Paula Rego’s Studio and her ‘Dollies’ by Anthony Rudolf

PN Review 267, September - October 2022

1
Sacred space  
– like a bedroom –
entered by few.

We human models
are accessory,  
and accessary:

we survive,
a little older,
like the artist.

And the home-made
dollies survive,
they obey

in working hours
the rules of the game.
They keep their secrets.

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2
After reading
a few pages
of Daphne du Maurier’s

Branwell Brontë,
four miles away
Paula sleeps.

Around midnight
sorcery
rules okay

in the studio:
Paula’s dollies
unravel

their inner human,
reveal  
their souls,

draw lots
for who does what
and to whom.

3
Free at last
they party,
act out

Kokoschka
beheading
Alma,

his ‘silent dolly’;
and now,
ambitious like Paula,

the intriguers
put on their style
and perform

Don Giovanni:
‘You masqueraders,
why are you calling?’

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We share these poems by Anthony Rudolf in the week of the second anniversary of Paula Rego’s death. They are taken from PN Review 267, September - October 2022. Further contributions by Rudolf are available in the archive to paying subscribers.