Iben Painting

Iben - Winning Portrait of Brewer J.C Jacobsen's Portrait Award 2013 A good portrait should uncover two people. It should reveal the sudject -in this case, the woman in the picture. But it should also reveal so much personality in the portrayal of this person that it illuminates the artist. Can we speak of such a 'double portrait' in the case of James Hague's portraait of 'Iben'? Yes - and we can do more than that.It is for the presence of these qualities, and for several other reasons, that this portrait has won Brewer J.C Jacobsen's Portrait Prize 2013. The Painting does'nt hide much from us.The women whose name is 'Iben', sits on an office chair close to a wall, whose skirting panel borders a floor made of painted floorboards.This defines the space behind her. Her position dictates the extents of the picture, in both height and width. The point of one of her elbows nearly touches the pper edge of the painting - while the other is just a few centimetres from its right-hand edge.The surroundings are relaxed. In front of the subject sits a plant,and behind her hangs a length of wire cabaling. A good portrait should uncover two people. It should reveal the sudject -in this case, the woman in the picture. But it should also reveal so much personality in the portrayal of this person that it illuminates the artist. Can we speak of such a 'double portrait' in the case of James Hague's portraait of 'Iben'? Yes - and we can do more than that.It is for the presence of these qualities, and for several other reasons, that this portrait has won Brewer J.C Jacobsen's Portrait Prize 2013. The Painting does'nt hide much from us.The women whose name is 'Iben', sits on an office chair close to a wall, whose skirting panel borders a floor made of painted floorboards.This defines the space behind her. Her position dictates the extents of the picture, in both height and width. The point of one of her elbows nearly touches the pper edge of the painting - while the other is just a few centimetres from its right-hand edge.The surroundings are relaxed. In front of the subject sits a plant,and behind her hangs a length of wire cabaling. Iben - Winning Portrait of Brewer J.C Jacobsen's Portrait Award 2013 Self Portrait - Winner BP National Portrait Award 1996 She puts her arms behind her head , in a gesture which suggests that she isn't much interested in this collision between the organic and the technical, She is also just relaxing. She doesn't even look at the painter, looking at her as he paints her-and, with her, of the details which constitute her clothing and her presence, right down to the organic-geometric pattern of the small buttons on her blue white dress. Although we don't know who 'Iben' is, we know who the painter is . His name is James Hague. He was born in Nottingham in 1970, and was educated in Fine Art at the Nortumbria University in Newcastle from 1989 to 1993; and then ten years later, at the Royal College of Art. Today he lives in Denmark periodically. He has previously taken part in Brewer J.C Jacobsens Portrait Prize. This year, he landed the award a that he has no doubt deserved for a while. With his portrait of 'Iben, James Hague has won a portrait competition which has, in my opinion, been a contest among many possible winners. And he has won because everything in his picture hangs strikingly together: the plant's large, sharp leaves, the angular shapes in Iben's face, her pale arms- and the steep angles thrown by thoes arms against the background. You can compare a painting like this to a kind of contention, where everything new being said serves to underline what's been said already. This person-Iben- seems to be percieved and interpreted in such a way that the parts which make up the picture's whole communicate not only with each other but also with us. Everything we see in the portrait appears to be making a statement using the same visual language. taken as a whole, the picture tells us that the artist is familiar with the tradition of modern English painting, of which Lucian Freud was also a part. Freud is not the worst name you could invoke in this context - being the most significant English portrait painter of the twentieth century. It is this noble tradition that James Hague is carrying on and developing through his work and is well on his way. This he has demonstrated, with his portrait of 'Iben'. First and foremost, the picture convinces through the stylistic confidence and artisric maturity with which the artist has carried out the project.This confidence is found as much in the whole as in the details which constitute the picture's component part's. It is for these reasons, when we focus on this picture today, we are speaking of a winning portrait. But, it is also a portrait that will continue to win as you learn to know it better.

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:35.4 W x 43.3 H x 1.6 D in

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