Hal Eisen, designer Bottecchia Artistic Group

Hal Eisen, designer Bottecchia Artistic Group Toronto Design Firm. Consultations through to Full Builds with Project Management. Events, Staging, Renovations, Kitchens, Baths, Gardens, Living Spaces

Have a Beautiful Holiday. Merry Christmas from our home to yours.
12/25/2025

Have a Beautiful Holiday. Merry Christmas from our home to yours.

Prepping a surprise party at the “groovy”, retro Ace Hotel.
10/31/2025

Prepping a surprise party at the “groovy”, retro Ace Hotel.

The wonderful Kelly Grace has a big, terrific new show at Abbozzo Gallery. Not only are there beautiful paintings, larg...
04/05/2025

The wonderful Kelly Grace has a big, terrific new show at Abbozzo Gallery. Not only are there beautiful paintings, large and small, but some really cool limited editions in actual 3D! Ya gotta go see this❣️

Twas the night before…Merry / Happy from our new home to yours.
12/25/2024

Twas the night before…
Merry / Happy from our new home to yours.

A view from a bed.
12/03/2024

A view from a bed.

Thanks to Nattiya and Sima and all the wonderful staff at Loewe Yorkdale for another lovely evening and the chance ...
11/15/2024

Thanks to Nattiya and Sima and all the wonderful staff at Loewe Yorkdale for another lovely evening and the chance to try on some of their Fabulous new line.

Walking the opening night red carpet with Melanie McCaig. Thanks to Nattiya King Stewart and for the fabulous clothes ...
09/06/2024

Walking the opening night red carpet with Melanie McCaig. Thanks to Nattiya King Stewart and for the fabulous clothes and making it all happen!

07/02/2024

.John Singer Sargent’s paintings are often mysterious, but this is probably the most mysterious of all. What is its tone, what does it imply—and what was Sargent’s relationship with the model?

First of all, we should say that Sargent’s sexuality is a mystery. Aside from a few bits of unreliable gossip, there is almost no evidence. I suppose one could say he certainly wasn’t conventionally straight. Asexual? Or more likely, given the time period, very closetedly gay….Given that he was mainly a portrait painter, little in the art he displayed publicly connects to his sexuality, but in his private sketch books, there were a number or male nudes that seem markedly erotic, especially drawings of his valet, Nicola d’Inverno.

But what about this model, Thomas McKeller? McKeller was a bellhop at the Copley Plaza, a luxury hotel where Sargent stayed in Boston, and he was an enormously important model for Sargent, who used him as the basis for most of the figures in the murals that he painted for the new Museum of Fine Arts. Obviously, McKeller was black, but Sargent used him as the model for white figures, both male and female. In fact, you might almost say that McKeller was a kind of Muse for Sargent—or perhaps an obsession.

But there is almost no direct evidence for the nature of their relationship. Were they lovers? McKeller’s last living relative has said that she heard from her parents that McKeller was . But does that mean he was Sargent’s lover?

The most interesting evidence is probably this painting, the only painting that Sargent made directly of McKeller—and one he never sold, so in a sense a private work, though it hung in his studio. But again, what is the implication of the painting? Is it sexual?

Obviously, McKeller’s ge****ls are out in the open, unhidden as it were—unusually unhidden. But his posture and expression do not (at least to this viewer) seem sexual.
He seems almost to have wings: Sargent painted this painting on a canvas on which he had earlier painted wings. This seems to my eye to make seem more angelic than .

But as so often with Sargent, the tone of the painting is ambiguous. Madame X is at once steamy and frigid. So I guess McKeller can be at once sexual and angelic. But does that tell us what their relationship was? All we have is the painting…

Thanks to LOEWE for the invite to the opening of their new flagship store in Toronto at Yorkdale .mall. Great store, gr...
04/25/2024

Thanks to LOEWE for the invite to the opening of their new flagship store in Toronto at Yorkdale .mall. Great store, great clothes, great staff. You have to check it out❣️

Helping my pal hang his truly unique FAB photographs for The Artist Project It opens tonight and runs through the week...
04/11/2024

Helping my pal hang his truly unique FAB photographs for The Artist Project It opens tonight and runs through the weekend. Come and check it out!

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51 Camden St
Toronto, ON
M5V 1V2

Telephone

4165335508

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