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Lot Essay
Caulfield began using a new format for his paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He began painting large-scale vertical canvases using acrylic or a combination of acrylic and oil rather than just oil paint. These developments in his work were led by the subject matter and resulted in large monochrome paintings with linear black grids frequently depicting interior spaces.
Characteristic of Caulfield's work there is a noted feel of the absence of people in Interior with Fondue Pan. Although much of Caulfield's subject matter revolves around the implication of human habitation, figures are rarely seen. Caulfield commented, 'If you're depicting something made by human beings, that seems to me to be enough. It does describe people. I wasn't consciously thinking that if I included a person in it the viewer would feel that he was intruding. It was probably because of the difficulty of formalising a person and using a figure without it being a narrative. I managed it in After Lunch because the person, being a waiter, was a sort of cypher for nobody' (see exhibition catalogue, Patrick Caulfield: Paintings 1963-81, Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 1981, pp. 25-6).
Interior with Fondue Pan, with its plates laid and fondue pan sitting in pride of place in the centre of the table, invites the viewer to imagine themselves within the setting portrayed. It is reminiscent of, and works in the same way, as photographs in a Habitat or Ikea catalogue. Marco Livingstone comments, 'Many of the elements used in Inside a Swiss Chalet and subsequent interiors, such as Interior with Room Divider, 1971, Dining Recess, 1972 (fig. 1), Foyer, and Café Interior: Afternoon, 1973, were adapted very selectively from outdated books on interior design, each one prized for its associations and for what it reveals about people's taste and about the spaces we make for ourselves. So persuasive is the detailing of the chalet, like that of the clichéd Swiss hearts cut into the chair backs, and so inviting are the intricate spaces through which one is encouraged to make a mental journey, that one can easily play along and believe in it as a real space. The place is empty and there is no evidence that other people have yet intruded. Various creature comforts have thoughtfully been prepared prior to our arrival. Now it is up to us to bring the place alive' (see Patrick Caulfield, Aldershot, 2005, p. 65).
There is a photograph of Caulfield standing in front of Interior with Fondue Pan in an exhibition catalogue from Galerie Stadler, Paris, in 1972.
Characteristic of Caulfield's work there is a noted feel of the absence of people in Interior with Fondue Pan. Although much of Caulfield's subject matter revolves around the implication of human habitation, figures are rarely seen. Caulfield commented, 'If you're depicting something made by human beings, that seems to me to be enough. It does describe people. I wasn't consciously thinking that if I included a person in it the viewer would feel that he was intruding. It was probably because of the difficulty of formalising a person and using a figure without it being a narrative. I managed it in After Lunch because the person, being a waiter, was a sort of cypher for nobody' (see exhibition catalogue, Patrick Caulfield: Paintings 1963-81, Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 1981, pp. 25-6).
Interior with Fondue Pan, with its plates laid and fondue pan sitting in pride of place in the centre of the table, invites the viewer to imagine themselves within the setting portrayed. It is reminiscent of, and works in the same way, as photographs in a Habitat or Ikea catalogue. Marco Livingstone comments, 'Many of the elements used in Inside a Swiss Chalet and subsequent interiors, such as Interior with Room Divider, 1971, Dining Recess, 1972 (fig. 1), Foyer, and Café Interior: Afternoon, 1973, were adapted very selectively from outdated books on interior design, each one prized for its associations and for what it reveals about people's taste and about the spaces we make for ourselves. So persuasive is the detailing of the chalet, like that of the clichéd Swiss hearts cut into the chair backs, and so inviting are the intricate spaces through which one is encouraged to make a mental journey, that one can easily play along and believe in it as a real space. The place is empty and there is no evidence that other people have yet intruded. Various creature comforts have thoughtfully been prepared prior to our arrival. Now it is up to us to bring the place alive' (see Patrick Caulfield, Aldershot, 2005, p. 65).
There is a photograph of Caulfield standing in front of Interior with Fondue Pan in an exhibition catalogue from Galerie Stadler, Paris, in 1972.