Copied
Paul Wonner, Model Drinking Coffee, 1964, oil on canvas, 49 1⁄2 x 45 7⁄8 in. (125.7 x 116.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1966.84.4
Copied
Artwork Details
- Title
- Model Drinking Coffee
- Artist
- Date
- 1964
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 49 1⁄2 x 45 7⁄8 in. (125.7 x 116.5 cm.)
- Markings
- lower left in oil: Paul Wonner
- Credit Line
- Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on canvas
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Figure
- Recreation — leisure — eating and drinking
- Figure male — full length
- Occupation — art — model
- Object — foodstuff — beverage
- Architecture Interior — domestic — dining room
- Object Number
- 1966.84.4
Artwork Description
In Model Drinking Coffee the crisp colors and dramatic contrasts between light and shadow evoke the clear sunshine of a California morning. Paul Wonner used broad brushstrokes and thick paint to animate every object in this interior view, from the seated figure to the vase and coffeepot on the table. Wonner, like other members of the Bay Area figurative school, rejected abstraction in the late 1950s and '60s and began painting light-filled landscapes and interiors that often showed solitary figures absorbed in their own worlds. But even though this image is representational, Wonner concentrated on the pattern of shapes and the play of paint across the canvas much as a devoted abstract artist would do.