Room With a View—or Two
So the painter shows a scene within a scene, and then implies another, still larger view from outside the canvas. Pretty clever, although he's not being entirely original. LeClear has used the occasion of this commissioned portrait to make an "homage" to the 17th-century Spanish master, Velázquez, whose painting Las Meninas used the same device. By implication, LeClear was paying homage to the art of painting.Okay, but does this really prove the superiority of painting to photography?
Well, early photographers, with their long exposures, had to go to great lengths to keep their subjects still so the image wouldn't come out blurry. Kids were a special challenge. There were braces and ties and other tortures intended to keep people from moving. But what happens when the dog chooses just that moment to come in?
Well, if you're a painter, you freeze-frame him in the doorway. If you're a photographer, you have to start over!
Pictured: Thomas LeClear, Interior with Portraits, about 1865, oil, 25 7/8 x 40 1/2 in., Museum purchase made possible by the Pauline Edwards Bequest.
Part 5
Discussion:
Interior With Portraits
(410K)
Get QuickTime
| Back to First Page |
Back to: Other Director's Choice Tours | Collections & Exhibitions
Home