LOKI, 1948
Oil. 13 x 9in. (33.2 x 22.9cm.)
Provenance
Untraced.
Exhibited
London, RBA Galleries, 1950, No. 390.
Cambridge, Heffer Gallery, 1953, no. 14.
Newlyn, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1961, No. 34.
Penzance, Newlyn Gallery, 1974, (Summer 1), no. 94.
Illustrated in b/w in Whybrow p.130.
Colquhoun's choice of the Norse god of fire, falls into her well established pattern of an interest in myths concerning castration and fertility. Loki was the shape-shifting and gender-shifting arch deceiver, the Prince of Lies. He corresponds to the European Lucifer. Tasked by the other gods to make Skadi, the Goddess of winter, smile before she would allow spring to come, Loki tied his genitals to the beard of a billy goat. On losing the resulting tug or war, he fell bleeding into Skadi’s lap. She smiled, relented, and became pregnant by him.
This painting and Vegetation God (1948) are decalcomania part and counterpart.
Reference
Whybrow, M. St Ives 1883-1993. Portrait of an Art Colony. Dart Books, St. Ives, 1994.