raucous parlor scene; two women seated at table holding a glass object with smoke, the woman at L is in her underwear, and the woman at R, in a green dress, is being fondled by a man in blue near C; nude woman seated on a chair near C throwing hands above head; nude woman holding a mirror at R among other, younger, nude figures; yellow-framed screen open URQ

%C2%A9 June Leaf %2F Edward Thorpe Gallery

The Salon, 1965

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Eight women and children fill this room with raucous laughter, dancing and celebration. It is a party that appears wildly out of control–one figure holds a round cartoon-like bomb, its wick lit and smoking. Another holds a mirror up and grimaces towards the viewer, tongue out like a Gorgon warding away the evil eye. June Leaf based this painting on a print of an 18 th century French painting showing a genteel gathering in a fancy room. She upturned civility to allow for this rambunctious soiree in which anything might happen.

Leaf spent a summer in Paris copying old master paintings at the Louvre as a young woman. Her understanding of the conventions of genre painting has allowed her to satirize it here.

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Details
Title
The Salon
Artist Life
born 1929
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2016.91.1
Curator Approved

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raucous parlor scene; two women seated at table holding a glass object with smoke, the woman at L is in her underwear, and the woman at R, in a green dress, is being fondled by a man in blue near C; nude woman seated on a chair near C throwing hands above head; nude woman holding a mirror at R among other, younger, nude figures; yellow-framed screen open URQ

© June Leaf / Edward Thorpe Gallery

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