Women Returning Home…
(Inspired by Marianne von Werefkin’s 1909 painting…)
Forbidding institutional walls pervade and oppress
The length of the street, colourless, grim and austere.
Pockets of amber illuminate leaded glass and open doorways,
Revealing stairs to rooms and small, inconsequential windows
Of dwellings, lit by pallid hues and strewn by streetlight yellow,
Like jaundice. And the sun sets orange upon distant constructions…
Myriad reflections daub the roadway, the route home under stress
Of a sullen line of women, dressed black as roofs, their weariness clear,
As they trudge, hooded, cold and resigned to their fates and set ways,
Laden with bundles of washing and baskets, even a sleeping babe, whose face glows
Upon a weary mother’s shoulder, its garments bright with hope for the callow
Child, whose future is uncertain in an environment with limited expectations…
Pete Ray…
1st January 2026…
The artist was living in Germany in 1909 and for me this painting exudes sadness, austerity and frugality.
The line of women, moving like refugees towards their homes below such overbearing walls after completing their washing chores, is a chilling irony, for just a few years on, their menfolk would be moving in similar lines towards trench warfare…
The chinks of light from the baby’s clothing and the bundles of washing, offer perhaps some hope for it…
Or maybe not.
