L’Homme et la Mer (The Man and the Sea)

Anthea Missy

Addicted Art Gallery Singapore

Click to buy today

Artwork details

Artist

Anthea Missy

Title

L’Homme et la Mer (The Man and the Sea)

Description

Medium: Hand pulled screen print on acid-free Fabriano 300gsm paper, signed, numbered and stamped by the artist.

Edition: Limited to 10 [Subtle variations in the screen printing process makes each print unique].

Good To Know: Artwork is shipped directly from the artist's studio, accompanied by a CoA (Cert. of Authenticity) issued by the artist.

Price: Excludes international shipping and applicable import duties / charges. Please contact our gallery to obtain a shipping quote.

Arty-Fact: In Charles Baudelaire's L’Homme et la Mer, the relationship between man and sea is anything but peaceful. They recognise themselves in one another, sharing the same hidden depths, restless desires and capacity for destruction. They are inseparable, yet forever in conflict.

More than 160 years later, Anthea Missy offers another interpretation of that relationship.

In her L’Homme et la Mer, the eternal struggle becomes an embrace between a male and female sailor. The woman personifies the sea, no longer simply an immense force of nature, but a lover whose mystery and independence remain impossible to possess.

Where Baudelaire describes two adversaries, Anthea imagines two lovers. Yet the contradiction at the heart of the poem survives. Love, like the sea, promises freedom while stirring the desire to hold on. Attraction and uncertainty exist side by side.

The handwritten words beneath the artwork, Un désir inavoué… (An Unspoken Desire), bring that tension into focus. Some feelings remain unexpressed, just as the sea keeps its secrets.

Baudelaire's poem ends with man and sea locked in an eternal battle. Anthea leaves us with another possibility… perhaps their struggle has always been a love affair.

"Man and the Sea"
Charles Baudelaire, 1857

"Free man, you will always cherish the sea!
The sea is your mirror; you contemplate your soul,
In the infinite unfolding of its wave,
And your spirit is no less bitter an abyss.
You take pleasure in plunging into your own image,
You embrace it with your eyes and arms, and your heart,
Is sometimes distracted from its own tumult,
At the sound of this indomitable and savage plaint.
You are both dark and discreet,
Man, no one has sounded the depths of your abysses,
O sea, no one knows your intimate riches,
So jealous are you of keeping your secrets!
And yet, for countless centuries,
You fight one another without pity or remorse,
So much do you love carnage and death,
O eternal wrestlers, O implacable brothers!"