Fraser
Fraser is a portrait of Ishbel Myerscough’s son as an adolescent, painted on a small, intimate scale. In the painting Fraser sits on a brightly coloured sofa which creates a contrast with his pale, unclothed body. His head and legs are cropped as if it was a snapshot. His pose, with hands interlaced, creates the impression of awkwardness and innocence.
The painting is a companion piece to Myerscough’s Fraser (Boyhood) (2017), also in the Collection. In contrast with Myerscough’s highly detailed composition, Joffe’s work is painted with loose, visible brushstrokes. Fraser’s meticulously observed freckles in Myerscough’s painting come to be symbolised in a single mark on his upper lip in Joffe’s, showing the difference in their painterly approaches.