Analysis Of Lotus Lilies By Charles Courtney Curran

Born in Hartford, Kentucky, February, 1861, Charles Courtney Curran is a famed artist best known for his canvases portraying women in various settings. As a result of his the Civil War, Currans family moved to Ohio, eventually settling on the shores of Lake Erie where his Father was employed as a school principal. In 1881 suddenly gaining a new aptitude for art, Curran went to Cincinnati to participate at the McMicken school, later renamed the Fine Arts Academy of Cincinnati. Staying there for only a year, Curran decided to travel to New York to attend the National Academy of Design. Here, he created various pictures of women engaged in a diverse variety of activities along with the piece I will be critiquing, Lotus Lilies.
Charles Courtney

Curran created the exquisite painting known as Lotus Lilies.Two women clothed in elegant fitted dresses sit upon a brown wooden boat. These women are each wearing a very detailed and ornate hat. The lady to the left is dressed in a darker outfit compared to the lady to the right whom is wearing white. In the middle of the two women green umbrella held by the women to the left. Surrounding their boat is a body of water containing numerous lotus flowers.
The lilies are yellow in color with white accents sitting above green lily pads.

In the background of the painting stands a few trees along with a couple shrubs. The shapes and lines incorporated into this picture are all very organic. Very few straight lines are apparent. Most colors and rendered quite lightly although there are some dark colors visible in the water and the background.
When viewing this piece, my eye is first led to the woman in the white dress. This bright white has a high contrast compared to all of the creamy green and yellow shades the painting consists of. This piece of art also includes a very light shade of blue placed in the sky, a brownish blue color throughout the water, and a light brown tint in the boat. The two women in this composition are placed in the foreground while the background contains the trees and sky.
All images in this picture appear to be rendered quite realistically in terms of size and presentation. It is very easy to depict what each object is representing. Repeated in this painting are numerous lotus flowers each having their own position and color based upon their placement in the painting. Although they are repeated, there is no specific pattern to where they are

posed.
Starting out with my focus on the two women, the visual rhythm of this piece the leads my eyes to the background of the pond full of lilies, next to the background full of trees, and lastly to the light blue sky.

This pattern takes the viewers eye from the most prominent and detailed images to the furthest away and least eye catching figures. All of the forms placed throughout this piece work very well together. The abundance of lilies and constant flow of varying green shades creates a sense of unity throughout the piece. Whereas the lady in the bright white dress adds a contrasting sense of variety.
This delicate piece of art was painted in the year 1888. Relating to the 19th century, the realism/imitationalism art movement was at its apex. Therefore, Lotus Lilies is considered to be a realistic portrait. Revolting against the exotic subject matter and drama included in the Romantic movement, realism is an attempt to render subject matter truthfully without adding in any superficial aspects.
Getting married shortly before creating this piece, the flowers which the women to the left is holding, represents the bouquet of flowers she held during their wedding. This women is Currans wife known as Grace. Grace was later the subject matter of many of Currans elegant paintings. Painting until his death, Curran never adopted a new form of art. He was dedicated to realism and therefore stuck with

it.
I feel that this piece of art was highly successful. All images in this painting properly move to the vanishing point, and the composition is highly realistic. The intricate details incorporated into this piece along with the complementing colors, and the texture of the brush strokes, help me come to the conclusion that this painting is prosperous.
In my World History class, we are learning about the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, people began to create artistic paintings including things that mean a lot to them. Lotus Lilies greatly relates to this in the terms that Curran included something he highly valued, his wife. Now knowing the backstory to this painting, I can not say that I can relate to it.