Looking at the Masters - Chestertown Spy

Looking at the Masters: Utagawa Hiroshige

February 13, 2025 by Beverly Hall Smith 1 Comment

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) was one of the most prolific and popular Ukiyo-e artists in Japan. The word Ukiyo-e means pictures of the floating world. They were woodblock prints developed during the Tokugawa shogunate in the Edo [Tokyo] period. A time of increased wealth, the Edo period embraced kabuki theatre, geishas, and courtesans. The early Ukiyo-e prints were produced from the late 17th to the early 18th Century. They began as black and white woodcuts. White was the color of the paper. Color was added later. The color palette was limited as each color was cut from a different block. A certain amount of shading could be added to a block as artistically needed.

Utagawa Hiroshige was the last great master of the style. Born in Edo into a samurai family, he was orphaned in 1809. His father held the position of fire warden in charge of preventing fires in the Edo palace, a responsibility passed down to Utagawa. The fire warden had much free time, so Utagawa entered the Utagawa Art School, from which he took his first name. He was permitted to sign his work at age 12, and he took his art name Hiroshige.

Evening Snow at Takanawa (1842-47)

“Evening Snow at Takanawa” (1842-47) (8.5’’X13.5’’) (scene 2) is one of eight scenes Hiroshige made for the portfolio Eight Snow Scenes in the Eastern Capital. Unlike other ukiyo-e artists whose subjects were mostly images of geishas, courtesans, and kabuki actors, Hiroshige focused on landscapes. His early prints were of flowers and birds. Most of his works were his series of travel prints that he began in 1829-1830. He was invited in 1832 to join an official procession on the Tokaido Road from Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto. “Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido Road” (1833-34), completed from his sketches and notes when he returned home, made him one of the most recognizable and popular ukiyo-e artists of his time.

“Evening Snow at Takanawa” (1842-47) (8.5’’X13.5’’) (scene 2) is a panoramic view of a vibrant snow-white bank by deep blue water and under a grey sky. White snowflakes dot the sky and the water. Aware of European perspective, Hiroshige depicts the snow bank with a slightly gray front edge and a darker blue at the front edge of the water. The closer the object the more intense is its color, which then diminishes as distance is created. In reverse, the sky is a lighter gray at the water’s edge and becomes darker as it recedes into the distance. Holding it all together are the clouds and land at the front and back edges of the print, repeating the beige and gray pattern.

Fishing boats are anchored in the harbor. The colors of the boats repeat the black, white, and yellow-orange used to define the other objects in the print. The stone building is composed of gray, and a darker gray blue, with the white snow covering the roof. The house is gray with yellow-orange windows, and covered by a gray roof covered with the white snow. Several yellow carts are placed next to the stone building. The palanquin, a one passenger litter, is carried by two bearers dressed in green. Trudging through the snow is a man in bright blue pants, leading a horse and rider. Behind them, a man carrying an umbrella wears green pants and a dark blue jacket. Also carrying an umbrella, is a woman who wears a purple kimono and geta shoes that are built up with wood to keep her feet out of the snow. An obi, the red tied decoration on her back, is not a backpack but an elaborately tied part of the kimono. The artist’s signature, a go or geimei, also is in red.

“Snow in the Grounds of the Fudo Shrine at Megura”

“Snow in the Grounds of the Fudo Shrine at Megura” is the third print in the series. It is a depiction of a Buddhist Temple dedicated to the deity Fudo Myo-o, the immoveable or unshakable one, a fierce looking and powerful deity who protects Buddhism and its believers. The shrine, located on a tall hill covered with pine trees, still exists. The red shrine is placed at the center of the composition, and it is balanced with a narrow blue lake and brown building, a long set of stone steps on the hill, and the red signature of the artist. The dark green of the surrounding trees is the complementary color to the red shrine with its green shutters. The day is bright, and the few people present do not engage with each other. The shrine, as depicted by Hiroshige, is a beautiful and restful place just outside the hustle and bustle of the city below.

“Street View, Looking Down the Kasumigaseki after a Snowfall”

“Street View, Looking Down the Kasumigaseki after a Snowfall” is number 5 in the series. Kasumigaseki was, and is today, a busy hill street in Edo (Tokyo). Hiroshige depicts the panorama of Edo roof tops and a tower at the bottom of the hill. He concentrates on the people at the top of the hill who are going about their daily tasks. It is the morning after a snowfall, and workers on either side of the road are clearing the snow. Two men with shoulder poles carry boxes and cages. Buildings line the street. Kasumigaseki Street will become the street of important government buildings.

“Street View, Looking Down the Kasumigaseki after a Snowfall” (detail)

In the “Street View, Looking Down the Kasumigaseki after a Snowfall,’’ viewers have the opportunity to witness the brilliance of Hiroshige’s wood cut details produced in such a small area.

Snow at New Years Dawn at Susaki”

Japanese New Year is a celebration which begins on January 1 and continues until January 3. “Snow at New Years Dawn at Susaki,” plate 8 of the series, depicts the first sunrise that will represent the entire year. On this January day, the sky is clear, and new snow has fallen. A few people have come out to witness the rising of the Sun. A woman in a purple kimono and a man with a fishing pole greet the day. Two others stand at the water’s edge of Susaki Bay, one man with his shoulder pole and the other balancing something on his head. Five sails move across the blue water. The nearby village is peaceful. All last year’s business has been settled so that the New Year will begin afresh. New Year’s Day is supposed to be free of stress and anger left in the past. The day is to be full of joy and new beginnings.

Hiroshige created over 8000 Ukiyo-e wood cuts during his career. Many were in series formats. His final series was One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856-1859). He was never a wealthy man, as he was paid little for his work. He had two wives and one daughter, who may have been adopted. In 1856 he became a Buddhist Monk and retired from the world to complete One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Ten years later the trade between Europe and Japan brought hundreds of Japanese woodcuts to Paris. Artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, and Whistler became collectors of Hiroshige’s prints, and his works influenced their own. Japonisme started a craze that exists today. Hiroshige died in 1858 and left this final message for his friends:

“I leave my brush in the East,
And set forth on my journey.
I shall see the famous places of the Western Land.”

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

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Looking at the Masters: Hendrick Avercamp

January 23, 2025 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

A 17th Century Dutch artist, born in Amsterdam, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634) specialized in winter landscapes. His father Barent Avercamp was the town apothecary of Kempen. Hendrick was deaf, and he may not have been able to speak. He was known as the Mute of Kampen. He suffered frequent illnesses. Winter landscape became his most popular subject, although he also could paint portraits, and his sketches sold well. He was probably taught to draw and paint by the Flemish artist Gilles Conixloo (1544-1607) and the Dutch artist David Vinckbooms (1576-1632).

“Winter Landscape with Skaters” (1608)

“Winter Landscape with Skaters” (1608) (30’’x60’’) (Rijks Museum) (oil on wood panel) is thought to be one of the earliest paintings by Avercamp. He enjoyed skating on the winter ice with his parents. The setting is the town of Kampen, with homes, other buildings, and a church. The trees are leafless; the sky is almost as white as the ice, but people are out and about, some at work, while others enjoy games on the ice. Several small boats are ice bound. Kemper was a prosperous town because it was on the trade route between the Rhine River and the Zuiderzee.

