Barbara Loftus (b. England - Lives Brighton, England)
The Application, 2021
Oil on canvas
140 x 139 cm
The Artist’s Collection
© Barbara Loftus
Second generation German-Jewish émigrée
In this interior scene, the setting is ostensibly unchanged: we see a similarly comfortable room: a large table covered with a tablecloth, chairs with carved backs, a large, wooden, mirrored fireplace surround covered with framed photographs and numerous framed prints and drawings on the walls behind them. Nonetheless, the quiet intimacy of The Grandparents’ Visit has disappeared, replaced with an atmosphere of tension and anxiety as a middle-aged couple and a young man – presumably their son – contemplate the application of the title: the woman, chin in hand, studies several sheets of paper spread on the cloth before her, holding another tightly in her hand; the older man sits slightly back in his chair, looking out abstractedly, as though in exhaustion or disbelief; the younger man stands with hands folded over the chairback, patiently looking on. We can only assume that this may be an application for a German passport (Deutsches Reich Reisepass), which would have been stamped on the first page with the red letter “J” to identify and isolate Jewish citizens but would also be needed to gain passage out of Germany.
