Le Trou Perdu

The title, Le Trou Perdu [The Lost Hole], is comparable with the vulgar slang shit-hole, meaning a dirty and unpleasant place. This work is a reimagining of Fuseli’s drawing, The Death of Eriphyle (c.1810), wherein the Greek mythological Furies are in pursuit of Eriphyle’s murderous son. In a dramatic contrast of this imagery, Lowe has reproduced William Bouguereau’s angelic ‘Study of the Head of a Young Woman’ with a crouching female figure. Lowe’s painting conveys an exaggerated delineation between the realm of the gods, represented by the pursuing Furies of conscience, and the mortal world, represented by distraught nude figures taking refuge in an ancient outhouse.