The Dutch people were Protestants and the first to believe in education for everyone. They owned their homes and land, worked hard, and prospered. The clothing they wore indicated whether they were on the day at leisure or working. Throughout the scene well-dressed men and women walk about in groups, engaging in conversation. Others skate or play colf, an early form of golf. A figure near the center of the painting has fallen on the ice. Several horse-drawn sleds provide rides. Typical of Avercamp’s painting, so much is happening. At the lower left corner is a bird trap, a piece of wood held up by a stick. Tucked in the corner, a dog chews on a dead carcass. At the horizon, and hard to see, are the sails of a ship setting out to sea. The Dutch used landmarks and wind to aid navigation.

“Winter Scene with Skaters Near a Castle” (1608)

“Winter Scene with Skaters Near a Castle” (1608) (16’’ in diameter) (National Gallery, London), another of Avercamp’s early paintings, depicts a castle as the focal point. Many of the same winter activities are depicted. There is a snowball fight going on at the left, as two young boys, one in a blue top and the other in orange, chase a young girl in the open area of the painting. Birds perch in the branches of the dead tree.

The winter scenes are attributed to the Little Ice Age, a climate phenomenon that began in the 13th Century and ended in the early 18th Century. Winter came early and lasted well into spring. Heavy snows were frequent. Temperatures during the time of Avercamp’s paintings averaged well below zero.

“Winter Scene on a Canal” (1610)

Avercamp’s “Winter Scene on a Canal” (1610) (20”x36”) (Toledo Museum, Ohio) presents much the same array of people and events. The Toledo Museum closely examined the painting and produced the next three close-up images.

Winter Scene on a Canal” (1610) (detail 1)

In the foreground at the left, the elderly man with the white beard carries a basket. He is warmly wrapped from his head to his heavy pants and thick shoes. A rooster and two hens pick at the ice where feed has been thrown.

#5 Winter Scene on a Canal” (1610) (detail 2)

Along the foreground to the right, three men stand together. One is a fisherman with a net. He has used his axe to cut a hole in the ice. He holds a long spear to reach deep into the water to catch fish, and has a net to keep them in. He talks with a second man. A third man is carrying two baskets. The two men likely came to buy fish from the first man. Just behind this group is a man colfing.

Winter Scene on a Canal” (1610) (detail 3)

Next to the group of fishermen are two couples in traditional Dutch black clothing. The men’s cloaks reach down to their knees, and the women’s cloaks reach to the ground. The men wear white ruff collars and tall black hats. The men wear wool bouffant knee breeches, both warm and comfortable. Leather boots or hose and shoes complete their attire. The attention of the black dog has been caught by a young lady whose image is found in the full scene.

“Winter Landscape with Flask Players” (1625)

“Winter Landscape with Flask Players” (1625) is a portrait of Averkamp and his brother Lambert as they compete hitting flasks. Both men have dark beards, but we may guess that the artist wears the colorful clothing. Looking on is a well-known fisherman, in the red hat, and his son. The tools of their trade are the hatchet and a basket to carry the fish. The son carries the net to lift the fish from the water.

Several ships and boats are placed in the background. A consequence of the Little Ice Age, landmarks necessary to carry on trade became harder to find. Sailors’ journals record a sense of placelessness, at times unable to see or sense where they were, where they were going, or how to find home. Their English, French, and Danish rivals were all looking for a trade route to Asia.

Avercamp’s paintings show the resilience of the Dutch to enjoy, survive, and thrive in difficult times. His paintings, although generally on one theme, were popular. He painted many and he prospered.

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Looking at the Masters: A Victorian Christmas

December 19, 2024 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

Christmas traditions we cherish were established during Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901). Others are as old as the ancient Roman Saturnalia celebration held on December 17, still others were traditions from the time of the Tudors. Decorating Christmas trees was one of the earliest and most important traditions. Germans brought cut fir branches into the house for their wonderful scent. Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) of Germany, who married George the III of England in 1760, was known by 1800 to decorate fir branches in the Queen’s Lodge at Windsor. These decorations may or may not have been complete trees. The British public was not yet aware of this practice.

“Christmas with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert” (1848)

When Prince Albert of Germany married Victoria, he decorated a full tree. “Christmas with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert” (1848), was published in the Illustrated London News, and everyone emulated the Queen. By the end of the century, the Christmas tree had become one of the most important elements of the Christmas celebration. The wood-engraving by Joseph Lionel Williams is a depiction of Victoria and Albert standing by a table that holds a decorated tree and hand-made wood figures. Five of their girls look on with pleasure. The tree is decorated with lighted candles and hanging from it are highly decorated packages and an assortment of Christmas treats. The rich and the poor of England were able to decorate their trees with paper wrapped treats.

“First Christmas Card” (1843)

The decoration of a Christmas tree was only one of the new elements added to the celebration of Christmas. Sir Henry Cole, the first director of the South Kensington Museum, was too late to write his usual Christmas letter, and he commissioned artist John Calcott Horsley (1817-1903), a member of the Royal Academy, to design somethings for him to send. “First Christmas Card” (1843) depicts a merry middle-class family raising a glass to toast everyone as they sit down to a sumptuous Christmas dinner. A wooden grape arbor frames this central scene. At one side a poor man and his family share a meal. At the opposite side, charity is shown to a woman holding her baby. The spirit of Christmas is shared by all.

Sending Christmas cards became popular. Victoria encouraged her children to make cards, and poor children also began to make cards. Cole had1000 cards printed, and he sold those he did not send. The first illustrated newspaper was published by 1842, and the first printed books were available by 1863, among them was Dickens’s very popular A Christmas Carol. Advances in the printing industry included the ability to print hand-colored lithographs, and then machine-colored ones. The mass sprinting of wrapping paper, cards, books, and newspapers all became possible during the time.

“Buying Mistletoe” (1850)

Mistletoe became popular in Victorian households by the 1870s. The green leaves and white berries were symbolic of fertility and romance. The berries represented male fertility. The Romans regarded mistletoe as symbolic of peace and love, and it was hung over doorways to protect the household. Druids and Celts also decorated with mistletoe since it was native to the British Isles and to Europe. “Buying Mistletoe” (1850), a Victorian print, shows a middle-class woman and her daughter purchasing mistletoe from a girl in the woods. Mistletoe is a parasite that grows on the tops of trees and remains green and white throughout the winter months. Popular with the serving-class, mistletoe became popular because it was possible for any man to kiss a girl under it. If the girl refused, she would have bad luck in finding a husband the following year.

“Pulling Christmas Crackers”

Christmas Crackers were invented by Tom Smith sometime between 1845 and 1850. On a visit to Paris in 1840, he saw French bon bons made of sugared almonds wrapped in a paper twist. He brought the idea back to London. He made and tried to sell bon bons that included a message wrapped with the candy. They did not sell. As he sat by a fire, the idea came to add noise to the candy. He bought a recipe for fireworks that would make a small bang. He added a cardboard tube, a strip of paper treated with a small amount of gunpowder, a short sentiment, usually a joke, and some type of paper crown or hat. When both ends of the cracker were pulled, the strip of paper ignited the gun powder. He named them “Bangs of Expectation.” They delighted young and old.

