Take a look at the painting to the right—just take a good long look. That there is a painting called “Consolation” by Raphael Soyer, done in 1959. Does the couple look familiar? We think they bear a striking resemblance to Amy and Rory Williams (formerly known as The Ponds). And if you look into the story behind the painting, and Soyer himself, then things begin to get really weird.
Because it looks like Amy and Rory really did [highlight for spoilers] get stuck in New York City [end spoilers] following the events of “The Angels Take Manhattan.”
It’s Theory Time. You’re gonna love this.
We know that Amy and Rory got zapped back to the 1930s by a Weeping Angel in a graveyard in their final episode. Since their gravestone was in that same graveyard, and their son spoke with an American accent (in this unfilmed scene from “The Power of Three”), we can infer that Amy and Rory probably spent their lives right in New York City. And why not? For two people who love adventures, it’s a pretty good place to be. And if Amy and Rory lived in NYC, they would have had plenty of opportunity to know the painter of this piece, Raphael Soyer.
Soyer was born in Tambov, a southern province of Russia at the turn of the 20th century, and studied art at many places, including the Art Students League of New York. He was associated with the Fourteenth Street School of painters and was a realist who often painted subjects in New York City, on subway platforms and walking the busy streets. His art began showing in large American exhibitions in the 1930s, the perfect time for Amy and Rory to meet him and make friends with Soyer and other artists. It seems likely that Amy would have been attracted to bohemian folks in her new life, so this isn’t much of a stretch to imagine. Can’t you just see the Rory and Amy one weekend, getting a babysitter for their boy so they can spend a night out, then heading to a smoky bar (er…post-Prohibition) with a bunch of creative folks and having a roaring good time?
Now to the painting: “Consolation” has a melancholy to it, as the title would suggest. Why would Sawyer have chosen to paint the Williams’ (by now in their late 50s) this way? It turns out that the year before, Soyer’s teacher and good friend, artist Guy Pène du Bois, died. If they were in the same circle of friends, perhaps Amy and Rory were also mourning his passing, and Soyer chose to paint this as a sort of eulogy to their friend. Et, voila. We have a beautiful painting of the Doctor’s companions in their later years!
Maybe the Eleventh Doctor and River went to see it in a museum one day, sat down in front of it holding hands and shedding a tear or two. The lovely Mrs. and Mr. Williams.
Stubby the Rocket is the Tor.com mascot and is totally not crying right now.
