Curmudgeon

Good grief – I understand that running an estate sale is likely challenging, as well as requires a good deal of energy, but the man running the sale where I picked up this painting was beyond grumpy. Downright unpleasant. “Curmudgeon” came to mind. I paid for my pile, including this artwork, shoved it all in the black garbage bag he was angry I was using, and headed home, wondering about the word “curmudgeon”. The word cropped up in writings in the 1500s, though its origin is much debated. The term describes an ill-tempered older man, full of stubborn ideas or opinions…wow is that a useful term these days.

Oddly, the word curmudgeon applies only to men- a women is a termagant. The origin of termagant is also murky, and there are 23 proposed theories, though the term was applied to both sexes as far back as the 1400s. Chaucer picked up the term and used it as a female descriptor – though to be fair, Chaucer was writing a parody so we cannot blame him. Shakespeare’s plays, with only male actors, created the idea that a “termagant” was a woman who acted in a masculine way -overbearing, loud, nasty - and created our modern version. My favorite definition is from Wikipedia: termagant is used in modern English to mean an overbearing, turbulent, brawling, quarrelsome woman. I would much prefer to be a termagant than a curmudgeon, since, as far as I can tell, the opposite of all those traits is to be passive – and I am not likely to ever be so. And being awake to the needs and care of human beings sometimes requires standing your ground. I suspect my 1970s girl feels the same way, given her frowning mien.

The painting is a stylized image of a young woman, painted on a wood board, and signed “White” with no date. The framing, colors, hairdo, and eye makeup scream 1970s. The wood “canvas” is carved, allowing the brown glazing to settle in cracks and crevices, creating wonderful texture on the surface. The design of the work pays homage to Egyptian art’s stylized “aspect view”: the girl’s body and eye are turned toward the viewer, but her head is shown in profile.  Ancient Egyptians believed a person’s essence, or “ka”, could reside in their visual representations. The profile representation “allowed artists to highlight recognizable features…while also depicting the torso and eyes from the front to emphasize the heart and gaze, which they considered the core of soul and consciousness. “(https://historicaleve.com/why-did-the-ancient-egyptians-depict-themselves-in-profile/) If having a soul and consciousness is considered someone’s core, I will stick with my termagant ways and avoid all curmudgeons.