“By Royal Warrants Tom Smith’s Illustrated Catalogue of Christmas Novelties”

The Tom Smith company expanded its Christmas Novelties collection. It was appointed by the Queen in 1847 to be the official supplier of crackers and wrapping paper

“Children Singing Christmas Carols” (1886)

The book Christmas Carols New and Old, by Henry Ramsden Bramley and Sir John Stainer, was published in 1871. “Children Singing Christmas Carols” (1886), a Christmas carol book for children, was published by Ward Lock and Company. Various artists illustrated the book. Victorian caroling originally was called wassailing, the word meaning be well and in good health. Carolers went about the town singing and receiving cups of wassail, a hot spicey drink, for their efforts. In later years, carolers received gifts they then distributed to the poor.

Singing songs and dancing in a circle in Europe is thousands of years old. Saturnalia is just one of the origins. The word carole is French. Carols were written for all four seasons. Christians in Rome sang them in Latin. The carols were not popular since most people did not understand the words. St Francis of Assisi wanted Christmas songs to be sung in native languages. He also introduced pageants. Christmas carols were first introduced to England in 1426 by a Shropshire chaplain. During the age of Cromwell and Puritanism, Christmas caroling was considered pagan, and the practice was outlawed. Caroling was revived in 1880, and new carols were written, such as “Good King Wenceslas,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and “We Three Kings of Orient Are.”

WASSAIL!

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Looking at the Masters: St Lucy

December 12, 2024 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

The Feast of St Lucy is celebrated on December 13 in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and other places where there are Scandinavian immigrants. St Lucy is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches. She lived from 238 until 304 CE in Syracuse, Sicily. Her parents were wealthy, was a devout Christian who early in her life had dedicated herself and her worldly goods to helping the poor. Lucy was engaged unwillingly to a wealthy, pagan bridegroom who became enraged when he learned he would not get her dowery of money and jewels.

“Lucy Before the Judge” (1532)

The Roman Emperor Diocletian prosecuted Christians. Lucy’s bridegroom brought charges against her. “Lucy Before the Judge” (1532) (95”x 93”) was painted by the Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556/57). Lucy confronts the judge. She points toward the white dove, representing the Holy Spirit, and explains her Christian beliefs. Known for paintings featuring unique poses, Lotto surrounded Lucy with a collection of onlookers. Whether there is agreement or disagreement is unclear. The figure in gray standing in front of Lucy is not identified, although he may be the bridegroom trying to stop Lucy’s testimony.

As her penance, Lucy was ordered by Paschsius, the Governor of Syracuse, to burn a sacrifice to the Emperor Diocletian. When she refused, he sentenced her to a brothel, where she would be defiled. Jacobus de Voragine (c.1230-1298), who compiled The Golden Legend, which became the most popular retelling of the lives of the saints, tells of Lucy’s response: “The body is not soiled unless the soul consents; and if in despite my body is ravished, my chastity will be doubled. Thus, you canst not ever force my will. And as for my body, here it is ready for every torture. Why delay thou? Son of the Devil, begin! Carry out thy heinous design!”

“Lucy Dragged by Oxen” (1410)

“Lucy Dragged by Oxen” (1410) is part of an eight-panel altarpiece for St Lucy’s Church in Formo, Italy, by Venetian painter Jacobo del Fiore (c.1370-1493) who was commissioned by the church of St Lucy. His work was influenced by the French Gothic style which can be seen in Lucy’s gold gown, resembling a French tapestry with gardens of flowers. When Lucy was sentenced to the brothel, her body became infused with the Holy Spirit and became so heavy the guards could not move her. She was chained to oxen, and over a thousand men still could not move her.

“Lucy in the Burning Bush” (1320)

“Lucy in the Burning Bush” (1320), also by del Fiore, is a depiction of the next attempt to bring about her death. Paschsius became so angry that he ordered a fire be built with pitch, resin, and boiling oil added. Still Lucy survived.

“The Martyrdom of St Lucy” (1505-1510)

“The Martyrdom of St Lucy” (1505-1510) is by the Master of the Figdor Deposition (1480-1500), an Early Netherlandish painter. When Lucy did not burn, Paschsius grew even angrier. A man uses a bellows to blow air into the fire to heat it up. Finally, a soldier takes up his sword and stabs her in the neck. Also in the painting, Lucy being pulled by oxen to the brothel can be seen in the left background. Farther left, a soldier tries to behead Lucy. In the middle ground, Lucy receives her last communion and dies.

“The Last Communion of St Lucy (1585-86)

“The Last Communion of St Lucy (1585-86), by Venetian painter Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), is a rare single depiction of the Lucy story from The Golden Legend. Lucy receives Holy Communion before she dies. The priest offers her bread and wine, and an assistant holds a small cup to collect her blood.

“St Lucy” (1472)

The legend of St Lucy had become a popular story by the 6th Century, and many images of her were painted. The images were not presented in story form so much as through iconographic symbols. “Saint Lucy” (1472) (30”x33”) (tempura and gold on wood) is in the collection of the National Gallery in Washington, DC. Italian artist, del Cossa was from Ferrara, and he also worked in Bologna. Lucy was said to be very beautiful, and her family’s wealth made her a desirable wife. Her story tells that to make herself less desirable, she plucked out her eyes. In the painting, she holds two of her symbols: in one hand, a black palm branch denoting her martyr’s death, and in the other, two eyeballs as if they were flowers.

“St Lucy” (1625-30)

“St Lucy” (1625-30) (41”x31”), also in the National Gallery of Art, is by Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664). St Lucy became particularly popular during the Catholic Reformation. In de Zurbaran’s painting, she carries two eyeballs on a plate. Protestantism led to a major revival in the Roman Catholic Church. Saints, like Lucy, were praised for their steadfastness to the Church, and their images hopefully would inspire the congregations. The stories of St Lucy offered various reasons for why and when she plucked out her eyes. Her sight miraculously did return.

Christmas Card (before 1916)

The Christmas card, produced by Adele Soderberg, illustrates the modern version of St Lucy’s Day on December 13. A young girl, chosen to represent St Lucy, leads the procession through town. She is dressed in white and wears a wreath holding candles. She traditionally is followed by a group of young girls, dressed in white, and/or a group of boys, wearing white robes and cone shaped hats with stars. She serves coffee and baked goods. A popular treat is saffron buns. Songs are sung, and concerts are held. Traditions are developed in each community.

The Latin name Lucia is the root for lux, or light. St Lucy brings light in the darkness of winter. Thus, the candles in the wreath. Many people observe the tradition of placing candles in windows of their houses, beginning on December 13.

Happy St Lucy Day to Everyone

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Looking at the Masters: A Christmas Carol

December 5, 2024 by Beverly Hall Smith 1 Comment

A Christmas Carol (1843) (title page of first edition)

Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was published by Chapman and Hall in London in1843. The first illustrator John Leech created four hand-colored etched plates and four black and white wood engravings. His first illustration was “Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball” from Ebenezer Scrooge’s early life when he was in love and happy. By Christmas Eve, the first edition of 6000 books had sold out. Two new editions were sold out by the New Year. The story has never been out of print. The celebration of Christmas grew in popularity, and the Victorians developed new traditions.

