Object Description
SIZE UNFRAMED: H25 x W29 ins (64 x 74 cms)
SIZE FRAMED: H31 x W29 ins (79 x 74 cms)
OIL ON CANVAS
FRAMED
I hadn’t realised before researching this painting of Capri that the island was known as such a bohemian colony of artists and writers. The creative elite had been holidaying or living there since the mid-nineteenth century and by the beginning of the next century it had become a relative safe-haven for the gay and lesbian community. In 1928, Compton Mackenzie wrote ‘Extraordinary Women’, a satirical presentation of the island’s lesbian colony, inspired by the affairs of American painter Romaine Brooks. Sheffer’s work is presumably an illustration intended for publication in a mainstream magazine. I wonder then how knowing his public would have been about the two ladies walking arm in arm in the background, innocent enough for the times but in the context of what sophisticated society knew of 1920s Capri? Perhaps the earliest LGBT+ referenced painting we’ve yet had at P & H……