Tronies
16 May to 21 June 2026
Rosy Barnes, Alfons Bytautas RSA, Georgina Bown SSA, Joseph Davie, Cherylene Dyer, Henry Fraser, Ronnie Fulton, Komachi Goto, John Johnstone, Shona Kinloch RGI, Simon Laurie RSW RGI, Steven Lindsay, Kevin Low, Alan Macdonald, Neil MacPherson RSA RGI RSW, Stephanie Mills, Heather Nevy RGI, Angela Repping, Sally Rickett, Peter Thomson, Joseph Urie, Graeme Wilcox & Helen Wilson RSW RGI PAI.
Opening Saturday 16 May at 11am with refreshments and meet the artists between 2 & 5pm
A common response to the figurative or portrait paintings I have exhibited in the gallery is often, “it’s a great painting but I couldn’t have a painting of a person I don’t know on my wall.” I believe that most if not all the figurative works we have shown in the gallery involve a narrative that goes way beyond the likeness of the person. How well the artist has caught a likeness of the model is almost immaterial, it could be anyone, but what is important is how it makes the viewer feel. Are we curious as to what the person is thinking, what are they doing or what has just happened or about to happen? It is not a formal commissioned portrait, but they have been created to express the human condition and attract our curiosity.
I recently learned that there is term for these types of paintings that evolved from the Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque periods that features an exaggerated facial expression or a character study, subtly distinct from a formal portrait… “tronies”.
tronie (v.) (pej.) 0.1 mug [or grimace]
Van Dale Dutch-English Dictionary
The word “tronie” is Dutch for “face” or “mug”, as in the above dictionary definition, and these works focused on a single figure to explore expressions, emotions, or stock characters like a peasant, beggar, or jester. They were created for the artists own use and served as a way for artists to study and experiment with human character and physiognomy but like their commissioned portraits, they were also available on the open art market.
So following in the grand footsteps of artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyke, Rembrandt, Frans Hals and more recently Marlene Dumas, I thought it would be an interesting exhibition, and a bit of fun, to invite 20 or so contemporary artists to submit a couple of pieces each that will encourage the viewer to go beyond the likeness of a subject and use their imagination to explore the thoughts behind the faces.
I would just like to thank the artist, Graeme Wilcox for putting me on to the idea of a “Tronie” exhibition… who knew he painted Tronies…not me.
If anyone is interested in reading further the only book I could find in English is a catalogue from an exhibition from 2010 at the Haus Der Kunst in Munich – Tronies: Marlene Dumas and the Old Masters. I will have a copy in the gallery if you would like to have a look.
