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Lot Essay
Paula Rego's Moth, painted in 1994, is one of an important series of pastel paintings known as Dog Women. It takes its slightly bizarre title from a poem of the same name written by Blake Morrison - a work which Rego has said that for her, 'opened up a whole can of worms' to do with marriage. The painting depicts a young girl dressed in a formal 1950s even dress (once belonging to Rego's mother) with her head cocked to one side and her arms bent and fists bent like paws in a pose of obedient dogginess, 'like a yelping Pekinese', Rego has remarked. 'She's an upper class girl, well-trained but vulnerable. She can't cope. He's coming toward her, maybe to rape her, but she's not concentrating on his advances. Maybe she's thinking of the next party, the next lighted candle. But she's on her own. It's about a marriage breaking up.' (Paula Rego cited in J. McEwen, Paula Rego, London 2006, p. 223)
The model for this painting was a professional actress, Victoria Willing. Willing modelled for two of Rego's Dog Women, this work and Bride which was bought from the artist soon after she painted it by the Tate Gallery. Both of these paintings can be seen to relate to Morrison's poem with their suggestion of a woman beginning to break free from restriction, like a moth emerging from its pupa. The model for most of the Dog Women series was Lila Nunes, who brought an extraordinary animalism to her collaboration with Rego - one that prompted the artist to explore this bestiality as a way of pictorially expressing hidden truths about the nature of womanhood.
'To be a dog woman is not necessarily to be downtrodden' Rego has explained, 'that has very little to do with it. In these pictures every woman's a dog woman, not downtrodden but powerful. To be bestial is good. It's physical. Eating, snarling, all activities to do with sensation are positive. To picture a woman as a dog is utterly believable. It emphasizes this physical side of her being. What is important is that the dog is the animal most like a human. A dog learns people's ways and behaves like a person; just a people do. Women learn from those they are with; they are trained to do certain things, but they are also part animal. They have independence of body, independence of spirit and their tastes can be quite gross.' (Paula Rego cited in J. McEwen, Paula Rego, London 2006, p. 217)
The model for this painting was a professional actress, Victoria Willing. Willing modelled for two of Rego's Dog Women, this work and Bride which was bought from the artist soon after she painted it by the Tate Gallery. Both of these paintings can be seen to relate to Morrison's poem with their suggestion of a woman beginning to break free from restriction, like a moth emerging from its pupa. The model for most of the Dog Women series was Lila Nunes, who brought an extraordinary animalism to her collaboration with Rego - one that prompted the artist to explore this bestiality as a way of pictorially expressing hidden truths about the nature of womanhood.
'To be a dog woman is not necessarily to be downtrodden' Rego has explained, 'that has very little to do with it. In these pictures every woman's a dog woman, not downtrodden but powerful. To be bestial is good. It's physical. Eating, snarling, all activities to do with sensation are positive. To picture a woman as a dog is utterly believable. It emphasizes this physical side of her being. What is important is that the dog is the animal most like a human. A dog learns people's ways and behaves like a person; just a people do. Women learn from those they are with; they are trained to do certain things, but they are also part animal. They have independence of body, independence of spirit and their tastes can be quite gross.' (Paula Rego cited in J. McEwen, Paula Rego, London 2006, p. 217)