I have a new little drawing in the following exhibition, organised by artist Bryan Eccleshall.
‘A Charm of Goldfinches’
Gage Gallery, 40 Ball Street, Sheffield, S3 8DB
Open Thursday 1st – Sunday 4th September, 11am – 1pm
There are more paintings in this small show than survive by the man generally acknowledged to be Rembrandt’s best pupil, Carel Fabritius. Two are in the National Gallery (one a brilliant self-portrait and the other a strange street scene of Delft, his home town). Fabritius died in a huge explosion that devastated a part of Delft in 1654. His most famous painting – painted the year he died – is The Goldfinch (Het puttertje), which hangs in the Mauritshuis in the room next to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. This charming work provides the starting point for this show. When I floated the idea of this show, we were coming out of lockdowns during which many people took comfort and delight in the birds that visited their gardens. Wild creatures seemed to be bolder and perhaps even a link to normality. In the original painting this bird is tethered by a delicate chain and many of the submissions here engage with idea of freedom and captivity. Given the genesis of the project, that is perhaps appropriate. I would like to thanks all the artists for agreeing to show their work, but Sean Williams deserves particular thanks as it is due to his generosity that A Charm of Goldfinches has found a home, within his Think of Me with Kindness show.
Bryan Eccleshall August 2022
