Title: Georgy Girl: portrait of George Elliot
Material: oil on wood
Size: 30×30
Year: 2015
“If we had a keen vision of all ordinary life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of the roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well-wadded with stupidity.” — George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)
George Elliot assumed a man’s name to overcome the second-class citizenry her society forced upon women, and became one England’s finest writers. It was either that or stay locked in the attic. Behind her is pictured lush English countryside, separated by her from the London townhouse where she breathed her last. The title suggests swinging London of the 1960s (Hey there, Georgy Girl), a time that might have kinder to her.