A familiar convention of Renaissance art was the depiction of the Three Charities or Graces (goddesses from Greek mythology that represented the youthful ideals of grace, charm, and beauty). Whether in sculpture or painting, the figures were often shown as if they were dancing, with each figure turned a different direction so the viewer could see all sides of the female figure from one vantage point. Sandro Botticelli’s La Primavera in the Uffizi Gallery is one famous example, as is Antonio Canova’s marble statue The Three Graces in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In his depiction of four figures Colville follows the convention of having each figure present a different aspect to the viewer, side, back, and front. Much as the four women in Four Figures on a Wharf seem to progress through time as well as space, the woman in Four Females Standing on their Head II could be one woman, depicted as if she was spinning, or four distinct figures, the artist leaves it up to the viewer to decide. Again like Four Figures on a Wharf, the figures echo the Greek architectural element of the caryatid, a female figure that served as a post or pillar.
Of course, those figures were not shown standing on their heads. There is a wry wit at play here – has the world been turned upside down? One doesn’t often think of humour as an element in the works of Colville, but this drawing certainly has its humorous aspect. The architectural setting is reminiscent of Di Chirico, putting this drawing in the magic realist period of Colville’s work. The frieze of figures also suggests a team of acrobats or gymnasts. Colville did paint an acrobat in Circus Woman (1960), a figure whose spinning in mid-air is frozen as she gazes at the viewer. He also returned to the image of a figure standing on her head in Headstand (1982), another painting with a humorous edge (how else can we read an image of a nude woman doing a headstand on a front porch while a cat nonchalantly strolls by?).
Four Females Standing on their Head II never became a painting, but the artist finished it to a degree far beyond his regular practice in preparatory sketches, clearly showing his interest in the composition, an interest that seems to have eventually manifested itself in two very different paintings.
- Ray Cronin, 2023
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