Every Thursday, as part of my personal “enriched environment” initiative, I post a piece of art, usually from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which recently released online some 400,000 high-resolution images of its collection. All artwork will show a sun (or sunlight) somewhere.
I won’t name the piece or the artist, but instead invite you to study the art and post a comment addressing one or more of these questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What more can you find?
If you have another idea, run with it.
Special Update! The New York Times website does this same exercise every Monday with a news photo that is uncaptioned and contains no text (click!). The Times asks viewers the same three questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What more can you find?
However, at the end of the week, the Times posts the background information on the picture. So, I’ve decided to do the same. I’ll still post an unlabeled piece of art on Thursday. But return on Sunday (for the Sunny Sundays post!) and you’ll find an update on the artwork here.
Note: To embiggen the image, click on it!
The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull)
Artist: Thomas Eakins (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1844–1916 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Date: 1871
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 32 1/4 x 46 1/4 in. (81.9 x 117.5 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Returning to Philadelphia from Europe in 1870, Eakins began a series of representations of the sport of sculling, a subject for which he is uniquely identified. This is the first major work in that series of paintings and watercolors. It is believed to commemorate the victory of Max Schmitt (1843–1900), an attorney and skilled amateur rower, in an important race on the Schuylkill River in October 1870. Also an avid rower, Eakins depicted himself pulling the oars of a scull in the middle distance.
The man in the center of the picture is staring at me with an angry or disgusted look.
One the one hand, the man does look perturbed. On the other hand, how long can you say “cheeeese” for someone taking all day to paint your portrait?
The long thin cloud in the sky mirrors and parallels the main boat.
Well, it’s a sunny day and the sun is off on the right side of the frame. If you enlarge the picture you can see six, maybe seven boats on the water. The man in the foreground does look angry. His oars are trailing in the water, unlike the man immediately behind him who’s dipping the oars in the water and moving along. You can see the dip marks on the water’s surface.
So yes, what’s going on with the man in the foreground?