In His Own Time

His gaze confronts the viewer as
though he is looking straight through
into his own future, stoic, pensive
lacking the confidence and comfort of
those his talented hands paint as he
travels, an itinerant artist, from place
to place offering his creativity to those
with self assurance in their own social
status, their wealth, eager to have
themselves portrayed for posterity
with satisfied conviction in their own
steady gaze that his own lacks. They
are portrayed with the full accoutrements
of status and industry. One wonders, did
he offer a special price, two-for-one?
For his portraits came in pairs; the
paterfamilias with his paunch and
formal garb in a sumptuous setting
matched by that of his good wife
the matriarch. Stoutly handsome the
pair, she with her tasteful dark-silk
gown and her opera-length pearls,
the very picture of the talk of society.
The self-portrait of the artist as a
young man, a whimsical creation for
young men of meagre means and great
vision also imagine they have something
to leave for posterity. He had seen the
utter depravity and savagery that men
are capable of, but deigned not to paint
what he had experienced during the war
that pitted brother against brother. For
him there was a reputation to make
as a competent portraitist and a living
to make to support oneself during
times of peace. A bare living, to be
sure. No longer the 19th Century, now
his portraits are held in great esteem
they earn the seller tidy profit. Museums
and galleries of art compete for his
portraits, yet none now recognize his
own, the portrait of the artist for it
is undistinguished, unassuming.