Wayside Madonna

948 Words2 Pages

Wayside Madonna is an oil painting on canvas by Edith Catlin Phelps. It was painted around 1939. Painted in southern California, it is a genre painting that is part of the regionalism movement but also has a religious subject. This painting is currently part of the permanent collection at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California. Phelps's oil painting Wayside Madonna ultimately focuses on the lady in the foreground, providing a narrative about southern California culture, and places an emphasis on the need for a more American focus and style of painting that does not rely so heavily on European art. The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t... ... middle of paper ... ...e Spanish-American culture, especially the religious aspects. The robe draping the woman creates a large, implied triangle that encases the baby. The triangle, because of its three sides, is seen as a very sturdy and stable shape. This implies that this woman is a safe place for the baby. The woman then becomes a maternal figure or a protector for the baby. Edith Catlin Phelps's oil painting Wayside Madonna is at first a regionalist work and then a biblical painting. But, overall, the painting is about a movement away from European culture and ideals. The contrasts in the painting lead the viewer to woman and child in the foreground, which illustrates the artist’s desire to utilize American culture in new ways. Phelps's work encourages American artists and American art viewers to more strongly identify with the culture they have at home, instead of looking overseas.

Show More
Related

  • Family Of Country People By Louis Le Nain

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    The work depicts a family in plain clothing enclosed in a simple solitary room with a fading fire amidst the dark shadows of the background and another light source that extends from beyond the scope of the canvas. At first glance the influences of Caravaggio and Rembrandt are apparent. Their faces are neither, sad, sullen, angry, or joyful, but rather their emotional expression is plain and uncomplicated, adding a sense of timelessness to the painting. As in the description (20-34) of the piece which states; “It reflects 17th Century social theory, which celebrated the natural virtue of those that worked the soil”, (p. 609). The idea of portraying a classic simple lifestyle is a refreshing one and a concept which will reoccur in other works of the Baroque period.

    Read More

  • Jessica Dunegan's Self-Empowerment and Patriarchal Confinement of Female Adornment Artwork

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Other Side is an amazing and very interesting show. Jessica Dunegan’s paintings draw the viewers in and leave a lasting impression; but they are not just a series of beautiful images. They also attract our attention to a very important topic: our obsession with beauty and being beautiful. Using tiaras, jewelry and feathered masks Jessica is making a statement that cannot be ignored.

    Read More

  • Art and Reproduction: Joan of Arc Images

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Wallach Gallery exhibition of Anna Hyatt Huntington’s sculpture (1876-1973), the viewer gets to discover different versions of the emblematic figure that is Joan of Arc, from small bronze medals, to much bigger works of art. A digital replication of the initial statue that was unveiled at Riverside Drive and 93rd Street in December 1915 is also available the public in the gallery. The success of the Joan of Arc – or The Maid of Orleans’s depictions results from the symbol that she fosters in European and American culture: a French medieval patriotic heroine who received visions directly from God and who was told to help France combat the English domination and who died burned at the stake, as a martyr.

    Read More

  • Madonna And Child Giotto Comparison

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    The history of the Madonna and Child starts in the Byzantine era. In this era paintings were not meant to look realistic, but rather were supposed to remind the viewer of a story or theological concept, in this case usually the concept that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. The years progressed and these paintings became more and more realistic as the Renaissance era was ushered in. During this time period artists strove to paint more accurate representations of their subjects. Even during this time, however there was still a use of iconology. Though all of these paintings have basically the same content, with the addition of various saints and angels, the theology that we can see in each painting differs greatly.

    Read More

  • Madonna Of The Harpies Analysis

    171 Words  | 1 Pages

    The above picture of Madonna of the Harpies is a 1517 painting by Andrea del Sarto which is also representative of Renaissance themes. The painting shows the Madonna holding a baby on an altar. She is flanked by two saints, Saint Francis and Saint John the Evangelist. In Renaissance times religious themes were common in art. However, the base of the altar is engraved with images of harpies, a reference to classical mythology which is also a feature of Renaissance art. It also explains the name of the painting. In classical mythology the harpies were monsters with women's heads and birds’ bodies. These figures are a marked contrast to the saintliness of the main figures. The composition of the art piece uses a common technique known as “pyramidal

    Read More

  • Georges Seurat - Hi Painting

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... study for the overall concept they appear rather as abstract patterns. The shadows of the figures were very carefully modeled. The light- dark contrasts of the shadows make them seem actually real. The spatial quality is only established through the relations between the sizes of the objects. The painting is not based on a geometrical, box like space. The perspective centre is on the right, despite the fact that the composition is laid in rows parallel to the picture frame. At the same time a paradoxical foreshortening from right to left is evident. The girl fishing with the orange dress and her mother are on the same level, that is, actually at equal distance. In its spatial contruction, the painting is also a successful construction, the groups of people sitting in the shade, and who should really be seen from above, are all shown directly from the side. The ideal eye level would actually be on different horizontal lines; first at head height of the standing figures, then of those seated. Seurats methods of combing observations which he collected over two years, corresponds, in its self invented techniques, to a modern lifelike painting rather than an academic history painting.

