Attendence Essay: Art Museum

647 Words2 Pages

The River Severn, Alfred H. Vickers, Oil on Canvas, owned by they Amarillo Museum of Art given by Marilyn Seven and Ray Matney. The painting uses a luminism artistic style that is defined by “a 19th-century painting style emphasizing a unique clarity of light. . . . almost always landscapes or seascapes. . .” After reviewing Mr. Vickers’ other work, he is definitely a realist artist with many works that portray accurate size, color, and depictions of landscapes.
Mr. Vickers created this work by using oil paint on a canvas. His strokes follow the luminist style of hidden strokes with mixed hues. The subject is stated obviously in the title as the work is about the serene and beautiful view of the River Severn as it continues towards a mountainous backdrop and eventually disappears.
Along the far left bank you see a single brick red chimney with a low roof as light wafts of smoke drift toward the left. In the bottom right corner, we see a bit of the bank the perspective is from and bits of grass are also leaning to the left, so one is given the picture of a nice day with at least slight breeze. Towards the center of the painting, you can see large boulders, smoothed, rising out of the river. Far into the distance, past the bank of the river, onto a higher level of the valley area, you see small gathers specks and shapes that represents a small mountain village.
The structure of the painting fits the example given on page 58 of open composition “in which the eye can wander off the canvas or escape the frame, as disunified.” perfectly. The line structure deals with curved lines only, the focus being the center of the water. If focus is shifted from the water to the surrounding area, it is not without effort. The subject of th...

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...as the mountains appear less detailed but accurate size across the back. Sizes of objects definitely lends itself to the perspective with larger objects being close and smaller less detailed objects in the distance.
Very little information is available on the English artist, but compared to his other works, one would assume that the intent was delivered every time. Alfred H. Vickers continued painting landscapes and waterscapes with the same luminism technique and it took him quite far.

Works Cited

"Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History." John Frederick Kensett: Hudson River Scene (07.162). N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Luminism (painting)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Sporre, Dennis J. Reality through the Arts. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2013. Print.

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