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Sunday, September 23, 2007

07/08 Academic Decathlon Art Selection #17


Portraiture is a wonderful genre in that it not only captures the people, but also their times. "The Westwood Children" is painted by Joshua Johnson in 1807. His style is primitive - it is obvious looking at the painting that he is self taught and working out the issues as he can. Though primitive, it still captures the children, though they seem stiff and doll like in the portrait. Perhaps during a long sitting, he can only capture a "non-emotional" expression OR perhaps they were bored out of their minds!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This painting surprisingly frightened me, I'm not sure what confused me! Maybe it's the artist's use of historical clothing or that, to me, it seems as if they don't belong in that area of space. They don't seem to blend in with that background and the way they look is very different! It's really interesting!
Katherine Chernova