Stolen Art || IwtV Meta
Okay, so for a few years now, I've been seeing people jump to the conclusion that Armand is a broke, unemployed housewife incapable of making money, and that without Louis or someone else to support him, he'd be living on the street or something.
But the show actually gives us a huge clue about Armand's finances that calls back to the books. I wasn't gonna do a meta on it it because it's almost trifling, but everyone keeps missing it.
**SPOILERS** for Interview with the Vampire, Seasons 1 & 2 & The Vampire Chronicles **SPOILERS**
Daniel calls our clue out, actually, asking if there's a panic room hidden behind one of their paintings. It's called, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, by Rembrandt, and right now it's most famous for being stolen.
One might assume this is here because Louis is an art dealer who covets rare pieces, but there's another, more likely explanation.
In Queen of the Damned, Armand figures out the present age (the 1980s) through Daniel and decides to become incalculably wealthy, which as a vampire, he manages easily, and one of his many streams of revenue is recovering lost or stolen art from thieves and their buyers.
"Picassos, Degas, Van Goghs, these were but a few of the stolen paintings Armand recovered without explanation and handed over to Daniel for resales or rewards. Of course the recent owners would not dare to come forward, if in fact they had survived Armand's silent nocturnal visit to the sanctums where these stolen treasures had been displayed. Sometimes no clear title to the work in question existed. At auction, they brought millions."
There is no way the writers brought attention to the stolen Renaissance painting on the wall and weren't pointing to Armand's talent for making money.
Some would argue, well, Louis' an art dealer, maybe it's a reference to that. Sure. But in the books, Louis becomes a landlord. His interest in selling art is a show-only thing. They could have made it anything. But it's tied into another show-only story: Louis ambition as an artist.
Interestingly enough, that seems to be a decision made to tie Louis and Armand's stories together.
Armand's backstory puts the most formative point in his life as the years he spent as an artist's muse and uses a painting he posed for hanging in the Louvre to illustrate Armand's need to find identity and security through other, more powerful people.
"Who am I, Louis? I am my history I have endured? I am the job I do not want? I do not know anymore. No one has painted me in over 400 years." -- Armand
Earlier in their relationship, Louis accidentally snaps a photo of Armand whilst trying to get some evidence that Dreamstat isn't just in his head. First, Armand is clearly effected by this, assuming Louis wanted to take his portrait.
Second -- and I think more important than anyone wants to admit -- Louis is called out as not having any talent to speak of at photography. In fact, his accidental portrait of Armand is singled out as Louis' only good photograph, one that caught the secret vulnerability of the subject that Louis would've never been able to do intentionally.
Because he couldn't see it.
Alois: "But here, something fragile about this man." Louis: "If you knew the man, you'd know he was anything but." Alois: "A happy mistake then? You caught the soul he is hiding."
Armand's deeper attraction to Louis could -- in some colorful, thematic way -- be a mistake on his part, stemming from a desire for a strong, visionary entity to define him again. He sees vision and direction in Louis where it didn't exist -- where nothing existed, save for a scar.
Louis isn't heading toward something when Armand meets him, he's running from something.
In the meantime, Armand remains a muse without an artist, waiting to inspire some meaningful work so he can know who he is and how he's meant to carry on.
But he's paradoxically a secretive character, his life is shrouded in confusion, deception, and trauma-induced amnesia. How is anybody ever gonna find out who he is, let alone see him clearly enough to portray him in some great work?
Oh, yeah.
