Describing a painting

A painting can be studied on several levels and from a variety of perspec­tives.

1. The general effect. (The title and name of the artist. The peri­od or trend represented. Does it appear natural and spontaneous or contrived and artificial?)

2. The contents of the picture. (Place, time and setting. The age and physical appearance of the sitter. The accessories, the dress and environment. Any attempt to render the personality and emo­tions of the model. What does the artist accentuate in his subject?)

3. The composition and colouring. (How is the sitter represented? Against what background? Any prevailing format? Is the posture bold or rigid? Do the hands (head, body) look natural and informal? How do the eyes gaze? Does the painter concentrate on the analysis of details? What tints predominate in the colour scheme? Do the colours blend imperceptibly? Are the brushstrokes left visible?)

4. Interpretation and evaluation. (Does it exemplify a high de­gree of artistic skill? What feelings, moods or ideas does it evoke in the viewer?)

Here are a few examples of how pictures can be described, analyzed, inter­preted and evaluated.

1.

"Lady Elizabeth Delme and Her Children" by Reynolds is a typ­ical family group portrait in the Grand Style of English portrait painting. Lady Delme was the wife of a member of Parliament and belonged to the privileged class of the landed nobility. Here, with an air of apparently casual informality, she is shown on the terrace before her country-house, while behind stretch the broad acres of her family estate.

Reynolds has taken care that the gestures, facial expressions, and poses of his subjects are appropriate to their age, character, and social status. "The joy of a monarch," Dryden once wrote, "for the news of a victory must not be expressed like the ecstasy of a harlequin on the receipt of a letter from his mistress." So, in this portrait, Lady Delme is dignified and gracious, secure in the knowledge of her beauty and wealth. Her son John, aged five, as if sensing the responsibilities of manhood, gazes sternly toward the distant horizon. Her other son, Emelias Henry, in unmasculine skirts as befits his three years, is coy and winsome. The fourth member of the group, the unkempt Skye terrier, is the embodiment of loyal affection. Note the simplicity of the pyramidal design and the low-keyed colour scheme. These features were for Reynolds symbols of dignity and good taste.

B

The "Mrs. Sarah Siddons” by Gainsborough has the distinction of being not only a remarkable work of art, but a unique interpretaion of a unique personality. It is not only one of the artist's finest portraits, but also one of the best of the many likenesses of the great tragic actress, who sat to most of the celebrated masters of her day- It was painted in 1783—1785, when the queen of the tragic drama was in her twenty-ninth year and at the zenith of her fame.

An enthusiastic admirer who saw it in the Manchester exhibi­tion of 1857 wrote as follows: "The great tragic actress, who inter­preted the passions with such energy and such feeling, and who felt them so strongly herself, is better portrayed in this simple half-length in her day dress, than in allegorical portraits as the Tragic Muse or in character parts. This portrait is so original, so individu­al, as a poetic expression of character, as a deliberate selection of pose, as bold colour and free handling, that it is like the work of no other painter.