Leech’s etching, the first appearance of the Ghost of Christmas Past, shows the jolly and rotund Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig leading the dance. Fezziwig’s annual Christmas parties were famous. Known for his generosity and kindness, Fezziwig has provided a feast for all. A fiddler plays music from the balcony. Fezziwig’s elderly mother sits with some children and smiles at the joyous occasion. A young couple enjoy a kiss under the mistletoe. Holly hangs from the ceiling.

”Marley’s Ghost” (1843)

In “Marley’s Ghost” (1843), Scrooge’s former partner who has just died is an unexpected visitor on Christmas Eve. Dressed in his burial clothes, Marley drags chains and weights, the penance for his sins. Scrooge, in his nightclothes, sits near a small fire, eating a meager dinner. Only one candle lights the room. Leech has depicted the candle flame as a ghostly light. Marley warns Scrooge of the sins they both have committed in their business, and he forecasts the arrival of three spirits that will visit before Christmas Day. Scrooge must mend his cruel and miserly ways, or he will end up like Marley.

The Ghost of Christmas Present” (1843)

Leech draws upon the popular image of Father Christmas for “The Ghost of Christmas Present” (1843). He wears a dark green robe with white fur collar and sleeves. The room is filled with hanging greens. His torch and the fire provide light and warmth. His robe does not cover his chest, and his feet are bare. He wears a holly wreath decorated with mistletoe atop his curly brown hair. Around his throne are a rabbit, plum pudding, sausages, hams, and assorted other meats. He has a bowl of warm punch ready to share with Scrooge. He says to Scrooge, “Come in! Come in! and know me better, man.” He smiles, his eyes twinkle, and his voice is welcoming.

This image is one of the most popular in the story. The Spirit introduced Scrooge to another world. They first visit a flourishing market, where the rich are purchasing provisions for their feasts. The Spirit then takes Scrooge to a poor man’s house, and then to the home of his nephew, Fred. Every year the kindly nephew invites Scrooge to the party, but he never attends. They visit the home of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s poor clerk. Scrooge learns about tiny Tim and that he will not live long. The Ghost repeated Scrooge’s own words to him, “If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

“Ignorance and Want” (1843)

The theme of the woodcut “Ignorance and Want” (1843) was for Dickens a main element in A Christmas Carol. The Spirit shows Scrooge two starving, and poor children. Scrooge asks, “Spirit, are they yours?” “They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it! Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!” “Have they no refuge or resources?” cried Scrooge. “Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on Scrooge for the last time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?”

Dickens was born into the middle class. His father was a spend-thrift. He squandered the family money and was committed to debtor’s prison. Dickens was forced to sell everything. His interest in the poor was established as a result, and he visited several locations where children were forced to work in intolerable conditions. He intended A Christmas Carol to send a moral message and to expose the dire circumstances created by the Industrial Revolution. He wrote letters, gave speeches, and fought to address the deplorable conditions of children in as many ways as he found possible.

“Bob Cratchit and tiny Tim” (1878)

Dickens enlisted artists to create additional images for the early publications of A Christmas Carol. The black and white illustrations by Fred Barnard (1846-1896) are thought to be superior to the work by earlier artists. Barnard called himself the Charles Dickens among illustrators. “Bob Cratchit and tiny Tim” (1878) was another of the popular Dickens’s images. Bob Cratchit carried tiny Tim all over town, but particularly to church. His devotion to Tim was noted by everyone, young and old, rich and poor. A young boy with his dog delivers a large platter with the Christmas bird. A wealthy woman looks askance at the poor old woman. Her well-dressed daughter looks at an urchin who reaches out her hand. The young girl discretely hands the poor child a coin. The city of London is the backdrop. The distant clock tower resembles Big Ben.

“The Last of the Spirits, The Pointing Finger” (1843)

In Leech’s “The Last of the Spirits, The Pointing Finger” (1843), the Spirit

of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to a graveyard. Scrooge implores, “Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point, answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or they the shadows of things that May be, only?” The Ghost points downward to the grave. Scrooge responds, “Men’s courses will fore-shadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they may lead. But if the courses be departed from, the end will change. Say it is thus with what you will show me!” Dickens wrote, “Scrooge crept toward it, trembling as he went, and followed the finger, read upon the stone of neglected grave his own name. EBENEZER SCROOGE

“Cratchit and the Christmas Bowl” (1843)

Leech’s illustration “Cratchit and the Christmas Bowl” (1843) presents a changed Scrooge. He shares a drink with Bob Cratchit. Dicken’s text reads: “A merry Christmas, Bob! said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-shuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!”

Have a Dickens of a Christmas

Note: Quotated material is drawn from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

1 Samuel 7, during the end of the time of the judges, Israel experiences revival under the leadership of Samuel. The nation repents of their sin, destroys their idols, and begins to seek the Lord (1 Samuel 7:2–4). Samuel gathered the people at Mizpah where they confessed their sin, and Samuel offered a sacrifice on their behalf (verses 5–9). (1 Samuel 7:13–14). To commemorate the divine victory, “Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the LORD has helped us’” (verse 12). Ebenezer means “stone of help.” From then on, every time an Israelite saw the stone erected by Samuel, he would have a tangible reminder of the Lord’s power and protection. The “stone of help” marked the spot where the enemy had been routed and God’s promise to bless His repentant people had been honored. The Lord had helped them, all the way to Ebenezer.

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Looking at the Masters: Pablita Velarde

November 14, 2024 by Beverly Hall Smith 1 Comment

Pablita Velarde (1918-2006) was born in the Santa Clara Pueblo in Espanola, New Mexico. Her Indian name Tse Tsan means Golden Dawn in the Tewa language. Velarde is one of America’s foremost Native American painters. She and her sister attended St Catherine’s Indian School in Sante Fe. At age fourteen Pablita was one of the first women to attend the Studio Art School in in Santa Fe, founded by Dorothy Dunn in1932. She taught what she called “flat-style painting,” memory paintings intended to preserve the old ways of the Pueblo before they disappeared.

“Basket Making” (1940s)

Velarde received a commission in 1939 to paint scenes of traditional Indian life prior to1900. The work was a WPA project, part of the National Park Service, for the visitor center at the Bandelier National Monument in Los Alamos, New Mexico. She began the project in 1937, and she completed over 700 paintings by 1943. “Basket Making” (1940s) (12’’x11’’), in the flat-style, is a depiction of a man wearing a red shirt, sitting under a tree, and weaving a basket of yucca leaves. The man beside him is weaving a twill basket. The woman next the them is stripping the leaves from the yucca stem. Two men in the distance carry bundles of yucca leaves and flat stems that would be used to weave twill baskets. Velarde described her time at Bandelier: “I figure, I’ve learned more about my own people…than I would have…and I appreciate what the old ones have tried to pass on…I want the earth to remember me through my work.”

