Tied in a bow

Title: Tied in a bow
Medium: Four colour lithograph
Paper size: 46 x 38.5 cm
Image size: 46 x 38.5 cm
Edition size: 30

"Portraits have always occupied a major part in my work. We spend much of our visual lives directing our gaze at the faces of others. Somehow every portrait I do is a self-portrait and explores themes others can relate to, a state of in-between.

I was looking at Beau Brummell's "Neckclothitania" AKA 'one of the Cloth' published in 1818 with pages of illustrations on the complicated sets of knots and bows of the cravat that Brummell favoured. This nineteenth-century necktie was  Brummell's most lasting and mysterious invention.

“Once tied, the necktie should never be altered in the hope of improving its appearance; if it is ill-tied, one must start again with a fresh cravat. What the wearer is after is a curious mean between skill and pure chance. The tying of a cravat involves the rigorous removal of human agency from the final appearance of the fabric: the knot is intentional, but the folds are entirely fortuitous.” Beau Brummell

I recently dressed-up a model with a cravat around the neck and used the reference for the portrait 'Tied in a bow'. The plain linen 'neckcloth' created a soft bow at the front." Hanneke Benadé

Hanneke Benadé Print Archive