Of Flowers and Lawyers
Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 00:00
By Marcel Strigberger
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the National Art Gallery in Ottawa where I saw a two ring circus. The first was a showing of some of Van Gogh's works. The second was a display of Honore Daumier's sketches. There were no similarities at all between the two artists other than the fact that they were contemporaries. Van Gogh focused chiefly on nature. Daumier focused on political satire, a large number of his subjects being lawyers.
I visited the Van Gogh exhibit firstly and I was calmed and composed by his paintings of gentle flowers and tranquil landscaping.
I then moved over to another corner of the gallery to be treated to a display of sketches in black and white lambasting the judicial system, especially the lawyers. There is one sketch where a client and her young daughter are besides themselves with grief. Their lawyer who just lost the case for them says something like, "I am sure however that they were impressed with the way I argued the case." What bothered me the most about this piece is that I felt guilty readily identifying with the lawyer. Hey, we've all been there?
I asked myself, why is it that lawyers are always the brunt of snide or cruel remarks and inferences? We are seen no differently than the fairytale wolf. As far as the public goes we may as well eat up grannies on route to scooping up Red Riding Hood's loot basket. Or we may as well huff and puff and blow down houses, terrifying little pigs.
We are never seen say as that kind fairy godmother. I can't even begin to imagine Cinderella back home sobbing about her step mother's refusal to let her attend the grand ball and suddenly out of the blue along comes Fairy Godmother Q.C.. What would she do? Ask for a pumpkin and apply for a mandatory injunction?
Then again I thought to myself and imagined that maybe, just maybe it was the artist and not the subject matter that was responsible for the work's theme. I visualized Van Gogh painting lawyers' sketches and Daumier doing flowers and landscape. What would these have looked like? Suppose there would have been captions in both cases. Surely Van Gogh would have been kinder.
I can just see Vincent Van doing a sketch of a barrister waving his hands around in court pointing to the head of his roguish looking client and holding a blood stained knife. The caption would read something like, "Lawyer skilfully refuting open and shut cases against murder suspect in moorish style courtroom set in southern France.
Or perhaps it might read something like, "Handcrafted knife with crimson bloodstain in the hands of a man of justice exercising his skills."
Or it might even be , "Serene scene from a trial at the autumn assizes in Arles."
Daumier on the other hand would not even spare the landscaping. Let us take a painting of a garden on a sunny day. Honore's caption if he sticks to his usual form would be something like, "Uh huh! But you will never get rid of us weeds!" Or "Fine garden, right. Do you know what we have to pay the gardener monthly?"
Even a vase of roses would not come off smelling as sweet were Daumier to put his brush to them. The caption might read, "But do you know how much manure it took to fertilize the crop?", or "Look at me well today because tomorrow I wilt."
Daumier could even kill that 50 million dollar Van Gogh painting of those irises were he to apply a caption like, "Come closer and I'll squirt you."
As bad as he may have been to lawyers, Picasso would probably have been more crude. His lawyers would probably all have six or seven hands. If touched up by Daumier the work would find those hands in clients' pockets. Supply your own caption.
Oh, the joys of practicing law! How does one apply to become a fairy godmother?
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the National Art Gallery in Ottawa where I saw a two ring circus. The first was a showing of some of Van Gogh's works. The second was a display of Honore Daumier's sketches. There were no similarities at all between the two artists other than the fact that they were contemporaries. Van Gogh focused chiefly on nature. Daumier focused on political satire, a large number of his subjects being lawyers.
I visited the Van Gogh exhibit firstly and I was calmed and composed by his paintings of gentle flowers and tranquil landscaping.
I then moved over to another corner of the gallery to be treated to a display of sketches in black and white lambasting the judicial system, especially the lawyers. There is one sketch where a client and her young daughter are besides themselves with grief. Their lawyer who just lost the case for them says something like, "I am sure however that they were impressed with the way I argued the case." What bothered me the most about this piece is that I felt guilty readily identifying with the lawyer. Hey, we've all been there?
I asked myself, why is it that lawyers are always the brunt of snide or cruel remarks and inferences? We are seen no differently than the fairytale wolf. As far as the public goes we may as well eat up grannies on route to scooping up Red Riding Hood's loot basket. Or we may as well huff and puff and blow down houses, terrifying little pigs.
We are never seen say as that kind fairy godmother. I can't even begin to imagine Cinderella back home sobbing about her step mother's refusal to let her attend the grand ball and suddenly out of the blue along comes Fairy Godmother Q.C.. What would she do? Ask for a pumpkin and apply for a mandatory injunction?
Then again I thought to myself and imagined that maybe, just maybe it was the artist and not the subject matter that was responsible for the work's theme. I visualized Van Gogh painting lawyers' sketches and Daumier doing flowers and landscape. What would these have looked like? Suppose there would have been captions in both cases. Surely Van Gogh would have been kinder.
I can just see Vincent Van doing a sketch of a barrister waving his hands around in court pointing to the head of his roguish looking client and holding a blood stained knife. The caption would read something like, "Lawyer skilfully refuting open and shut cases against murder suspect in moorish style courtroom set in southern France.
Or perhaps it might read something like, "Handcrafted knife with crimson bloodstain in the hands of a man of justice exercising his skills."
Or it might even be , "Serene scene from a trial at the autumn assizes in Arles."
Daumier on the other hand would not even spare the landscaping. Let us take a painting of a garden on a sunny day. Honore's caption if he sticks to his usual form would be something like, "Uh huh! But you will never get rid of us weeds!" Or "Fine garden, right. Do you know what we have to pay the gardener monthly?"
Even a vase of roses would not come off smelling as sweet were Daumier to put his brush to them. The caption might read, "But do you know how much manure it took to fertilize the crop?", or "Look at me well today because tomorrow I wilt."
Daumier could even kill that 50 million dollar Van Gogh painting of those irises were he to apply a caption like, "Come closer and I'll squirt you."
As bad as he may have been to lawyers, Picasso would probably have been more crude. His lawyers would probably all have six or seven hands. If touched up by Daumier the work would find those hands in clients' pockets. Supply your own caption.
Oh, the joys of practicing law! How does one apply to become a fairy godmother?
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© 2007 Marcel Strigberger. This article CANNOT be copied or reproduced in any way without the expressed written consent of the Author.
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