Fiction and Literature

I have a question for anyone who has read Rose madder by Stephen King?

My friend needs me to do the painting for her, but I haven’t read the book. Could you tell me exactly what the painting looks like? I specifically need to know about the ‘statues and pillars half buried in sand’. What do they look like? Where Are they? Below the hill or what?

I’ve copied out the part from the book that describes the painting.

It was an oil painting in a wooden frame, about three feet long and two feet high.

‘What’s that building at the bottom of the hill supposed to be? A burned-out plantation-house?’

‘I believe it’s supposed to be the ruins of a temple,’ the old guy with the mangy briefcase said quietly.

‘A Greek temple, perhaps. Although it’s difficult to say, isn’t it?’

It was difficult to say, because the building in question was buried almost to the roof in underbrush. Vines were growing up the five columns in front. A sixth lay in segments. Near the fallen pillar was a fallen statue, so overgrown that All That could be glimpsed above the green was a smooth white stone face looking up at the thunderheads with which the painter had enthusiastically filled the sky.

‘Yeah,’ Steiner said. ‘Anyway, it looks to me like the building’s out of perspective – it’s too big for where it is.’

The old man nodded. ‘But it’s a necessary cheat. Otherwise nothing would show but the roof. As for the fallen pillar and statue, forget them – they wouldn’t be visible at all.’

She didn’t care about the background; all of her attention was fixed upon the painting’s central figure. At the top of the hill, turned to look down at the ruins of the temple so anyone viewing the picture could only see her back, was a woman. Her hair was blonde, and hung down her back in a plait. Around oneof her shapely upper arms – the right – was a broad circle of gold. Her left hand was raised, and although you couldn’t see for sure, it looked as if she was shading her eyes. It was odd, given the thundery, sunless sky, but that was what she appeared to be doing, just the same. She was wearing a short dress – a toga, Rosie supposed – which left one creamy shoulder bare. The garment’s color was a vibrant red-purple. It was impossible to tell what, if anything, she was wearing on her feet; the grass that she was standing in came almost up to her knees, where the toga ended.

She tapped the glass over the toga the woman in the foreground was wearing. ‘That color – that purply-red – is called rose madder.’

She looked at the blonde woman in the rose madder toga (or chiton – that was what Mr Lefferts had called it) standing in the high grass at the top of the hill, again noting the plait which hung straight down the middle of her back and the gold armlet above her right elbow. Then she let her gaze move to the ruined temple and the tumbled statue at the foot of the hill. The things the woman in the toga was looking at.

How do you know that’s what she’s looking at? How can you know? You Can‘t see her face!

That was true, of course . . . but what else was there to look at?

‘You said it was odd,’ Rosie said. ‘Why?’

Anna tapped the glass fronting with one nail. ‘Because the woman is at the center, and yet her back is turned. That seems an extremely peculiar approach to this sort of painting, which has been otherwise quite conventionally executed.’ Now she glanced over at Rosie, and when she went on, her tone was a bit apologetic. ‘The building at the bottom of the hill is out of perspective, by the way.’

‘Yes. The man who sold me the picture mentioned that. Mr LefFerts said it was probably done on
purpose. Or some of the elements would be lost.’

She walked across the room to the picture. The blonde woman’s chiton seemed almost to glow in the late-spring light. And she was a woman, Rosie thought. Not a lady, and most certainly not a gal. She stood up there on her hill, looking fearlessly down at the ruined temple and the tumbled gods . . .

Gods? But there’s only one . . . isn’t there?

No, she saw, there were actually two – the one peering serenely up at the thunderheads from its place near the fallen pillar, and another one, way over to the right. This one was gazing sideways through the tall grass. You could just see the white curve of stone brow, the orbit of one eye, and the lobe of an ear; the rest was hidden. She hadn’t noticed this one until now, but what of that? There were probably lots of things in the picture she hadn’t noticed yet, lots of little details – it was like one of those Where’s Waldo pictures, full of things you didn’t see at first, and . . .

That’s what I’ve got from the first part of the book. Then the main character, Rose, begins to notice that things in the picture change, and other things are added.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

MADDER ROSE – ‘Madder Rose’ – 7″ 1992

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