House and wheel barrow

Born in Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the Pacific, Rosemary Grimble was the daughter of Sir Arthur Grimble, a well known colonial administrator. She lived in Cyprus with her husband Adrian Seligman and worked for the Cyprus Review. She hardly ever uses colour in her drawings preferring linear black and white sketches, sometimes using only ink. The picture depicts a humble rural dwelling in Cyprus. The crumbling walls, the rickety windows that don’t shut properly, the flat roof, the little storage hut full of firewood and the vine trellis above the door point to a typical Cypriot house in the countryside. Features such as an earthen oven, a wooden wheel barrow, a metal barrel where rubbish was burnt and an iron bed used for sleeping outdoors in summer contribute to the rural lifestyle of the inhabitants. The garden is typically unkept. Although Cypriot villagers were meticulous with tidy interiors, they were totally oblivious to the outdoor surroundings of the house. In the gender division of space, the interior was socially identified with women while the exterior marked the domain of men. Thorny hedges and wild growth surrounds the area; loose pieces of wood are scattered in the yard; a chair, a bucket and wooden boxes are thrown around. A shabby construction consisting of the handle of the barrow, a tree trunk and a piece of wood protruding from the wall makes the washline on which hang a pair of stockings. The artist finds the untidiness of rural surroundings appealing.