Not currently on display at the V&A

'A Kind of Alaska': Deborah

Oil Painting
ca.1982 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Oil painting on canvas, unglazed, of a woman in white lying in bed, propped up against white pillows. The painting is framed, in a pine frame, within which is a beige hessian fillet, with white painted plywood inside edging.


Object details

Category
Object type
Title'A Kind of Alaska': Deborah (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Oil on canvas
Brief description
Oil painting by Guy Vaesen, depicting the character Deborah, in the play A Kind of Alaska by Harold Pinter, 1982.
Physical description
Oil painting on canvas, unglazed, of a woman in white lying in bed, propped up against white pillows. The painting is framed, in a pine frame, within which is a beige hessian fillet, with white painted plywood inside edging.
Dimensions
  • Sight measurement, canvas only height: 41.30cm
  • Sight measurement, canvas only width: 30.5cm
  • Including frame height: 59.20cm
  • Including frame width: 48.7cm
Production typeUnique
Credit line
Given by Harold Pinter, CBE.
Object history
This was painted to represent the character Deborah in A Kind of Alaska, a moving play by Harold Pinter, first produced at the Cottesloe Theatre, October 1982, with Judi Dench as Deborah, in the triple bill called Other Places, consisting of A Kind of Alaska, Family Voices and Victoria Station. A Kind of Alaska is about the disease Encephalitis L which had a serious outbreak after the First World War and again in the late 1960s.

The script of A Kind of Alaska was published by Methuen, 1982, and this may have been painted as an illustration for that edition. The other two paintings by Guy Vaesen, depicting moments from Family Voices, were painted to illustrate the Next edition of that script.
Subject depicted
Collection
Accession number
S.124-2002

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Record createdFebruary 27, 2002
Record URL
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