I have not spoken to Cyril since morning. The man has been going to and fro, tasks assembled high above his head completing preparations for the dinner party he was hosting tonight. He had much to celebrate for, a new factory added to his collection. Freemen Manor was cleaned and polished to perfection. The servants were rushing in and out of the kitchen, carrying elaborate dishes of roast beef, game, and nearly all the seafood of Maine. They were supplemented with bowls of soup, sugarplums, cheese pastries, and pudding followed with bottles of various champagnes and wines. The chandeliers glowed with their scented candles and a roaring fire in every room poured an endless bounty of light. Beautiful additions of ivy and bat orchids filled the halls. It was a scene fit for President Jackson himself. I gave Grace her supper oversoon and tucked her into bed before preparing for the event. She is still coughing occasionally, but it does not seem so severe. I had a servant administer an elixir just to be sure. Afterwards, I dressed in the attire Cyril picked out for me. In a few moments with the help of my lady-in-waiting, I was decked in a luxurious floor length evening gown of a rich, scarlet silk with a pair of brocade boots to match. My raven-black hair was parted in the center and dressed in elaborate curls in the front and braids that gathered at the crown. Cyril had decided to splurge on an expensive set of jewelry. In no time at all, my wrists, neck, and ears were adorned with diamonds and rubies, while a glittering tiara completed my look. The dinner party itself was not extraordinary in particular. It was the usual dining and superficial small-talk no one would remember after arriving home. When we moved to the ballroom, I st... ... middle of paper ... ... and teeth ached from chattering. My eyelids grew weary and lethargy soon overcame me. I scurried around the Manor to the back entrance and up the narrow, mindful to not raise attention from the others. I came into Cyril’s and my chamber and changed into my nightgown. I looked out of my clover shaped window that was slightly ajar. A sparrow was pecking on the other side of the leaden glass before flying into my room and landed on the piano. I shooed it away before something caught my eye. I turned to see a painting of a young lady, just across the bed. I have never seen it before. Cyril must have brought it today along with the rest of the décor. She had beautiful dark hair, intense eyes, and lovely features overall. But she looked…brooding. The woman seemed almost unsatisfied with being merely part of a painting. She was the last thing I saw before going to sleep.
When that room is entered all voices are hushed, and all merriment silenced. The place is as holy as a church. In the centre of the canvas is the Virgin Mother with a young, almost girlish face or surpassing loveliness. In her eyes affection and wonder are blended, and the features and the figure are the most spiritual and beautiful in the world's art.
The painting depicts a mother and her four children, who are all leaning on her as she looks down solemnly, her tired, despondent expression suggests she felt trapped in her roles as being a mother and a wife. The woman and her children are clearly the focal point of the artwork as the bright colours used to paint them stand out impeccably against the dull, lifeless colours of the background. This painting appears to be centred around the ideology that women are home-keepers, whose main role is to satisfy and assist her husband while simultaneously minding the children and keeping the home tidy and ready for his return. The social consequences of this artwork could have been that the woman could have been berated for not taking pleasure out of being a mother and raising her children, as a woman should. She could have been made redundant as her husband may have felt as though she is no longer useful if she couldn’t adequately adhere to her roles as a mother and a
Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health, but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper which is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
...nies Person B’s giggling, was her facial expressions. I could tell from the smile on her face that she was enjoying her dinner with Person A. Her smile was genuine. This was mirrored between both of them, which strongly suggested they both enjoyed their time together.
The house identifies the artist as the “stranger who returns to this place daily’’ (21). The house uses the same words like “desolate” (23) “ashamed” (24) and the phrase “Someone holding his breath underwater” (28) to describe the man. The house two is looking at all the flaws of the man. But since the house sees the same flaws in the man as the man does in the house, it shows that they are both reflections of each other and it is the artist who personifying the house to tell this story. Both the house and the artist are empty, awkward, and eerie.
His bedroom painting creates a homely ideal, sanctuary without claustrophobia, coolness with warmth and companionship in coupling and communion of furniture, which might be what he was longing for. A friend, a partner, someone who appreciated him.
I had been for some Hours extremely pressed by the Necessities of Nature; which was no Wonder, it being almost two Days since I had last disburthened myself. I was under great Difficulties between Urgency and Shame. The best Expedient I could think on, was to creep into my House, which I accordingly did; and shutting the Gate after me, I went as far as the Length of my Chain would suffer, and discharged my Body of that uneasy Load.
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
y goes to in order to ensure his guests’ happiness: “When I was here last I tore my gown on a chair, and he asked me my name and address—inside of a week I got a package from Croirier’s with a new evening
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
As I enter the Gioconda and Joseph King Gallery at the Norton Museum of Art the first thing that Caught my attention was a painting measuring approximately at 4 ft. by 10 ft. on the side wall in a well- light area. As I further examine the painting the first thing I notice is that it has super realism. It also has color, texture, implied space, stopped time, and that it is a representational piece. The foreign man sitting on the chair next to a bed has a disturbed look on his face and is deep into his own thoughts. It’s as if someone he loved dearly just experienced a tragic and untimely death. He is in early depression. I could feel the pain depicted in his eyes. A book titled The Unquiet Grave lying open on the floor by the unmade bed suggesting something is left unresolved. The scattered photos and papers by the bedside cause redintegration. The picture of Medusa’s head screaming on the headboard is a silent scream filled with anger and pain, yet it cannot be heard. I feel as if I am in the one sitting in the chair and I can feel the anger, and regret.
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,
It was a dark, menacing night as she stood there in the shadows. Waiting for the finale of the show that was playing, she glanced toward the exit through which people would soon be leaving. The rich, as patrons of the theatre house, promised her a salary at least for today. Her tattered clothes revealed the effects of personal destitution; the emaciated frame, that presently existed, harked back upon a body she must have once possessed. Driven by poverty to the realms of "painted cohorts," she makes up her face daily, distinguishing her life from the respected (264). She is an outcast, a leper, a member of the marginalized in society; she envelops the most degraded of positions and sins against her body in order to survive. As she looks up, her eyes reflect a different kind of light, a glimmer of beauty that has not yet faded despite her present conditions. She was, at one time, a "virtuous" woman, most likely scorned by a dishonest love. Finding no comfort or pity for her prior mistakes, she must turn to the streets and embrace the inevitable - the dishonor and shame from her previous engagement will follow her unto death. Shunned from society she becomes the woman who sells herself for money and sadly finds no love. She is the abandoned, the betrayed, and the lost, embarrassed girl; she is "of the painted cohorts," the female prostitute of the streets (264).
Edgar Allen Poe was most notably recognized as an intellectual writer. Poe’s most famous works include “The Raven” as well as “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe had quite a few other pieces of literature that may not have been as prominent as the formerly mentioned works, but their Gothic moods and dark tones were certainly on par as a collective whole. This critical analysis will focus on just one of Poe’s literary works, “The Oval Portrait” and how the messages and themes presented within this work carry over into the modern society of today.