Source work:
0432/04
John Henry Bacon (1868-1914)
The Ring
1898
Oil on canvas
The Unhappy Bride - Siyabonga Sikosana
Siyabonga Sikosana (b.1978)
The Unhappy Bride
Acrylic on board
R2 170
I chose this artwork to respond to because it depicts a real situation with which people in my culture can identify. My painting is called The Unhappy Bride.
In the picture, the bride stands in the house of her new parents-in-law, a chief and his wife. She has just been married to their son.
Her parents are from a poor family in rural KwaZulu-Natal. When the chief and his wife approached her family, she was forced into the arranged marriage by her parents, who were interested in the number of cows they could get for her. She was first noticed by the chief at a virginity testing ceremony. The number of cows for a virgin is eleven.
Through the doorway some cattle are visible in the rural landscape. The painting on the wall shows the ancestral home of the chief's family. On the right hangs a portrait of the Zulu King (after H. Gourlay-Conyngham).
The girl's new husband, the Chief's son, is not in the picture. He already has a number of other wives.
The date on the calendar, 9 August 2009 (Woman's Day), is significant for the girl.