National Gallery of Art acquires a painting by Elizabeth Okie Paxton

16/5/24 - Acquisition - Washington, National Gallery of Art - Rather than depicting a female nude languidly reclining on a bed, Elizabeth Okie Paxton chose not to show it, but to evoke its presence in a cleverly organised bedroom (ill. 1). So she paints a genre scene condensed into a still life: an unmade bed, crumpled sheets, two kissed pillows, still marked by the imprint of the heads that have rested on them, a dressing gown about to slip to the floor, a suit of clothes - male or female? - on the end of the bed, a newspaper unfolded on the floor, shoes carelessly lying around as if they had been taken off in a hurry, and then breakfast, served on a tray on a chair. The spectator is both voyeur and narrator. It is up to them to answer the questions posed by this staging: have lovers…