Robert Hodgins, Songs my mother taught me ,circa 1983
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Notes : Songs my mother taught me is a song for voice and piano written in 1880 by Anton.n Dvoř.k, the Czech composer of Romantic music. It is the fourth of seven songs from his cycle Gypsy Songs. Passionate about his homeland and its traditional music, he often employed the rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia into his music. Its bittersweet melodies evoke memories of times when mothers might have sung to us to lull us to sleep, or perhaps sung to express their own joys, or to mitigate life’s sorrows. A mother, dressed in a colourful shift—as timeless in the flapper era as it would have been in Mary Quant’s 60s, or even today—observes a boy, engaging in different activities — skipping, twirling a hoop and balancing on a high wire which is simultaneously the string of a bright kite that swirls across the sky: a line that is both dangerous and playful. The likelihood that this is an autobiographical work is very compelling. Robert Hodgins was a great painter, able to turn the stuff of ordinary life into art and poetry – which is why he is so beloved. Born just after the first World War, to a single mother, Hodgins would have had a tough life were it not for his indomitable spirit, great intelligence and compassion, and his love of art, literature, theatre and music which enrich his paintings and make them so seductive. Here he manages to create a playful scene which—at the same time— suggests that each is isolated in their own activities and reveries. Much as we might try to protect our loved ones, we will inevitably have to trust that they can make their many and various ways in the world. The painting predates Marlon Brando’s autobiography of the same title which, one cannot help thinking, would have delighted the artist. EB
Condition_report : The overall condition is excellent. Colours are vibrant and stable.
