nondeducible asked prettyarbitrary for prompt meme:
prompt: Sherlock/John, artist AU
Sherlock Holmes has long been recognized as a technically brilliant artist, capable of rendering the light and textures of reality in perfect likeness on canvas. But it’s only since he met his favorite model that his work has grown beyond technical perfection. One need only look at two of his most famous pieces, the 2009 “Woman at Sunrise in Belgravia” and his 2011 work, “Doctor Awakening.”
The woman in question is flawlessly beautiful, with her dark curls and alabaster skin catching the early rose-gold sunlight as though she is lit from within. But there is no sense of connection with her for the viewer; she is as distant and opaque as her gaze over the cityscape. Holmes paints only what he sees in this piece.
The doctor, in comparison, is a lean, small man of simple appearance, the sort of man you would overlook in a crowd. And yet, in the painting he is incontestably a subject of desire. The lines and shapes of his reclining body are emphasized and teased by a clinging, translucent white sheet; the rays of dawn stroke his body along intimate, elegant paths that suggest a desire to trail fingers in their wake; and his eyes, the same murky blue shade as the last trailing edges of night, are large, magnificent, and warmed with a smile that makes them catch the light, as though the sun were rising in his face rather than through the window hovering just at the edge of the frame.
In the world of art, much is made of ‘muses,’ but the reality seldom lives up to the romantic notion. Holmes, however, seems to have found his.