This deeply farcical photo of yours truly is preposterous on any number of levels, but here are two. Yes, the classic dressing gown was my father’s, but I think it’s made of rayon, so while it looks the part, it’s a simulacrum. The painting, by the French master Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, is one I snagged years ago in a Connecticut thrift shop for $200. On the wooden back a sticker proclaims, “Made In China”. I quite like his subject, Madame de Senonnes, because, for a time, she passed herself off as an Italian aristocrat which she most decidedly was not. I reckon the photo’s biggest howler is the position of my left hand, mimicking as it does European Royalty. That’s a lot of moxie for an ex-beer truck driver from Albany. Incredibly, I’m going somewhere with all this.
© 2024 John Oliver
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