Sigismund's Watch | A Tiny Catastrophe
Barbara Loftus' Sigismund’s Watch: A Tiny Catastrophe narrates a ‘primal scene’ from the early 1920s, recalled by Hildegard in old age, when, as a small child, she witnessed, unseen by her parents, a bitter marital row. The cause was her father Sigismund’s bankruptcy, which inflicted sudden impoverishment on their comfortable bourgeois way of life. Hidden under the table, she saw her mother tear her father’s gold pocket watch from his waistcoat pocket, stamp on it and smash it.
Having recently finished its run at the Freud Museum, below is a chance to see just a sample of the paintings from the exhibition.
Hildegard under table I, oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 cm, 2004
Sigismund’s Watch, oil on canvas, 76 × 76 cm, 2004
Snatch, oil on canvas, 30.5 x 30.5 cm, 2004
Stamp, oil on canvas, 30.5 x 30.5 cm, 2004
Window: the letter, oil on canvas, 91.5 x 46 cm, 2010
Staircase: the letter, oil on canvas, 89 x 46 cm, 2010
The Bridge Party, oil on canvas, 81 x 114 cm, 2010
Staircase: Confiscation, oil on canvas, 99 x 58.5cm, 2010