‘The Proposition’ is based on Vermeer’s painting The Wine Glass (see below). My cropping of the original composition results in a close-up of the standing man and seated woman that makes for a more intimate scene.
 
In my reworking of Vermeer’s painting, I have completely changed the content of the painting hanging on the back wall behind the standing man. What was a dark landscape painting is now a rather intense and sinister looking clown imported from another artwork of mine.
 
The clown almost sits on the man’s shoulder and his pose almost exactly echoes that of the man – perhaps the clown is the man’s conscience as he propositions the woman.