Wayside Madonna

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...

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...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.