Friday, 9 October 2026

Thomas Benjamin Kennington’s “The Ace of Hearts” of 1882 and the man seen in the mirror

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Thomas Benjamin Kennington’s “The Ace of Hearts” of 1882 and the man seen in the mirror

The Ace of Hearts, 1882. Thomas Benjamin Kennington (1856–1916).

Note that the heroine of the painting is looking not at the viewer but at the man standing directly in front of her, whom we can see in the mirror's reflection.

Does it remind you of Van Eyck's Arnolfini couple, or of the royal pair reflected in the mirror in Velázquez's Las Meninas?

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