Defence of Black Rose. (Titus Alone)
Painted in gouache with silver leaf, Jay Johnstone’s Black Rose gives dignity to one of the most haunting figures in Mervyn Peake’s Titus Alone. A survivor of the prison camp, she escaped only into the cruelty of Veil and the darkness of the Under-River. Johnstone renders her with the stillness of a medieval icon: pale, fragile and luminous against the gloom, the cold silver gleaming like a candle that will not be put out. When Black Rose comes to her defence, a vicious knife fight ensues where Titus is outmatched. Muzzlehatch come to his rescue and kills Veil. The company escape the underworld and Black Rose she finds peace at last in Juno’s house. The painting is an elegy for suffering endured and beauty that outlasts cruelty.