2006, Cecily Brown, All is Vanity (after Gilbert) (detail) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label: Creating a monotype involves painting a composition in reverse–adding the top layer of the image to the plate first–resulting in an impression that is unique and bears the qualities of both a watercolor and a print. The process mirrors how Brown layers favorite motifs and revisits artistic sources in different media, from paintings to works on paper. Here, the artist has reworked a popular 1902 illustration, also titled All Is Vanity, that represents a stylish young woman at her mirror. As in so many of Brown's other versions, the composition makes great use of the visual pun in the original: the specter of a skull that hovers over the vain subject, reminding the viewer that death lurks just around the corner.
Link to the full painting.
Link to other paintings from the “Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid” exhibition.
2006, Cecily Brown, All is Vanity (after Gilbert) (detail) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label: Creating a monotype involves painting a composition in reverse–adding the top layer of the image to the plate first–resulting in an impression that is unique and bears the qualities of both a watercolor and a print. The process mirrors how Brown layers favorite motifs and revisits artistic sources in different media, from paintings to works on paper. Here, the artist has reworked a popular 1902 illustration, also titled All Is Vanity, that represents a stylish young woman at her mirror. As in so many of Brown's other versions, the composition makes great use of the visual pun in the original: the specter of a skull that hovers over the vain subject, reminding the viewer that death lurks just around the corner.
Link to the full painting.
Link to other paintings from the “Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid” exhibition.