Holding on to Eternal Virtues: ‘Farewell’

Change is a fact of life. Sometimes we hurt ourselves by trying to keep things the same forever. We hurt ourselves when we cannot let go of and accept the inevitability of change. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t some things that don’t change; some things are eternal. In 1913, the English painter Arthur Hacker created “Farewell.” Sotheby’s website suggests that it was painted as if it was “almost in anticipation of the First World War, with the irrevocable changes that it caused.” “Farewell” is a simple painting, but its mystery and the mood it invokes causes me to ask certain questions, which may be relevant for us today. Arthur Hacker’s ‘Farewell’ Hacker painted two female figures in a dark setting. The woman on the left is almost completely obscured by background shadows, whereas the woman on the right is more fully illuminated.  The woman on the left wears a …

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