Portrait of a Young Woman with Green Necklace Sylvia Levine
The incisive portrait of a young, vulnerable, woman, whose bare neck and shoulders are adorned with a chunky, green necklace (surely chosen as a piece of armour, a defence against the world) and whose outsize, coral ear-rings highlight the flush on her face, is a startingly evocative picture. An image full of insight, conveyed with a closely-toned, subtle array of unflattering colours & scrubbed & rubbed painted surface; this is a highly sophisticated work by an artist sometimes described as an ’outsider’.
I do not think it too fanciful to read this portrait as an image of innocence trying to adopt the dress of experience – as if Levine were contemplating the questioning poetry of William Blake, in The Voice of the Ancient Bard, first published in 1789, as one of his, Songs of Innocence.
Youth of delight! come hither
And see the opening morn,
Image of Truth new-born.
Doubt is fled, and clouds of reason,
Dark disputes and artful teazing.
Folly is an endless maze;
Tangled roots perplex her ways;
How many have fallen there!
They stumble all night over bones of the dead;
And feel--they know not what but care;
And wish to lead others, when they should be led.
41.5cms x 31.5cms
50cms x 40cms