About this artwork
The title, ‘Mizpah’, comes from the name of an Eyemouth fishing boat, in turn taken from Genesis (chapter 31, verse 49): “Mizpah; for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent from another”. Bellany painted the work shortly before his marriage to his second wife, Juliet. This new relationship gave rise to a group of light and airy paintings that reflected the artist’s own joy and optimism at the time. The figure wearing the puffin-mask playing the accordion (inscribed with ‘lune de miel’, or ‘honeymoon’) is likely to be Bellany himself. The female figure of the seagull represents Juliet.
Updated before 2020
-
artist:John Bellany (1942 - 2013) Scottish
-
title:Mizpah
-
date created:Dated 1978
-
materials:Oil on canvas
-
measurements:243.80 x 243.80 cm
-
object type:
-
credit line:Purchased 1980
-
accession number:GMA 2197
-
gallery:
-
subject:
John Bellany
John Bellany
Bellany was born in the fishing village of Port Seton, near Edinburgh. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art and at the Royal College of Art, London. His work of the 1960s and 1970s dealt with original sin, guilt, sex and death. His characteristic paintings are large compositions featuring his own...