Emma Sergeant’s newest exhibition, titled ‘La Selva Oscura’ at the Lavery Studio in South Kensington, explores the themes of Dante’s Inferno, as well as being inspired by her home in Poland. Sergeant is one of our most accomplished and successful portrait artists, and a new exhibition by her is always worth attending.

The latest work touches upon Dante’s Inferno, though she isn’t confined by it. Shadowy forests align with the opening passages of the Divine Comedy. Taking influence from her home and combining them with these passages from Inferno, Sergeant’s pieces comes to life through haunting figures and striking birch trees.

Sergeant uses charcoal for most of the works in this exhibition, one of the most unforgiving mediums for an artist to use, yet she duly masters it in her ‘La Selva Oscura’ Triptych.

The exhibition has a large focus on animals, horses and dogs, which she intertwines with the birch forest scenes throughout her artworks. More than one attendee at the opening was taken with Doris the dog, who gets included in the artworks repeatedly throughout the collection.

In this collection the artist heavily features her husband, in the Triptych carrying the name of the exhibition as well as several charcoal and conte sketches, that are displayed as a set of four sketches in square. Adam Zamoyski has a striking and layered countenance. We may not entirely know what he’s thinking, but the audience would like to know.

The exhibition itself is displayed in a white walled room, causing the dark themes of the paintings to become more prominent. The artwork collection was displayed with live birch trees to bring the theme from the canvas to something three dimensional and tangible.

The largest inspiration for the exhibition is Dante’s Inferno, specifically the opening passage:

Midway in the journey of our life

I came to myself in a dark wood,

For the straight way was lost.

This is the passage that resonates through the collection. Sergeant repeatedly returns to these woods as an inspiration throughout the artworks.

Whilst Dante talks about the psychological woods of life, Sergeant gives us a physical representation of this state of being.

Whilst small, the exhibition engages with the themes of Dante’s Inferno and the Polish birch woods in a way that cannot be estranged from each other, creating a sense of fusion and intimacy.

That being said, even if you are not familiar with Dante, the mastery of the artwork still speaks for itself.