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Niggle’s painting symbolizes the creative process as something that’s both organic and laborious. The painting is of a huge tree in a landscape of forests and mountains, and the tree seems to have a life of its own, growing larger and housing families of birds. When Niggle attempts to paint the mountains, it’s as if he can already see them: the picture exists somewhere out there, and he’s just trying to capture it. The painting can be understood to represent creativity as something that grows wild—not simply dreamt up by a single person but inspired by the world around them.
Niggle never completes the painting to look the way he imagines. After he goes on his journey, the canvas meets an unceremonious end, with only a tiny corner of it framed and hung in a museum that is soon burned down. However, its image is fully realized in living form in the land Niggle reaches after the Workhouse, and he is able to complete it by tending to the land. When the painting is brought to life not only for Niggle to enjoy but as a resting place for many who leave the Workhouse, it comes to symbolize the unpredictability and aliveness of the creative process: one cannot always have complete power over the final form of their creation.
Niggle’s Painting Quotes in Leaf by Niggle
The Leaf by Niggle quotes below all refer to the symbol of Niggle’s Painting. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Leaf by Niggle
Quotes
He had a number of pictures on hand; most of them were too large and ambitious for his skill. He was the sort of painter who can paint leaves better than trees. He used to spend a long time on a single leaf, trying to catch its shape, and its sheen, and the glistening of dewdrops on its edges. Yet he wanted to paint a whole tree, with all of its leaves in the same style, and all of them different.
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There was one picture in particular which bothered him. It had begun with a leaf caught in the wind, and it became a tree; and the tree grew, sending out innumerable branches, and thrusting out the most fantastic roots. Strange birds came and settled on the twigs and had to be attended to. Then all round the Tree, and behind it, through the gaps in the leaves and boughs, a country began to open out; and there were glimpses of a forest marching over the land, and of mountains tipped with snow.
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When Parish looked at Niggle’s garden (which was often) he saw mostly weeds; and when he looked at Niggle’s picture (which was seldom) he saw only green and grey patches and black lines, which seemed to him nonsensical. He did not mind mentioning the weeds (a neighbourly duty), but he refrained from giving any opinion of the pictures. He thought this was very kind, and he did not realise that, even if it was kind, it was not kind enough. Help with the weeds (and perhaps praise for the pictures) would have been better.
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Before him stood the Tree, his Tree, finished. If you could say that of a Tree that was alive, its leaves opening, its branches growing and bending in the wind that Niggle had so often felt or guessed, and had so often failed to catch. He gazed at the Tree, and slowly he lifted his arms and opened them wide.
“It’s a gift!” he said. He was referring to his art, and also to the result; but he was using the word quite literally.
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“Of course, painting has uses,” said Tompkins. “But you couldn’t make use of his painting. There is plenty of scope for bold young men not afraid of new ideas and new methods. None for this old-fashioned stuff. Private daydreaming. He could not have designed a telling poster to save his life. Always fiddling with leaves and flowers. I asked him why, once. He said he thought they were pretty. Can you believe it? He said pretty! ‘What, digestive and genital organs of plants?’ I said to him; and he had nothing to answer. Silly footler.”
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Niggle’s Painting Symbol Timeline in Leaf by Niggle
The timeline below shows where the symbol Niggle’s Painting appears in Leaf by Niggle. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Leaf by Niggle
Niggle has a number of paintings he hasn’t finished, mostly because they require a level of skill he doesn’t have. One...
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One day, Niggle stands back from his painting, trying to decide what he thinks of it. He feels at once that it is...
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...the state of his neglected garden. Hardly any of Niggle’s acquaintances are aware of his painting, though even if they were, they probably wouldn’t find it very impressive. They begin to...
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One day at the beginning of autumn, Niggle is in his shed, working on his painting. As he attempts to perfect the light on the peak of a distant mountain on...
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...Niggle’s help to fetch the doctor and the builder. Parish only seems to notice Niggle’s painting when he mentions his need for wood and canvas to patch the hole in his...
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...windy, and the sun is going down. As he rides, he sees visions of his painting and feels waves of frustration at losing his chance to finish it. Now that he...
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...is well enough to get up. He goes out to the shed to continue his painting, but as soon as he begins, there’s a knock on the door. The Inspector of...
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...ill again and weeps when he realizes he will not be able to finish his painting. As he leaves with the Driver, the Inspector mentions that they will at last “make...
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...past, regretting his reluctance to help Parish and the fact that he didn’t finish his painting in time. Eventually, though, he forgets the details of his past life and focuses only...
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The Second Voice is more sympathetic to Niggle, referencing the unique charm of his paintings and his tendency, however reluctant, to help Parish with his errands without expecting any reward....
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...it’s from his own dream. He looks up to see a tree—the tree from his painting—and is so shocked that he falls off his bike.
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...nests, and some of the birds are flying into the forest (the forest from his painting), beyond which are the mountains Niggle painted and imagined.
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...come from Niggle’s imagination, the shepherd tells him that Niggle had been working on his painting of it for as long as they knew each other, but Parish had not paid...
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...Niggle is mentioned in his old country, but Atkins frames a single leaf from Niggle’s painting and gives it to the town museum. It hangs for a while in an inconspicuous...
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