Transplanted by Emmy Bridgwater
a study of ageing?
The struggle to come to terms with ageing is made worse for all of us by a culture that continues to over-value youth and align it with beauty.
This work by Emmy Bridgwater, a member of the Birmingham surrealist group in England in the ’30s and ’40s seems to me to address the issue of ageing and attractiveness, especially for women, head-on (pun intended!).
Although the painting is called ‘Transplanted’, a more accurate title would be ‘Grafted’ because Bridgwater has imagined an older face grafted onto a young one as if they were two plants. The terms used by gardeners for grafting are rootstock and scion, and here we have a young face as the rootstock onto which an older face has been grafted.
If, like me, you are confronting the passing of time when you see your reflection in the mirror, maybe this will help you to look differently at the process.
She looked in the mirror and, for the first time, saw two versions of herself.
There was a youthful white face and also an old woman with badly applied yellow makeup.
The white face was firm and fresh with a taut young bud by her cheek but the yellow one had a drooping, bloodshot eye and messy lipstick. The younger face was natural and unspoiled but the older one wore gaudy earrings that sprouted from her chin and lowering ears. The white face was smooth, regular and unadorned. But the older face had deep lines beside the nose and a formal black coiffeur arranged in waves as stiff as shiny liquorice.
She opened her mouth in dismay at the loosening skin of old age and a black void appeared behind the artificial circle of her painted lips. She could still see patches of toned white skin but feared it would eventually all be obliterated by the necessary smearing of cosmetics.
Then she saw the new leaves.
They were strong glossy leaves bursting with sap and they clamoured for attention on her temple between the two very different eyes. In one eye, the passions of youth glowed with wide clear intensity and in the other, a catalogue of experiences pulsed with an inner light. The result was a profusion of strongly rooted new growth.
It was then that she realised how bland and plain the young face had been. Now, here was all this exuberance! Yes, perhaps there was too much makeup but take a little of that away and the vibrancy remained: the quirky details, the tones of blue and green and the commanding black of the hair, variegated with a paler hue.
She peered closer, leaning in towards the mirror, and greeted this new self: its complex new angles, hard-won differences and animated surface. The wrinkle lines disappeared as she smiled, leaving a map of life behind.
There are, of course, many different ways of looking at this picture and this is just mine.
Do please share your take on Emmy Bridgwater’s painting by clicking the ‘comment’ button, which will take you to the post at The Fur Cup.