PAINTING EIGHT
THE NATIVE HUE of RESOLUTION
The native hue of resolution, Oil on linen, 30 x 40 x 7/8 in (76.20 x 101.60 x 2.222 cm), Click on image for lightbox view.
This final painting of the series allows the viewer to see the opening night production of Hamlet, an autobiography, from backstage.
The scene represented here is Hamlet’s ubiquitous To be or not to be soliloquy. He is onstage speaking directly to himself (and the audience), while in the foreground Polonius and Claudius, are hidden away backstage listening in.
I wanted to spin the argument Hamlet is making to himself about death into a question of whether or not he will be known as the author in the future. I see him facing the audience in this moment, in the context of this autobiographical production, as his “coming out” as the true author of this piece and of the rest of the canon. But while he is there in the light ready to claim his legacy, the left side of his face and body is shrouded in bluish darkness by the sidelight on his right. Since an author portrayed writing with his left hand during the English Renaissance suggested he was a concealed author, so too here, the darkness on his left side indicates there is still work to be done to fully re-associate the Shakespeare canon with de Vere in the mainstream.
The viewer sees a stencil on the piece of scenery that Polonius and Claudius are looking through indicating its a Hedingham Arch wall - a reference to de Vere’s ancestral home that was stolen in part and sum by the real life counterparts of these two characters. Hamlet is holding a book (Cardanus’ Comfort) and has a dagger on his belt. The viewer sees the empty locations for these two props taped out on the back of the same arch wall. These are symbolic of the weapons he used to seek intellectual revenge upon Polonius / Cecil and Claudius / Dudley: his pen and his book.
Polonius is shown wearing his Order of the Garter chain. De Vere tried (unsuccessfully) for years to be inducted into this order, and was likely withheld largely by machinations of the Cecils. It is symbolic in that the peerage the Cecil’s were granted as a result of the marriage of Anne to Oxford persists, while the original Oxford Earldom went dormant with the 20th earl and was later reinstated as the Earl of Oxford and Asquith, using another branch of the family line. The Cecils still remain a powerful force in the aristocracy of England, while the legacy of de Vere both in blood and deeds had almost evaporated. That is, until the twentieth century and the work started by JT Looney and continued by the living researchers and Oxfordian proponents of today.
In conceiving this painting I had intended the hand the viewer sees in the foreground to be Claudius’ wearing the intaglio ring, featuring stolen coat of arms of Oxford, but as the picture developed further, I came to see it too as the metaphorical hand of Edward de Vere, reaching through history to tap Cecil / Polonius on the shoulder and say “Sorry to disrupt your carefully crafted narrative, but my time to reclaim my life’s work has come.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This painting series is inspired, in a variety of ways, by the groundbreaking research of the following people: JT Looney, Charlton Ogburn, Alexander Waugh, Mark Anderson, Joseph Sobran, Bonner Miller Cutting, Roger Strittmater, Nina Greene, Diana Price, Richard and Elizabeth Waugamann, Michael Delahoyde, Tom Grenier, Kathleen Chiljan, Cheryl Egan-Donovan and many, many others.
I also owe a great deal of credit to my husband Jacob for his keen eye, candid criticism and unwavering patience and support in this labor of love. He is an everyday inspiration to me and an ever-present force behind my creative practice.
Many thanks to Dean Lavenson, for photographing this painting series and supporting local artists.
And to the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, the greatest author humanity has known, I express my immense gratitude for his output, his sacrifice and his legacy of inspiring artists the world over for the four hundred and fifteen years since his death. With his own words, I offer this body of work to posterity humbly:
The worth of that, is that which it contains; And that is this, and this with thee remains.
Painting TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
M. Graham Walnut oil and pigment on linen canvas, on cross-braced and keyed wood stretcher
76.20 x 101.60 x 2.222 cm (30 x 40 x 7/8 in)
Canvas: L21C Archival Artfix Linen, 13 oz
Ground: commercial application of alkyd oil primer
Varnished: Gamblin Gamvar Gloss
Photo credit for Alas, Poor Ghost! Paintings: Dean Lavenson
All Alas, Poor Ghost! painting images and text copyright Kristopher Castle 2019