Lady with a Harp by Thomas Sully was painted in 1818 and was gifted to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC by Maude Monell Vetlesen. The painting is an oil on canvas and measures 84 7/16 in. x 56 1/8 in. Sully’s parents brought their theatrical company to the United States when he was nine years old. His paintings reveal his upbringing in the arts. Lady with a Harp is a painting of fifteen year old Eliza Ridgely. The painting was commissioned by her father, Nicholas Greenbury Ridgely. She was the daughter of a Baltimore merchant. The painting shows Eliza plucking the strings of an imported pedal harp. A pedal harp is a large harp designed for playing classical music (Pedal Harp). Eliza really did play the harp. Sully painted her to appear slender, gentle, and poised. She is seen wearing an empire satin gown with a draped shawl. It is doubtful that this was her true appearance. …show more content…
She looks like she is balancing all her weight on the top of the harp. There is also the use of symmetrical balance. The way the woman and harp are placed gives a visual symmetry to the piece. The horizontal balance is also visually apparent. The woman and harp are placed exactly in the middle of the painting and the space above and below them are also of equal distance giving a nice vertical balance as well. The focal point the painting is the woman. The use of colors, brightness, and the position she is in puts her at the forefront of the painting. The eye is immediately drawn to her. There is a natural rhythm to the painting as well. Sully does not use a lot of variance in patterns or colors to this piece, so the rhythm flows well. Everything in the painting appears to be of a regular scale and proportion. Nothing seems too large or to small in contract to each other. Overall the painting has a nice design that is pleasing to the
The black background contrast with the predominate colors of blue and red gives these colors intensity. The red and green are complementary colors that give the painting visual appeal. The green juxtapose above the blue and red gives the artwork color balance as well as implies a triangular shape. The triangular shape and pattern is repeated throughout the painting by; the bend of the flute player's elbow, the head and shoulders of the guitar player, the head and shoulders of the lady whose back is to the viewer, the body of the guitars and the location of the three right-most musicians
Large and medium sizes of the forms dominate over small in the painting. The arrangement of the objects in this art piece is mostly centric. However, even though it is central, it is not symmetrical. The painter also touched the left edge of the burlap and the right bottom corner of it; this helps viewer’s eye to enter the painting smoothly, move around and escape from it. The asymmetry of the arrangement creates the sense of imbalance. Lam uses basic lines and shapes in the composition. Nevertheless, the painter creates wonderful light movement inside the figure with wavy shapes, which directs viewer’s eye from the top to the
The most emphasized part of this image is the man lying on top of the child and leaning against the bed, part of the body being directly in the center and seems to take up the most space, this is where the eye tends to linger. The negative space is made interesting by including a turned over chair, and rumpled sheets on a bed and other homely objects, which indicates that this is set in a home. The contrast that is shown in this artwork is through the use of value since Daumier used implied light, the brighter and darker areas create a contrast against each other. While this piece is not symmetrically balanced, it is balanced asymmetrically. It is asymmetrically balanced through a man and most of a bed being placed in the center, on the right is a small child, the upper torso of an older looking man, a chair next to him, and the rest of the bed; on the left of the man is most of what seems to be a woman, and other less detailed furniture. There is a sense of repetition through the positive shapes of the people lying on the floor, this is also shown through the use of line that creates the entire lithograph. This provides a sense of cohesiveness and unity throughout the
The focal point of being the mother and appear to be true to size. In comparison, the apple, the trees and landscape in the in the distance are all represented to be true to size based on this perspective. The women being bare foot along with the child who is naked provides unity to painting as they are part of the natural landscape. All of this, gives the viewer the impression that this is a realistic picture.
The harp had come to Gwilan from her mother, and so had her mastery of it, people said. “Ah,” they said when Gwilan played, “you can tell, that’s Diera’s touch,” just as their parents had said when Diera played, “Ah, that’s the true Penlin touch!” Gwilan’s mother had had the harp from Penlin, a musician’s dying gift to the worthiest of pupils. From a musician’s hands Penlin too had received it; never had it been sold or bartered for, nor any value put upon it that can be said in numbers. A princely and most incredible instrument it was for a poor harper to own. The shape of it was perfection, and every part was strong and fine: the wood as hard and smooth as bronze, the fittings of ivory and silver. The
Her use of primary colors and complementary colors are illustrated in the background, at the top of the fabric and in the outer view of the house and in the front yard. There is shading being shown in the two geometric windows. The entire work presents lines and implied lines as a focal point or as a means to describe a scenery. The texture of the garment is silky and very smooth like bed sheets. Post and lintel are crafted on the rectangular door frame and in the small window inside the door frame. Fine art is depicting in the background of the house; the painting is going in its own direction but still have a meaning behind it. The grass, tulips, and the weeds in the foreground appear naturalistic and lifelike which give the painting a multiple use of variety. The composition of the house is centered and upright. Marisela Esteves uses asymmetrical balance in the pathway and on the walkway to the flower garden. On the left side of the house there is a lot of variety elements and implied lines been demonstrating. Also, there is a lot of space in the background which grabs my attention because the line portrays a billboard in my mind that is covered by the vibrant, bright colors. The material that Marisela Esteves use was probably a knife or paint brush to mix, dye, and print on the fabric
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
One of the most prominent features of the painting is the use of repetition. In the forefront of the picture plane we see a three-pronged pitchfork. That sam...
