Beauty In William Sergeant Kendall's The End Of The Day

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“And they all lived happily ever after! The end.” The young woman finished the fairytale and looked down at her daughter sitting contentedly on the lap of her long black gown. The girl was tired after a long day of play and snuggled into her mother, marking the pages with her short chubby fingers. The mother leaned down and kissed her fair, tousled head. This is the moment which is captured in William Sergeant Kendall’s “The End of the Day”. This painting, done in the year 1900, is a depiction of the artist’s wife and young daughter. As the title suggests, the portrait was intended to be an image of his tired family at the end of a long day. Anyone who looks at the picture cannot help but leave with the thought that it was a pleasant thing to look at, but whether the painting truly depicts beauty is left to be determined. This painting truly reflects God’s beauty in three major ways; the technique of the artist, the honesty of the scene, and the relationship of the individuals. …show more content…

The first way in which the painting displays beauty is in the technique of the artist. Kendall used a certain technique in which he created an ambiguous light source, thus removing any strong sense of shadow. Through this technique, he drifted away from the impressionist movement of his peers. Impressionists try to capture the images without detail but with bold colors, while Kendall preferred a romantic style, realistic but with emotion. His paintings took many weeks, even months to finish, but it is clear to all who see them that they are truly beautiful. This specific painting is a depiction of his wife and oldest child. The love and peace in their faces is presented skillfully by the adept strokes of William Kendall’s brushes. In “The End of the Day”, the artist’s technique emphasizes the beauty of the

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