“Three Woman Grinding Corn” (1940s)

In “Three Woman Grinding Corn” (1940s) (13’’x8’’) Velarde depicts the process of grinding blue corn into flour. Cobs of blue corn hang at the rear of the pavilion, and two women are grinding corn in the traditional way, each using a manos, the long round stone rolled across a metates, the large stone on the ground. A third woman sifts the ground corn to remove any hard kernels. Pueblo Indians planted red, yellow, white, blue, black, and multicolored corn. Each had a particular use. Blue corn is high in protein and contains potassium and calcium, as well as other nutrients. It is also easier to digest and has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

”Santa Clara Women Selling Pottery” (1940s)

Maria Martinez (1887-1980), from San Ildefonso Pueblo, and her family of potters began experimenting with new techniques and created the world- famous black-ware pottery. “Santa Clara Women Selling Pottery” (1940s) is a display of black-ware pottery shapes and sizes, decorated with heavily incised traditional symbols. Behind the pots are eight colorfully dressed women of the Pueblo. One carries a papoose. Velarde has included a pueblo building behind them. Straight, symmetrical lines on a pot represent rain in the desert and feathers represent daily prayers. Among the other patterns are bear claws and Avanyu, the god who formed the Rio Grande River, and who is depicted as a water serpent.

“Turtle Dance” (1953)

Velarde painted the traditions of the past in great detail. “Turtle Dance” (1953) is a depiction of a religious ceremony performed on January 1, the beginning of the new year. The turtle is believed to be the first animal to move at the arrival of the new year. Dancers wear evergreen branches, turtle shells, bells, and feathers. The sound of their moccasins scraping gently in the sand creates the sound of rain. The dancers welcome back the sun. The dance is performed by about 100 men, lined up according to their height from tallest to shortest, representing respect for the elders, who are the tallest. A new song is created each year to accompany the dance.

Two medicine men are in the front row. Between them, and to the left side of the painting, and on the roof of the pueblo are Koshare, dressed in black and white striped costume. They are clowns who participate in Pueblo ceremonies. They continue to participate to this day. On January 1, 2025, the Turtle Dance will be performed for the public at the Taos Pueblo.

In 1954 Velarde was awarded, along with eleven other Native Americans, the French Order of the Palmes for excellence in art. It was the first time foreigners were given this honor since it was founded by Napoleon in 1808.

“Old Father Storyteller” (1960)

Velarde wrote and illustrated the children’s book Old Father Storyteller in 1960. It was one of her most popular images and the subject of “Old Father Storyteller” (1960) (18’’x14’’). The painting was made into a print. Velarde’s father was a respected storyteller at the Santa Clara Pueblo: “I was one of the fortunate children of my generation who were probably the last to hear stories firsthand from Great-grandfather or Grandfather. I treasure that memory, and I have tried to preserve it in this book so that my children as well as other people may have a glimpse of what used to be.”

In “Old Father Storyteller” the over-sized storyteller sits cross-legged at the center of the composition. He points to the arch of stars as he tells migration stories to the women, children, and men who listen intently. Velarde has included an imaginary structure composed of Indian patterns. It contains animals that are important to the people and part of the stories. A large spider web and spider appear on the left side of the work, with warriors trying to climb onto it. An eagle soars across the sky at the center, and a bear, two other animals, and a turtle occupy the right side. On both sides, warriors carrying sacks may be bringing offerings to the animals. The book was selected as one of the best Western books of 1960. It is still a best seller.

During Velarde’s long career, she received many honors. She was declared a Santa Fe Living Treasure in 1988. In 1990 Velarde received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art. Founded in 1972, the organization supported women artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. Its affiliation with the United Nations in 1975 extended its influence beyond the United States. The Pablita Velarde Museum of Indian Women in the Arts was opened in Sante Fe in1912. She received a Doctorate in Arts from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 2005, the year before her death.

“Mimbres – Antelopes, Quails, and Rabbit” (1993)

Velarde’s painting skills developed during her career. She used several paint mediums, and she also made paint from natural materials which she used in what she called her earth paintings. “Mimbres – Antelopes, Quails, and Rabbit” (1993) (18’’x24’’) (print from an earth painting) is a depiction of one of her several Pueblo Indian subjects. The people and their customs included images of animals important to them. Mimbres indicates that the animals are kin, part of a group of persons with common ancestry. Velarde’s animal paintings are often childlike, but also are abstract. Antelope are a significant food source, and their hides are used for necessary items. Quail are considered sacred, and their feathers are used in ceremonies. They are messengers between the earth and sky, connecting the physical and spiritual worlds. They are also an important food source. Rabbits were a significant food source and respected. Each of the animals is painted with Pueblo patterns.

“First Twins” (1979)

In a 1979 interview, Velarde commented on women and painting: “Painting was not considered women’s work in my time. A woman was supposed to be just a woman, like a housewife and a mother and chief cook. Those things I wasn’t interested in.”

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Looking at the Masters: Kay WalkingStick

November 7, 2024 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

Cherokee artist Kay WalkingStick was born in 1935 in Syracuse, New York. Her father was Scots/Irish and her mother was of the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma. WalkingStick began making art at an early age. She graduated in 1959 from Beaver College in Pennsylvania where she earned her BFA degree. She completed her MFA degree at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York City. She served from1988 until 2005 as a tenured Associate Professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She commented, “It was always important to me to be recognized as a Native person…It was also important to be understood as a New York artist, one who was working in the mainstream.”

”Where are the Generations, Stillness” (1991)

“Where are the Generations, Stillness” (1991) (28”x56’’) (acrylic, copper, and oil on canvas) is an example of WalkingStick’s early paintings in which she adapted the diptych, two separate panels hinged together. She said, “The diptych is an especially powerful metaphor to express the beauty and power of uniting the disparate and this makes it particularly attractive to those of us who are biracial…I use landscape as the context…one side of the painting represents immediately visual memory; the other archetype memory and both could be a stand-in for the human body and soul.”

The left panel of “Where are the Generations, Stillness” is abstract. At the middle of the composition an ochre half oval is surrounded by a sapphire field. The interpretation of abstract images is left to the viewers, but the title of this work offers a suggestion: the semi-oval could be half an egg, symbolic of life. The universe and creation are suggested by the sky, including the red sparks, and the red shape lying beneath the oval, the beginning of the Indian Nations. A barren mountain landscape is on the right panel; no people are present.

Text is printed on the wall next to the painting: “In 1492, we were twenty million. Now, we are two million. Where are the generations, never born? From a distance, the sphere becomes more prominent–a universe, suggesting that viewers would need the perspective of time and distance to understand the weight of genocide.”

We’re Still Dancing (2006)

In “We’re Still Dancing” (2006) (32’’x64’’), WalkingStick pairs a dramatic image of a rocky mountain with women’s legs dancing on a golden field. The two images create a dynamic duo of hope. The paintings may appear to be alla prima, an Italian term meaning at first attempt. They are, in her words, “by contrast, deliberate and resolved.” They are from “memory, sketches, photos, not a depiction of a specific space, but a psychological state painting of a totally real place.”

“Fairwell to the Smokies” (2007)

WalkingStick painted “Fairwell to the Smokies” (2007) (36”x72’’) after a visit to the Smoky Mountains. It represents the Trail of Tears, when the Indian Removal Act in 1830 forced five tribes, including the Cherokee, to leave their homes in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. They walked 800 miles west of the Mississippi to Oklahoma. The landscape is painted in rich browns and greens. The Indians walk along the bottom of the canvas. The small size of the figures and hazy gray color make it easy to miss them, particularly those who enter the unknown new land at the right. Text placed on the wall of the gallery explained that Walkingstick, although born and raised in New York, felt the significance of the Trail of Tears when she visited her ancestral homeland in the Carolinas and Tennessee: “It’s about the traumatic experience of leaving home—leaving this beautiful home.”