    Read More

  • Schone Madonna

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    The three basic prototypes for the “Beautiful Madonna”, Krumau, Thorn, and Breslau, are all very similar, with graceful postures, made of the same material, approximately the same height, and around the same time period. Of these, the Madonna of Krumau is considered the best and most famous. A stone sculpture, 4’3”, dating to approximately 1390-1400, it was created by a Bohemian artist who focused on Schone Madonna figures. This piece “embodies the beau ideal as the chaste princess of the Late Gothic age.” (p.31 textbook) Mary has a poised head on a long neck emerging from narrow shoulders, with a charming face and high forehead. Her long fingers gently, but firmly grasp her young son, while he makes eye contact with the viewer. The Madonna’s drapery is poetic in abstraction, a Schone Madonna style characteristic. The gentle “S” curve of her body allows for elegant cascades of draped cloth. (p. 31 textbook)

    Read More

  • Art Analysis Of The Women's Le Reflet

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    It resembles a French boudoir scene by its subtle use of line on the subject and her surroundings. The line is clearer on the woman’s nude body as there are definite outlines along her upper body, back, and lower body. Line is also visible because of the draping on the bed cover, which suggests movement. The curved line and harsher shadows on the left side of the cover are seen as making a shape that resembles the women’s derrière. The line that splits the painting in two quadrants begins at the edge of the women’s left elbow and ends at the tip of her left toes. Line makes an appearance in the background of the reflection in the slight bunching of material hanging behind her. The artist uses shadow to emphasize line on the women’s back and her bottom. The shadows are also noticeable along her arms, chest, and side, in her refection. The shadows are not distractingly dark, but

    Read More

  • Art Analysis Of Claude Monet: The Art Of Art

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    We can see a clear representation of the impressionist that tended to completely avoid historical or allegorical subjects. In this painting, Monet’s painted very rapidly and used bold brushwork in order to capture the light and the color; include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes. An insistence on what Monet called “a spontaneous work rather than a calculated one” – this in particular accounts for the sketchy and seemingly unfinished quality of the Impressionist paintings. In the texture, he played with the shadow and light and created variation in tone, he employs patches of depth and surface. The light in the painting come from back to the windmill, it is a light shines softly behind the houses and the windmill. He was shown each brushstroke in the painting. Balance is achieved through an asymmetrical placement of the houses and the most important the

    Read More

  • Madonna Image In New Spain Essay

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    How did these factors contribute to the creation and popularity of the mystical Virgin of Guadalupe (1531) that would set the standards for future generations of art? What did these images of a non-pagan religious figure mean in terms of the religious and cultural hybridization and iconographic tradition of Madonna art in New Spain? This paper examines the construction of a “black Madonna” and how the image of the Virgin became an iconic symbol in the

    Read More

  • Yoko Ono: Alternative and Conceptual Art Genius

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    DeWitte, Debra J. Gateways To Art. (2012). New York: New York. Thames & Hudson . 244. Print.

    Read More

  • The Bedroom By Vincent Van Gogh

    864 Words  | 2 Pages

    This painting by Vincent Van Gogh is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago Museum, in the Impressionism exhibit. There are many things going on in this painting that catch the viewer’s eye. The first is the piece’s vibrant colors, light blues and browns, bright greens, and more. The brush strokes that are very visible and can easily be identified as very thick some might even say bold. The furniture, the objects, and the setting are easy to identify and are proportioned to each other. There is so much to see in this piece to attempt to explain in only a few simple sentences.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Madonna And Child Enthroned

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Giotto’s Madonna and Child Enthroned I see an older renaissance painting of a woman and her child. The child is sitting on the lap of his mother who is sitting on a large burgundy throne in the middle of the painting. The woman is dressed in a navy cloak while her child is clothed in a pink robe. Above the child’s head there is a yellow circle. This circle is a renaissance symbol for religious leadership or importance. Surrounding this throne are a gathering of angels. There are exactly seven angels on each side worshiping this mother and child. The background consists of a yellow brick pattern.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Cassatt's The Child And Mother Nursing Her Child

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,

    Read More

  • The Annunciation: A Painting by Francisco de Zurbaran

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    Color is used to draw attention to important characters and objects in the painting. The red of Mary’s shirt emphasizes her place as the main figure. A bright, yellow cloud floating above the room symbolizes the joy of the angelic figures. De Zurbaran uses warm colors in the foreground. The room, used as the background for the scene, is painted in dark colors utilizing different hues of gray and brown.

    Read More

More about Wayside Madonna

Open Document