Cut off at the knee... Mr and Mrs Hayman together again.
Hasn't everyone done it once? Ripped the ex from that cherished snapshot in a frenzy of grief?
The problem with these rapid excisions is that the remaining figures tend to lose vital bits of their anatomy. Such compositional trauma may go unnoticed in a casual Kodak moment, but it tends to attract scrutiny if you're a bona fide artist. Especially if you were painting in the early 18th century. Especially if the Tate has just shelled out £1m for one of your portraits. And especially if you cut off your own knee in order to remove your wife.
As art detective Philip Mould reveals the missing half of a "self-portrait" by Francis Hayman, we ask what other marriages are ripe for ripping? And who should be left well alone?
Hayman's contemporary, Hogarth, takes abridgement well: you barely notice the missing slipper, severed along with the knackered viscount.
But, sigh, you can't do this subject without mentioning the Arnolfinis: a pair definitively ill-suited to separation. Spare hands and bisected dogs abound, not to mention that treacherous mirror...
So what's caught your notice: who used to sit opposite Whistler's mother; could you bin a lover from Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe? Post suggestions below, or dust off your Photoshop skills and email us with a mockup.
