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Lot Essay
Towering over two metres in height, the present work is a luminous example of Sahara Longe’s iconic Party Scene paintings, which have brought the artist to wide acclaim in recent years. Four life-sized figures, smartly dressed in vibrant clothes of red, green and cobalt blue, stand amid a stylised interior. Their silhouettes slot together in frieze-like harmony with the setting, whose floor is patterned with similar hues. The wall behind them is a shimmering pink, radiant with richly-worked brushstrokes. A halo of colour surrounds each figure. The woman at the centre—who resembles the artist herself—holds a tray of champagne flutes, staring directly out of the picture. Two other people lock eyes across her, their expressions inscrutable. In the background, a woman with pale blue eyes turns to face the viewer. Staged with Longe’s classical command of colour and form, the picture is a drama of poised emotional tension.
Born in London in 1994, Longe studied for four years at Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, following a rigorous curriculum that dates back to the ateliers of nineteenth-century Paris. She completed her scholarship in 2018. It was during lockdown back at home that she began to experiment with self-portraiture, and to paint her family and friends. Inspired by the portraits of Edvard Munch and the possibilities of a heightened palette, she developed the soft-edged, brightly coloured yet classically-disciplined style she is known for today. Her training informs not only her deft eye for anatomy and composition, but also her use of materials. She paints on jute—a stiff, fibrous support favoured by the Old Masters and by Paul Gauguin—so that she can vigorously work and rework her oils as they slowly dry. She employs rare pigments such as lead white and Chinese vermillion, mixing them with tree sap, linseed oil and turpentine to prepare complex, gleaming glazes.
Among Longe’s inspirations for this series was Diego Velázquez’s The Surrender of Breda (1634-35), a battlefield painting in which the artist himself is disguised among the soldiers, fixing us with an intense and mysterious gaze. The present work is charged with the same theatrical suspense. Currents of intrigue and secrecy can be found—as long as one looks—in even the most festive of social interactions. ‘I’ve always liked the idea of a party scene’, says Longe. ‘At parties you often observe strings of people set in distinct poses, some knotted together chatting, occasionally a figure or two who stand looking around, alone and apart. It reminds me of religious or historical paintings where people flock into groups, each up to something and related to one another in ways we don’t quite understand. I wanted to create scenes with a similar narrative intrigue, where one must guess at the story of each character, the dynamics between them, and what might lie beneath their social guise’ (S. Longe, ‘Foreword’, in Sahara Longe, exh. cat. Timothy Taylor Gallery, London 2022, p. 4).
Born in London in 1994, Longe studied for four years at Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, following a rigorous curriculum that dates back to the ateliers of nineteenth-century Paris. She completed her scholarship in 2018. It was during lockdown back at home that she began to experiment with self-portraiture, and to paint her family and friends. Inspired by the portraits of Edvard Munch and the possibilities of a heightened palette, she developed the soft-edged, brightly coloured yet classically-disciplined style she is known for today. Her training informs not only her deft eye for anatomy and composition, but also her use of materials. She paints on jute—a stiff, fibrous support favoured by the Old Masters and by Paul Gauguin—so that she can vigorously work and rework her oils as they slowly dry. She employs rare pigments such as lead white and Chinese vermillion, mixing them with tree sap, linseed oil and turpentine to prepare complex, gleaming glazes.
Among Longe’s inspirations for this series was Diego Velázquez’s The Surrender of Breda (1634-35), a battlefield painting in which the artist himself is disguised among the soldiers, fixing us with an intense and mysterious gaze. The present work is charged with the same theatrical suspense. Currents of intrigue and secrecy can be found—as long as one looks—in even the most festive of social interactions. ‘I’ve always liked the idea of a party scene’, says Longe. ‘At parties you often observe strings of people set in distinct poses, some knotted together chatting, occasionally a figure or two who stand looking around, alone and apart. It reminds me of religious or historical paintings where people flock into groups, each up to something and related to one another in ways we don’t quite understand. I wanted to create scenes with a similar narrative intrigue, where one must guess at the story of each character, the dynamics between them, and what might lie beneath their social guise’ (S. Longe, ‘Foreword’, in Sahara Longe, exh. cat. Timothy Taylor Gallery, London 2022, p. 4).