'A Kind of Alaska': Deborah

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.

Date

ca.1982 (painted)

Artist/maker

Vaesen, Guy, born 1912 - died 2002 (painter)

Materials and Techniques

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Height: 41.30 cm sight measurement, canvas only, Width: 30.5 cm sight measurement, canvas only, Height: 59.20 cm including frame, Width: 48.7 cm including frame

Object history note

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.

Descriptive line

Oil painting by Guy Vaesen, depicting the character Deborah, in the play A Kind of Alaska by Harold Pinter, 1982.

Materials

Oil paint; Canvas

Techniques

Painting

Subjects depicted

Figure

Categories

Paintings

Production Type

Unique

Collection code

T&P