Stories of the Indians who walked the Trail of Tears are hard to hear. Families were separated, the elderly and sick were forced to leave at gunpoint, and they were given no real time to gather their possessions. After they left, white people looted the homes. Gold was discovered in 1830 on Cherokee lands in Georgia.

“Lush Life” (2015)

“Lush Life” (2015) (36”x72”) represents another facet of Walkingstick’s paintings. She commented, “The move seemed inevitable. Although, I hadn’t put depictions of humans into my art for many years. In fact, their absence had seemed crucial to the significance of the work.” The female figure was herself, and she began using the image on a limited scale in the 1990s. Placing her figure against a lush light green landscape and coordinating the trees with the movement of her dancing legs, gives the viewer a peaceful and happy moment.

WalkingStick was given a retrospective exhibition in 2015 at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. She commented, “I had to come to terms with this idea that I am as much my father’s daughter as my mother’s…I hope viewers will leave the museum with a renewed sense of how beautiful and precious our planet is with the realization that those of us living in the Western Hemisphere are all living on Indian Territory”

“New Hampshire Coast” (2020)

WalkingStick grew up on the East Coast, but she has painted landscapes from coast to coast. She lives and works in Pennsylvania, and she has traveled across the American west and to Italy. In “New Hampshire Coast” (2020) (36”x72’’) she expresses her love of landscape painting in the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean and New Hampshire’s rocky coast. The Indian sign, painted in terra cotta on the right side of the diptych, is from a Native basket motif of the Wabanaki Indians, who lived there for hundreds of years before white settlers arrived. A fight for the ownership of the land is an on-going battle in Maine.

“Niagara” (2020)

“Niagara” (2020) (36”x72”) is a painting of one of America’s best-known landmarks. Walkingstick depicts a panoramic view of two of the three falls, Horseshoe and Bridal Veil. WalkingStick has chosen to paint single-view landscapes in her recent diptychs. She painted a symbol of the Haudenosaunee Indians, people of the long house. They are the first Confederation of the Six Nations, also called the Iroquois Confederation, that included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes. They are the oldest participatory democracy in America. Several of their democratic principles were adopted by the thirteen original colonies. The six tribes originally lived in northern New York.

Kay WalkingStick’s work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her paintings were exhibited by the New York Historical Society from October 2023 until April 2024, comparing her landscapes with those of the Hudson River School of the 19th Century. WalkingStick was included in the 60th anniversary of the Venice Biennale, that will end on November 24, 2024. The theme of the Biennale was Foreigners Every Where. The Addison Gallery in Andover, Massachusetts is exhibiting her work from September 14, 2024 until February 2, 2025. Kay WalkingStick is one of the most esteemed American Indian artists.

“I want them to also see the primary message in the work, that is: This is our beloved land no matter who walks here, no matter who “owns” it. This is our land. Recognize us and honor this land.” (Kay WalkingStick, 2012)

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Looking at the Masters: George Caleb Bingham

October 31, 2024 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) is a well-known American painter of jolly boatmen who transported furs and other cargo on rafts along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. He also painted several portraits. He is lesser-known as a politician and soldier. His political paintings convey his strong belief in Democracy with all its flaws and that slavery was immoral and a threat to the future of the Union.

He was born in Augusta County, Virginia. When the family lost their mill, they moved to Missouri. Bingham was educated by his mother. He was mostly a self-taught painter. By age nineteen he was painting portraits for $20; by age twenty-two he supported himself with his art. He opened his first studio in 1838 in St. Louis. He moved to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, but he remained there only for three months before moving to Washington, D.C., where he studied with Benjamin West and Thomas Sully from 1840 until1844. Bingham married his first wife, and they moved in 1845 to Arrow Rock, Saline County, Missouri. Their home is now a National Historic Landmark.

“Canvassing for a Vote” (1852)

Bingham became involved with politics as early as 1840, during the race for president between Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison. Over the next several years he painted six canvases in his “election series.” “Canvassing for a Vote” (1852) (25”x31”) (Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO) is one of the earliest. In front of the Arrow Rock Tavern, in his hometown, Bingham poses five men, a sleeping dog, and a horse’s rump, all within a triangular composition.

The candidate wearing a top hat, explains his position to the city gentleman with the cane, the country gentleman smoking his corn cob pipe, and the worker in the leather apron. The fifth man turns his back on the conversation; either he does not care, or he opposes the candidate’s thinking, or he could represent those who felt disenfranchised. These attitudes were prevalent at the time. Historians and art critics suggest that the sleeping dog may represent voters’ lack of enthusiasm, or the attitude toward the issue of slavery by the Missouri Legislation: “Let sleeping dogs lie.” One other idea has been proposed, that the approximate placement of the head of the candidate and the horse’s rump may represent Bingham’s estimation of politicians. Nevertheless, he knew the value of democracy, even with its flaws. Bingham ran as a Whig for the Missouri House of Representatives in 1848. The initial count resulted in three votes in his favor. He lost the recount and suspected vote tampering. He ran in the following year and won by a large margin.

“Stump Speaking” (1853-54)

“Stump Speaking” (1853-54) (43”x58’’) is a depiction of a politician trying to persuade a group of Missouri citizens to vote for him. The three figures dressed in white form a wide triangle. They are Bingham’s key to the painting. The Stump Speaker represents the current issues to be decided, and he reaches out to the crowd. The Outstanding Citizen, as Bingham refers to him, wears a white suit and top hat, and he sits across from the Speaker. He leans forward, one hand on his hip, and listens to the Speaker. He represents the past, and he is rigid is his opposition. The future is represented by the young, bare footed boy in the white shirt. He sits at the front of the composition. Both hands in front of him, his finger points into the palm of the other hand as he counts some coins.

The group of citizens includes men, women, and children of various ages and means. All are white. They surround the Speaker and sit or stand in natural positions. Bingham includes several portraits. The Stump Speaker resembles Erasmus Sappington, Bingham’s opponent in the previous election. The older, rotund figure wearing the green jacket resembles Meredith Marmaduke, the former governor of Missouri. The figure next to him is a self-portrait of Bingham, head down as he takes notes.

“The County Election” (1852)

“The County Election” (1852) (38”x52”) was the first painting in Bingham’s election series. Male citizens of all ages gather at the polling place. The inscription “The Will of the People, The Supreme Law” on the blue banner represents the artist’s belief. The scene is set outdoors in the light of day so that everyone could witness the vote. At the top of the stairs, the man in the orange shirt swears on a Bible that this is his only vote. Behind him on the stairs, the man tipping his top hat may be offering a bribe to the next voter. At the bottom of the stairs to the left, another man in a top hat drags a limp man, possibly drunk, toward the stairs so that he can vote. At the far right a drunk sits hunched over, his head bandaged, perhaps suggesting that elections could result in violence.

Behind the drunk, two men read a newspaper The Missouri Republican. When Bingham made a print of the painting, he had the title changed to The National Intelligencer to appeal to a broader audience. At the left front of the work, a man sits and drinks beer. Votes bought by liquor were common in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Two boys play mumblety-peg with a knife. With splayed fingers, the boys stab between them as quickly as they can without cutting themselves.

