PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

It ignited a bidding war no one could have predicted, finally sold, hammer down, for more than any contemporary painting by an unknown artist - first on the floor of a famed auction house in London then again later that night doubling its value in a backroom roup at a penthouse suite attended by those who had no qualms paying millions to acquire what others covet. It wasn't that the painting itself was so extraordinary however unusual in that the artist included himself in the scene, barely noticeable at the left-hand edge, right-side of his body and small slice of the canvas, paintbrush held out gesturing towards his muse, a woman of indeterminate age though by her countenance appearing to be more matron than maid. Frozen in time and pigment, she looked directly at the man from her repose on the fainting couch, surrounded by a room baroque and lavishly ornate. Indeed the plainest thing in that room was the dress she wore, spare and nearly transparent but not quite so, sharing just enough to leave the observer guessing as to what was beneath. 

No it was that it evoked certain emotion from all who viewed it, even amongst those who did not appreciate the esoteric qualities of a good work of art. And it brought up questions - Who was she? What book was she reading? What was their relationship? Were they lovers or was this merely a commissioned portrait? Was the man really the artist or were they being depicted by a 3rd anonymous party hidden from view? Anyone with a modicum of detective skill could have found the answers to these queries as the subjects were both alive and well though their identities kept secret which most surely added to the paintings air of mystery. Who knows why some art affects more than others. Perhaps the atmosphere of that particular moment, passionate yet precarious, a varicolored cameo of two people on the cusp of prodigious change, had somehow been captured and posited into each brushstroke.