The romance of the artist as genius has for long been a story of male tribulation and triumph. Here in the Roman studio of visiting French painter Alfred Jules Giess (1901-1973) it looks more like it takes the concerted efforts of a phalanx of women to make possible this one picture. The model poses (when else does a woman lie with her weight resting on one hip and her other slightly elevated, like an offering?). The wife bends over her mending, close enough to monitor the child rolling its ball on the floor. Meanwhile, we see a nursemaid taking a baby into another room. Without knowing much about the artist, I am torn between two thoughts: either this man was utterly clueless or he had tongue firmly in cheek when he painted this picture.
Image: Alfred Jules Giess - My Studio In Rome, 1932, La Piscine - Musee Andre Diligent, Roubaix.
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