“The Verdict of the People” (1854-55)

“The Verdict of the People” (1854-55) (46”x55”) was the last painting in Bingham’s election series. The crowd gathers in front of the courthouse to learn the election results. Bingham’s usual set of characters include farmers, laborers, politicians, and immigrants. However, he has included women and African American slaves. The African American pushing a wheelbarrow is prominently placed in the left foreground of the painting. The presence of women is not as obvious. White and African American women look on from a balcony at the top right. None has the right to vote.

“The Verdict of the People” is a depiction of two prominent issues in the 1854 election. Herman Humphrey’s book of 1828, Parallel between Intemperance and Slavery, explored the idea that alcohol and slavery were linked. The American Society of Temperance had been founded in1826, and the idea of abolishing alcohol was taking hold in several states by the 1850s. Bingham’s views were always anti-slavery; however, he considered abolishing alcohol to be wrong.

Bingham sent his election series to Washington, D.C., with the hope that the Library Committee of Congress would purchase the paintings. He wanted Americans to see his work and understand his ideas. The Library Committee of Congress did not purchase them. Bingham then lent them to the Mercantile Library Association in St. Louis, Missouri.

Abaham Lincoln was elected president in1861. Bingham was on the side of the Union during the Civil War; he fought and raised troops. The government of Missouri declared itself against slavery. The governor appointed Bingham to serve as Missouri State Treasurer in 1862. After the Civil War, Bingham was appointed President of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners. He became the first Chief of Police. He never stopped painting.

“To the beautiful belongs an endless variety. It is seen not only in symmetry and elegance of form, in youth and health, but is often quite as fully apparent in decrepit old age. It is found in the cottage of the peasant as well as the palace of kings.” (George Caleb Bingham)

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Looking at the Masters: Winslow Homer

October 24, 2024 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

American artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was the son of Bostonians Charles and Henrietta Homer. She was an amateur watercolor painter and Winslow’s primary teacher. His youth was spent mostly in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he graduated from high school. His artistic talent was obvious. Apprenticed to a Boston commercial lithographer, he produced numerous sheet music covers and advertisements. He established a free-lance career by 1857 that resulted in an offer of employment from Harper’s Weekly. Instead, he opened his own studio in Boston. He said, “I have no master, and never shall have any.”

He moved to New York City in 1859 and attended drawing school in Brooklyn. Harper’s Weekly commissioned him to draw images of the Civil War, and he was assigned to Major General George B. McClellan. Homer’s oil paintings of the Civil War invited him to membership in the National Academy of Design. He received full membership in 1865, including the exhibition of one of his Civil War paintings. The painting was also exhibited in the International Exhibition in Paris. Homer visited Europe in 1867, and he was able to observe the French Barbizon landscape paintings.

“A Fair Wind” (“Breezing Up”) (1876)

“A Fair Wind” (“Breezing Up”) (1876) (24”x38”) (National Gallery of Art) was exhibited during the American Centennial. After Homer returned to Gloucester, he began to paint American scenes of life along the Atlantic coast. Originally titled “A Fair Wind,” meaning smooth sailing ahead, the painting presented a positive, optimistic, and hopeful view of America’s future. The catboat, named the Gloucester, is steered by a young boy holding the tiller, rather than the older man in the boat. The boy steers toward the horizon, and the future. By adding the anchor, Homer further represents security and hope.

When “A Fair Wind” was shown at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, it was recognized as a positive expression of America’s future. Henry James, the writer, and Homer’s good friend, was critical of the painting: “We frankly confess that we detest his subjects…he has chosen the least pictorial range of scenery and civilization; he has resolutely treated them as if they were pictorial…and, to reward his audacity, he has incontestably succeeded. There is no picture in this exhibition, nor can we remember when there has been a picture in any exhibition, that can be named alongside this.” The National Gallery of Art purchased the work in 1943, and “Breezing Up” became the commonly used title of the painting. The Gallery describes the painting on its web site as “one of the best-known and most beloved artistic images of life in nineteenth-century America.” The United States Postal Service issued in1962 a commemorative stamp to honor Homer with the image of “Breezing Up.”

“Clear Sailing” (1880)

By 1873 Homer had begun to use watercolor for sketches of subjects for finished oil paintings. “Clear Sailing” (1880) (8”x11”) (Philadelphia Museum of Art) is one of his pencil and watercolor sketches. In the summer of 1880, Homer lodged with the lighthouse keeper at Ten Pound Island, located in the middle of Gloucester Bay harbor. He observed the sailing ships, small boats, and all the activity associated with a busy harbor. Homer included a fully rigged ship in the distance. His view from the light house offered a closer look at ships and boats. Three young boys sit and stand on the beach and enjoy watching the scene. A sea gull soars across the sky.

“The Life Line” (1884)

“The Life Line” (1884) (29”x45’’) is a depiction of another side of life along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Homer and others who lived on the coast witnessed the dangers of ocean voyages. Immigrants, visitors, and cargo were at the mercy of the restless sea. Many stories of shipwrecks were reported in the newspapers. The wreck of the ship Atlantic in1873 that carried 962 people, resulted in the loss of 562 passengers and crew. Homer witnessed the newly invented breeches buoy system that was first employed in 1883 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to safely transfer people to shore.

In the painting the storm rages, the waves are intense, and a woman is held tightly in the breeches buoy by a strong male figure. The woman’s windblown red scarf centers the composition and provides a bold contrast to the treacherous dark green and white waves. “The Life Line” is a depiction of the American male hero saving the life of the helpless woman. This type of story was popular in the 19th Century. Homer painted this work after seeking out eyewitnesses and hearing their accounts of the events.

Homer had witnessed new life saving methods while he was in England, and he brought information about them to America. The United States was unique in organizing beach patrols and using new lifesaving techniques. The exploits of the new American heroes, the coast guards, were illustrated in several publications after 1878. “Life Line” was exhibited for the first time in 1884 at the National Academy of Design in New York, and the painting was immediately purchased for $2,500.

“The Gulf Stream” (1899)

Homer spent several summer vacations with fishing fleets in the Bahamas. He spent time near Florida, Cuba, and the Caribbean. He painted “The Gulf Stream” (1899) (28’’x49’’) (Metropolitan Museum) during his first trip to the Caribbean in 1885. “I painted in watercolors three months last winter at Nassau, & have now just commenced arranging a picture from some of the studies.” A boat, its mast broken, floats rudderless on the restless ocean. Homer wrote, “I have crossed the Gulf Stream ten times & I should know something about it.” A single negro lies on the deck, described by Homer as “dazed and parboiled…and the sharks have been blown out to sea by a hurricane.”

Homer sent “The Gulf Stream” to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1900. He sent the painting to the National Academy of Design in 1906; the members of the academy jury wanted the Metropolitan Museum to purchase the painting. Newspaper reviews were positive and negative. One Philadelphia newspaper critic wrote that people were laughing at the “Smiling Sharks.” Another called attention to the “naked negro lying in a boat while a school of sharks [are] waltzing around him in the most ludicrous manner.” In response to concern expressed about the outcome of the story, Homer said, “You can tell these ladies that the unfortunate negro who now is so dazed & parboiled, will be rescued & returned to his friends and home, & ever after live happily.” The Metropolitan Museum purchased the painting that year.

