goodman inherited the chair from Garsington Manor in Oxfordshire, which was the home of her great-grandmother, the Bloomsbury group socialite Lady Ottoline Morrell.
Duck-Egg Blue Chair
The duck-egg blue chair is a significant object and prop in all the paintings on display. It not only supports the subjects but also enhances their characters. In some instances, the chair also exudes its own character. But, perhaps, what is most significant about the chair is what it reveals about the artist herself. The insertion of the chair in these portraits reveals some hidden psychological aspect of the painter’s life, her relationship with her mother and home. Besides keeping the memories of her mother alive, the chair also situates Goodman’s mom amongst elites and socialites.
Catherine Goodman: Portraits from Life shows the power of portraiture. From one portrait to the other, the characters of the subjects shine through. With her dexterity as a painter and outstanding portrait techniques, Goodman exposes the hidden feelings and emotions of the subjects she captured. She dug deep, excavating their minds and soul in a manner that reveals trust between painter and subject. Evidently, this is not just a show about portraiture or portrait painting. It is a show about human understanding.
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