Produced late in her career, ‘The Mime – A Tribute to Marcel’ (1981) is a luminous example of Constance Stokes’ modernist style. In a saturated palette of reds and oranges, she pays tribute to the French mime Marcel Marceau, depicting him with a certain femininity. Stokes witnessed Marceau’s first performance in Melbourne in 1963. Sitting in the front row, she was mesmerised, later translating his movements into a series of sketches that would later inform pastels and three paintings, one of which is ‘The Mime – A Tribute to Marcel’.

With flattened planes of bright colour, ‘The Mime – A Tribute to Marcel’ is post-impressionist, recognisably part of the George Bell school. It was exhibited at Stokes’s retrospective at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2017, and published in Lucilla Wyborn d’Abrera’s ‘Constance Stokes: Art & Life’ (Hill House Publishers, 2015, colour illustrated on page 161).

Stokes’s portrait of the mime is more than representation—it is visual memory translated into painterly form. The mime’s dramatic makeup and poised expression are anchored by a controlled, luminous palette, while the background is sparingly detailed, drawing full focus to gesture and presence. The painting resonates with theatrical stillness and restrained emotionality—qualities for which Stokes’s figure-based works are celebrated. A true treasure for a keen-eyed collector.

Constance STOKES (1906 - 1991)
'The Mime: A tribute to Marcel' 1981
Oil on canvas
Image Size: 70 x 60 cm
Dimensions: 94 x 85 x 6 cm
Signed: Signed ‘Constance Stokes’ upper right

Comes with Letter of Provenance

Condition: Excellent

(c) The Artist or Assignee