“After the Hurricane” (1899)

“After the Hurricane” (1899) (15’’x21’’) (Art Institute of Chicago) was one of Homer’s finished watercolors. It is not clear if this work was painted before or after “The Gulf Stream,” but it depicts an event resulting from a hurricane. Whether the negro in the wrecked boat is dead or alive is not certain, but the devastation caused by the hurricane is evident.

On the weekend of November 1 and 2, 2024, Chestertown will celebrate Down Rigging and enjoy the glory of the tall ships docked in our harbor.

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Looking at the masters: autumn in Europe

October 4, 2024 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

“Autumn Frost” (1874)

“Autumn Frost” (1874) (18”x22”), by Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley (1830-1899), is a depiction of what French travel advisors describe as “one of the loveliest times of the year.” During the day, the weather is mild, and at night there is a chill. Painted en plein air (outdoors), the work captures the bright oranges of fallen leaves. In the foreground is a tree, its trunk and branches painted dark brown. The artist uses yellow to represent the sunlight on the side of the tree trunk. The trunk creates a parallel line that is repeated in the parallel lines of all the buildings. The tree branches reach out left and right, and into the sky, guiding the viewer’s attention to the two houses beyond the fields. A man and a woman stand in the middle ground, almost at the center of the painting. The human presence supports the idea of a beautiful day to be outdoors.

At the left side of the composition, the artist depicts the circular furrows of the plowed field. Sisley used the complementary colors of orange and blue on both sides of the painting, and the juxtaposition of colors brings out a dynamic energy. Yellow and purple rows extend from the foreground to the middle of the scene. Blue not only is used to create shadows, it also represents the Autumn frost of the title. The sky is painted light blue and the underside shadow of the clouds light orange. The sunny side of the largest house and the fence posts are painted yellow like the tree trunk. Light blue and orange are used in the depiction of the towering church. Sisley has captured a lovely autumn day in a charming French village.

“Chill October” (1870)

“Chill October” (1870) (56’’x74’’), by English painter Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896), was painted en plain air beside the river Tay near Perth, Scotland. It is an example of the artist’s later period when he favored a realistic style. The painting is a depiction of a boggy landscape with reeds, grasses, alder trees, and willows. Millais had a platform constructed on which to work. He described the setting: “The traveler between Perth and Dundee passes the spot where I stood. Danger on either side–the tide, which once carried away my platform, and the trains, which threatened to blow my work into the river. I painted every touch from Nature, on the canvas itself, under irritating trials of wind and rain…there was more significance and feeling in one day of a Scotch autumn than in a whole half-year of spring and summer in Italy.’’

Millais depicts the natural colors of Autumn which include black and brown, a variety of yellows, greens, and oranges. The yellow-green cloud cover creates the desired chilly effect, as does the wind blowing through the grasses and trees. Even the river is painted a yellow-green, not the usual blue. A few birds fly away.

Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo after meeting Millais and seeing this painting, “Once I met the painter Millais on the street, just after I had been lucky enough to see several of his paintings…not the least beautiful is an Autumn landscape, Chill October.

“The Alyscamps” (1888)

“The Alyscamps” (1888) (36”x29”), by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), was the first painting he made after moving in October to Arles in southern France. Gauguin and Van Gogh were both Post-Impressionist painters who carried the rainbow colors of the Impressionists to the next level. They painted this scene side-by-side. The Alyscamps was the site of a Christian cemetery dedicated by Saint Trophime, the Bishop of Arles in the 3rd Century CE. Gauguin depicts the Avenue of cypress trees and the distant dome of the Romanesque church of St Honorat. He focuses the viewer’s attention on the vibrant green landscape, the fiery orange leaves of the cypress trees, and the gray-blue area road that stretches toward the church. The colors are thickly painted in patches, the brush strokes largely visible.

Centered in the composition are two women and a man dressed in Arlesienne clothing of the time. Gauguin found the place and the people of Arles unattractive. At first, he titled this painting ironically “Three Graces with the Temple of Venus.” He later changed the to “The Alyscamps.” The road had become a lover’s lane. Gauguin’s painting depicts a bright and clear French Autumn day.

“Autumn in Murnau” (1908)

“Autumn in Murnau” (1908) is by Russian painter Vassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). A highly intellectual man, Kandinsky was a leader in the Blue Rider movement and a leader in abstract art. He studied law at the University of Moscow when he was 20 years old. After graduating, he was offered a professorial chair. He declined and went to art school, which he found easy. The influence of the new styles of Cubism and its offshoots influenced his transformation from realism to abstraction. His move to the village of Murnau in the Bavarian Alps in 1902 provided the inspiration he needed. “Autumn in Murnau” is one of his early paintings. He paints only the essential elements, and they are in bright color patches.

The bright green fields and dark blue mountains are as they appear in the Bavarian landscape. The actual colors are clear, rich, and intense. The autumn leaves are represented by bright red brush strokes on the dark green and blue tree. The mountains are painted dark blue and purple. White clouds and storm clouds cover the sky. A road leads the viewer’s eye from the foreground into the background.

During this period, Kandinsky was writing Concerning the Spiritual in Art, his treatise on abstract art and the significance of color in art. His theory of color, published in 1911, included some thoughts on the meanings of color: yellow=warm, exciting, and disturbing; green=peaceful, calm, passive; blue= heavenly, the lighter the calmer; red=restless, glowing, alive; brown=dull, hard; orange=radiant, serious, healthy; violet=morbid, sad; white=pregnant with silence, possibility; black=extinguished, immoveable; gray balance between black and white, soundless, motionless.

This photograph of Murnau, taken in August, in 1972, records the intensity of colors of the Bavarian landscape and the Alps. If the viewer has not actually seen the place represented in a painting, the painting does not seem true to life.

“Four Trees” (1918)

“Four Trees” (1918) (43”x55”) is by the Austrian Expressionist painter Egon Schiele (1890-1918). Expressionism implies the desire to express emotions and inner thoughts, often including spiritual themes. The work was painted in the Autumn of 1918. Each tree has a different number of leaves, representing the transition of autumn, and of life. The tree with the most leaves can be seen at the far right. The tree at the far left has started to shed, but it is the next tree that stands out. Almost bare, its few remaining leaves on the dark branches hang on to life.

A small ribbon of blue water flows in the foreground. Green fields with small touches of yellow, orange, and red, provide contrast to the dark red leaves. The distant hills are blotched with lighter orange, yellow, and blue. The four trees rise tall against the streaked sunset sky. The orange sun lies low on the horizon. Night is imminent. However, the whole painting seems to glow, much like a scene created in stained glass. Schiele painted in 1911 two scenes with four trees.

“Four Trees” (1918) seems to represent Schiele’s melancholy at the time. He was a young man on the way to a good career when he died of the Spanish Flu on October 31, 1918. His pregnant wife Edith died of the same cause just two days earlier. His last works were drawings of Edith.

“When one sees a tree autumnal in summer, it is an intense experience that involves one’s whole heart and being; and I should like to paint that melancholy.” (Egin Schiele)

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