MovieChat Forums > Suspicion (1941) Discussion > What is the painting all about?????

What is the painting all about?????

posted 20 years ago by adishavinfun
48 replies | jump to latest

Hi there,

I have been trying for years to discover the significance of the painting that the detective stares at when they come to tell Mrs Aysgarth of Beaky's death in Paris.

Does anyone know why he looks at it in that peculiar way? It happens as they leave too...

It could just be a red herring, but why?? It seems as though there was something filmed regarding the merit of the painting, but it was later removed. I have searched for a long time for the answer to this question but have had no luck.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[–] Steamboy 14 years ago

The best answer in this thread was:

my mom said that perhaps cubism was avant-garde and that's why the cop was staring at it

That's right, it's a touch of humour obviously, no stolen painting nonsense, the policeman looked slightly clueless. This is Cary Grant but this isn't To Catch a Thief. They were not used to that kind of art at the time. There's an Ernst Lubitsch movie shot around the same time that makes fun of abstract paintings too. Mmm, I think it's That Uncertain Feeling as a matter of fact, shot the same year as Suspicion.

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[–] PoppyTransfusion 12 years ago

I thought it was a joke of the type that Hitchcock specialises in. Equally it could have been a purchase by Lina and represent her state of mind as others suggest, or at least her change as a woman from provincial girl with rustic tastes to an elegant, urbane woman.

Away with the manners of withered virgins

[–] spookyrat1 11 years ago

I also thought the detective may have recognized the art work as being possibly stolen; something that he might check up on, back at the station. Another suspicion!

[–] Prismark10 11 years ago

I found the scene strange for two reasons. the painting looked like a Picasso and the actor playing the detective looked and sounded like Anthony Quayle.

I also felt that the painting looked stolen.

Its that man again!!

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] EtaoinShrdlu001 9 years ago

- assetsonfire 2008:

I wondered the same. It's fractured style (Cubism?) seemed also to fit with the grid shadows that covered much of the house.

That grid of shadows looks to me as if Lina is standing right in the middle of a spider web.
Great shot!

I prefer the toad less raveled

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Pzachlen 9 years ago

Exactly. It was meant to be funny.This middle class cop can not understand why anyone would have such a thing on the wall. Nothing more complicated than that.

[–] JPLogan54 9 years ago

Hitchcock himself explains why pictures of birds appear ubiquitously in Psycho, as well as stuffed birds. He was merely advertising his next movie: The Birds. And getting the audience ready with a haunting preview of terror.

I read somewhere Hitchcock hated birds and was in fact afraid of them. He found them seriously creepy so they made their way into many of his films. Although The Birds did grow out of that kind of creeped out obsession he had with them.
Another example: I was watching the later version of The Man Who Knew Too much the other week and there is a huge stuffed pelican that makes a blatant appearance in the much maligned taxidermist scene.