The face of the portrait is detailed, and more naturally painted than the rest of the composition. However, the left iris exceeds her eye and extends past the normal outline. The viewer can see every single brush stroke resulting in a unique approach to the capturing human emotion. The streaky texture combines with the smoothness flow of the artist’s hand creating contrast between the hair and the face. The woman’s hair is painted with thick and chunky globs of paint. The viewer can physically see the paint rising from the canvas and flowing into the movement of the waves of hair. Throughout the hair as well as the rest of the portrait Neel abandons basic painting studies and doesn’t clean her brush before applying the next color. Because of the deliberate choice to entangle the colors on the brush it creates a new muddy palate skewed throughout the canvas. Moving from the thick waves of hair, Neel abandons the thick painting style of the physical portrait and moves to a looser more abstract technique to paint the background. Despite the lack of linear perspective, Neel uses a dry brush technique for the colorful streaks in the background creating a messy illusion of a wall and a sense of space. The painting is not clean, precise, or complete; there are intentional empty spaces, allowing the canvas to pear through wide places in the portrait. Again, Neel abandons
... right is the only part of the painting that has gold leaf in it, on her gown, what looks to be a gold collar, and a gold necklace with a pearl. The gold she is garnished in represents royalty and the holy. An interesting illusion is seen the left angel’s hair and how it’s illuminated by the sun creating a halo.
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...
This painting consists of regular lines as well as implied lines. Some of the regular lines that have been included are flowing, curved lines, such as the Earth that the woman is sitting on top of. Additionally, the background is made of small scenes that have been outlined by a dotted line, which places emphasis on the scenes. Besides regular and visible lines, there are a few implied lines in this painting. For instance, the woman's eyes are looking forward, so there is an implied line to the audience. Additionally, another implied line would be the woman's right arm, which is pointed towards her headpiece, while her left arm is pointed towards the earth. Nonetheless, this painting is not intense; although it does have splashes of color, this painting does not have a bright saturation. Instead, this painting is slightly dull, which makes this painting appear vintage. Additionally, since this background is a dark color, it makes the rest of painting, especially the headpiece, stand out. Besides colors and lines, even though this is a painting and there is no physical texture, there is invented texture. Upon viewing this painting, underneath the earth where the woman is sitting on, there are roots as well as grass, which give texture and feeling to the painting. In the end, this painting consists of several elements of composition, which Heffernan has done a wonderful job
The Madonna and Child, created by Cenni di Francesco di Ser Cenni between 1410 and 1415, is an iconographic painting of the Virgin Mary (left) and a chubby baby Jesus (right). The panel is painted with tempera and the halos around Mary’s and Jesus’s heads are made from goldleaf. La Toilette, painted by Richard Miller in 1910, is an Impressionist painting of a woman putting on her make up. He uses this subject to compare putting on makeup to applying oil paint on a canvas. In order to create the desired impact on the viewer of their paintings, Cenni and Miller use similar stylistic techniques to portray their female subjects.
Holly Golightly is one of the most interesting and complicating characters that can ever be written about. She doesn't even know her own self. Holly thinks that she is independent and self reliant. "I've taken care of myself for a long time."(p.27) Even OJ Berman (her agent) knew that she was full of her self. "She isn't a phony, she's a real phony. She believes all this crap she believes." (p.30) Holly also used to steal things, which she thought was a way of being independent and survival.
Gwendolyn Brook’s “Ballad of Pearl May Lee” came from her book called Street in Bronzeville. This book exemplifies Brook’s “dual place in American literature” (Smith, 2). It is associated with Modernist poetry, as well as the Harlem Renaissance. This book is known for its theme of victimizing the poor, black woman. “Ballad of Pearl May Lee” is a poem that uses tone to represent the complex mood of the ballad. While tone and mood are often used interchangeably, there are differences even though they often work together in a poem. A poem’s mood refers to the atmosphere or state of mind that the poem takes on. This is often conveyed through the tone, which is the style or manner of expression through writing. In this poem, Brooks uses tone to enhance the mood. This paper will shed light on the idea that the mood of the poem is affected by the tone in several ways in order to make the mood inconsistent. Some of the ways that tone does this is by several episodic shifts in the scene of the poem, the repetition of stanzas at the end of the poem, the use of diction, and the change in the speaker’s stance throughout the poem. These poetic techniques enhance the speaker’s current feeling of self-pity and revengeful satisfaction by her mixed emotions associated with this reflection.