c.1971
Oil on masonite
14 x 10 inches

Ex-collection
The Artist
Patricia Pinkerton 1970-2017

Note about the original owner

The original owner of this work Patricia Pinkerton met Mark Tansey were both working at San Jose State University Art Department, an Jose California. He painted the image, during a period when they were there as associates in the Art Department. Mark was both a student there, and worked in the Art Gallery,Patricia was the Side Curator for the University, and also worked with Mark’s father Prof. Richard Tansey,an art historian

About the work

The painting of the back view nude, was augmented by use of a photograph. Using monochromatic colour, so typical of the artist’s works, has symbolism based on the literary masterpiece Salammbo, by the 19^th Century French writer Gustave Flaubert. Inserted in a circular format which is in reality an iconic clay oil lamp, the painting in its iconography used as a basic thread, the cult of Tanit, goddess of the city of Carthage, (sacked in the 3rdc BC after the 1^st Punic Wars), her symbol is at the top of the painting. Flaubert researched the novel’s historic detail painstakingly, and the symbolism used is largely an exercise in sensuality.