Her Royal & Sovereign Highness Dulcinea Del Toboso
'Her Royal & Sovereign Highness Dulcinea Del Toboso'
Category: Paintings
Artist: Chris Gollon
Subject: Homage
Year of Work: 2005
Media: mixed media on canvas
Size: 20" x 64"
£9,000. To purchase this work, or for further information, please contact: IAP Fine Art, London. T: 0844 561 1833.
Hinged triptych, side panels 16” x 20”, centre panel 32” x 20”; mixed media on canvas 2005. Chris Gollon had enjoyed re-reading Cervantes’ great picaresque novel “Don Quixote”; and was also quite taken by a TV documentary (The Man From La Mancha) on the failed attempt by Terry Gilliam to make a movie of the novel.
The earthy Sancho Panza remains with his master, the self-appointed knight errant Don Quixote, because Quixote has promised him the reward of an island for his loyalty. But in chapter after chapter this loyalty is tested, and in none more so than when Don Quixote falls in love with what he sees as a chaste and lovely maiden of good breeding: Lady Dulcinea Del Toboso. The Dulcinea Quixote sees with starry eyes seems at a far remove from the woman Sancho sees (a rough country woman of loose morals). Both Sancho and Quixote remain unswerving in their certainty as to the true appearance and character of Dulcinea, to the point where Quixote threatens the life of his companion if he will continue to insist his Lady Dulcinea is anything but the chaste beauty inhabiting his own mind’s eye.
‘Love is blind’, ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ are human truths we have kept in our language, and this chapter in Cervantes’ work inspired Chris Gollon to paint Dulcinea three times. On the left, as Don Quixote sees her: aristocratic, perhaps slightly haughty, and chaste. On the right, as perhaps she was generally seen. In the centre, as Sancho Panza sees her. In Chris Gollon’s treatment of Dulcinea, two of these images are imaginary. It is easy to see that one is imaginary, but of the other two, perhaps we will never be able to tell which is the real deal.
'Study for Don Quixote'
Chris Gollon then explored the idea of casting himself as Don Quixote, and this first work was produced, choosing to paint Don Quixote as he plans his course of knight errantry, complete with splendid finery and aristocratic beard and moustache.
'Study for Sancho Panza'
Much to his friend and agent David Tregunna’s annoyance, Chris Gollon also decided to paint him as Sancho Panza. This work depicts the episode where the landlord and assorted ruffians, (upon Don Quixote’s refusal to pay the bill for lodgings and hospitality on the grounds that knights errant should receive them free), decide to toss poor Sancho in a blanket to see if coins might fall out of his pockets.
Unfortunately, the pressure of other commissions and solo shows has meant that this series, like Gilliam's film, will remain unfinished. Therefore, these three works are very likely to be the only ones Chris Gollon will produce on this great subject.
