The hours after dinner

Gladys Emma Peto was an English artist, fashion designer and illustrator. She married Cuthbert Lindsay Emmerson of the Royal Army medical Corps and, during the 1920’s, she travelled with him to Malta, Cyprus and Egypt. An outcome of her travels was the book ‘Malta and Cyprus’ and ‘The Egypt of the Sojourner’ published by J.M. Dent for the Outward Bound Library. In her art deco style, she was clearly influenced by Aubrey Beardsley. In an attempt to portray the British colonials on the island, Peto creates a scene which can easily fit into any Noel Coward play. The full title of the painting is 'The hours after dinner…while the moon shines through the trees and the moths flutter and fall round the hanging lamp (at the country club in Limassol)'. Despite the moths around the lamp and the tall narrow cypress trees and flat roofed houses in the background, the viewer might not immediately realise that this is a scene in Cyprus. The dinners are certainly British, sipping long drinks and seated in comfortable cane armchairs, the men with bow ties and smoking jackets. Foreign features have crept into the decoration, such as a miniature tree in a well designed wooden pot and the servant in a lavish ‘oriental’ outfit. He carries a tall fez, much taller that the usual Cypriot one, long pantaloons gathered around the waist and ankles (Cypriot pantaloons end at the knee or just below) and a very ornate waist coat with long narrow sleeves. This is a specially designed costume for servants mostly used in Egypt and totally foreign to any Cypriot mode of dress. No signs of real Cyprus are to be seen. The British rulers have safely insulated themselves at the balcony of their country club.