Stephen Girling – The Modern Portrait as Icon

Revd Stephen Girling, Missioner at Bath Abbey, will be drawing on his Masters research to talk about the aspiration of Vincent Van Gogh to paint portraits which are able to penetrate through to a person’s soul and into another eternal dimension.  Stephen will pose the question to what extent Van Gogh’s portraits, and more specifically, this image of La Berceuse, equate to the powerful effect that religious icons had on the early Christians. In van Gogh’s own words – ‘I would like to paint men and women with that certain something of the eternal, of which the halo used to be the symbol’.

When giving this same talk to the Bath Society of Artists last year, Steven attracted an audience not far short of a record for the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.