AGES OF MAN, 1944
Oil on panel. 11½ x 7in. (29.4 x 18.2cm.)
Signed and dated lower left: Colquhoun /44.
Inscribed with the artist's name, title and date on the reverse.
Provenance
National Trust bequest.
Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, 1947, (paintings), No. 6.
Cambridge, Heffer Gallery, 1953, no. 2.
Newlyn, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1961, No. 36.
London, Leva Gallery, 1974, No.18.
There are several schemes for the Ages of Man. For classicists there are five ages, commencing with the Golden Age, and for Shakespeareans there are seven ages. It is more likely that, given her esoteric interests, Colquhoun had in mind either Helene Blavatsky’s theory of seven root races (of which current human beings – the ‘egg born’ – are fifth) or Aleister Crowley’s idea of aeonics, the third of which, the age of Horus, was said to have commenced in 1904.
