Elderly Gentleman
/Eliot O’Hara
1948
American, 1890-1969
Watercolor on paper
Gift of Mrs. Joan O’Hara, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.28.13
In Elderly Gentleman and Adrian Bury, O’Hara gifts the inquisitive viewer with two paintings of decided psychological depth. There is not much action in these portraits, but that is the point of and the value to be found in them. While one man remains anonymous and the other is named specifically, we as viewers are granted the opportunity to imagine who they are and the psyches of each. How is each depicted? What clues are we offered about how each man is feeling or about what he is thinking? What lives have these men led? And what about us, as it pertains to these paintings: are we present in either scene — that is, is either man aware of us — and what difference would it make if we were? How do these portraits make you feel?