good and bad breasts 2

oil on linen 24" x 48".
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As feminist art historians have pointed out, there is a long artistic tradition in which women's breasts are equated with fruits such as apples and oranges. A well known example is the soft porn, nineteenth century photograph ‘Achetez des Pommes’ in which a nude model holds a tray of apples just below her breasts. The similarities between breasts and oranges are obvious: both provide nutrition and oral pleasure; both are round and oranges have nipple-like protuberances. The original inspiration for the subject matter, however, were the ideas of the child psychoanalyst Melanie Klein (1882-1960) regarding object relations theory, in particular good and bad breasts which I read in the 1960s. I made a painting similar to the one illustrated around 1970 and sold it to a doctor but I cannot recall his name and I failed to take a photograph of it. Hence, the desire to produce a second painting on the same theme. An alternative title would be 'Ripe and Rotten'.