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This large and dramatic piece is one of the most accomplished of the early Window Series paintings. It is also quite unusual for Tolmie ’s work in this period: it is in oils rather than watercolours, and instead of depicting a collection of objects framed by the glass windowpane, this painting focuses on a single mannequin isolated from its store-window context. The painting is highly dramatic, using the contrast between the dark background and the brightly lit figure to create a larger-than-life, almost surreal effect. The painting is in part a study of texture, capturing the sumptuousness of the fabrics that drape the figure. To heighten the drama of the piece, Tolmie turned to oil paints, a medium that he had rarely used in the previous decade. Despite these differences, The Harlequin does display several characteristic themes of the early Window Series. Store windows communicate with people using the language of cultural history: well-established cultural symbols—in this case a figure from the Commedia dell’arte—are appropriated and redefined in a commercial context. Characteristically, these cultural symbols have a well established relationship with art history: the figure of the harlequin was important to the work of several modern artists, notably Pablo Picasso (1882-1973). Although it could not have been apparent to the artist when he painted The Harlequin, it and the similarly unusual piece Doll show the way forward. Tolmie’s current Window Series paintings, which are mostly large, colorful oils that feature mannequins, are stylistically and conceptually closer to this painting than to most of the other works that Tolmie produced in the late 1980s. |