Moments of Intrigue and Betrayal — Print & Oil Painting

No masks, no rooftops. Two people at a bar, and the whole temperature of the collection changes. Emily sits on the left in her high-collared coat, hair pinned back, hands loosely together on the counter; to her right a grey-bearded man in a heavy black coat leans on folded arms and looks at her sideways, a cigarette burning somewhere out of frame — its smoke drifts across the top third of the picture.

The handling is deliberately loose. Where the rest of the collection is airbrushed and tight, this is painted in visible strokes: the crowd behind them is barely more than blocked-in shapes, the bar top is three or four confident swipes of warm brown, and the glasses in front of them are indicated rather than drawn. It gives the scene the feel of something remembered rather than witnessed.

Colour carries the mood. The interior is entirely ochre, amber and dusty gold, lit as though by gaslight, and against it the two black coats read almost as silhouettes. The only cool notes in the entire canvas are the small gold-and-blue devices embroidered on Emily's lapel — the same filigree that covers her scarf elsewhere in the collection.

Part of our Dishonored collection. For the same character in the field rather than in conversation, see Mysterious Duality and The Phantom Assassin.