I have an old school friend who is now an art dealer. I occasionally buy a picture from him if I can afford it because I like having art around the house.
One day, he called me and said he had a picture that he thought I would be interested in. He sent me an image of the picture above, and at once, I knew I had to have it. It now hangs in my front room. Being a theatre person, I related to the subject matter.
The girl is an usherette at what would have been called a picture palace. It was painted by Frank Lyndon Giles. He trained at Goldsmith’s College and St Martins and became a full-time magazine illustrator. What makes this picture even more interesting is that it was painted around 1940 at the height of the London Blitz. You certainly don’t see usherettes wearing such costumes these days and that material looks a bit cold. If you look behind her you can see the white tray, she uses for selling ice creams in what used to be called the intermission. Back in the day, they showed two films at the cinema – a short like a comedy caper or sometimes a Pathe news item from somewhere in the world or even a B movie. Then in the intermission, they sold the ice cream.
What is special about this picture is that she looks in our direction but her attention is drawn to the silver screen. What is she thinking? Is she identifying with someone she sees? Is she thinking, “That could be me up there?” She looks a little sad, dreamy even.
Maybe the cinema is a place to escape from reality and live for a while in a different world. I like the contrast between the grim reality of the world outside and the spell she has fallen into here. Perhaps she’s not quite fallen into it because her eyes look a little detached as if something is playing on her mind or maybe she is judging and weighing something up.
Either way, I admire the work of the artist. The content is unusual and it causes you to wonder. Between us and the cinema seats and the girl and the screen, there is an interesting relationship.
