SONG OF SONGS, 1933
Oil on canvas. 30 x 24½in. (76.2 x 62.3cm.)
Provenance
Included in a list of paintings sold at the Newlyn retrospective, 1976 (TGA 929/1/1277).
Exhibited
Cheltenham, Cheltenham Municipal Gallery, 1936, No. 3.
Penzance, Newlyn Orion Gallery, 1976, No. 2.
The b/w image at TGA 929/9/39 is of this work, although the artist has inscribed it ‘Song of Solomon, 1935’ on the reverse.
The Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon, is a series of biblical verses. Scholars argue about how the obvious sensuality of the poems is to be interpreted. The traditional view is that it is allegorical and sets out God’s love for Israel under the guise of the bridegroom and the bride.
Colquhoun’s image emphasises the physical sexuality of the poem. Two naked lovers intertwine in a scene of voluptuous luxury, amongst flagons of wine, bunches of grapes and bowls of fruit. With the fluttering banner flying above them, it appears to be a rendering of verses 2.4 – 2.6:
He brought me to the banqueting
house,
and his banner above me was love.
Stay me with flagons,
comfort me with apples,
for I am sick of love.
His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand doth embrace me.
In amongst these traditional images of physical pleasure, the otherwise naked woman strikes a contemporary note because she has omitted to remove her modern shoes. This combination of the traditional and the modern is also seen in Death of the Virgin (1931) and Marlowe’s Faust (1931).