Frances Andrade
Art History 166 (Monday & Wednesday)
November 2, 2014

Museum Paper

A work of art that I kept going back to and really impressed me was a piece titled “Woman Reading” by artist Eastman Johnson. Eastman Johnson is an American Artist that painted scenes of everyday life in America, along with portraits. It was painted in 1874 and is an oil on board. The paintings size is 25 1/8 inches by 18 5/8 inches. The piece is a painting of a woman reading a book with a sailboat in the background. In describing this work of art in detail, I’d have to start off by describing the colors in the painting. At the top starts with blue for the sky, then you see pink clouds then really blend down with pinkish/grey and green water and brown dirt and grass. These colors are all blended together. There really is no definite horizon line between sky and water. The sky and clouds have varying different shades of blue, pinks and blending with a touches of grey. Even with that said the only way you can really tell it’s the water is because there is a sail boat there and you can see the reflection. The water is portrayed as dead calm where the ship is. No waves or white caps. I don’t believe there is any breeze at all. Johnson painted a ship on the water with tall white sails, and showed its reflection on the water. Without the ship there, I’m not sure you would have been able to tell there was water. The colors all blend together so beautifully. Johnson painted the woman in ordinary dress for the time. She is dressed in a brownish/black dress with a white apron over it. She has a straw hat on that is perched almost straight up on her forehead to shade her eyes, with it being tied onto her head with a ribbon. Her hat is really the only bit of color that is brighter, it looks to be a yellow straw hat with an orange colored trim. She is holding a book, looking down at it as if she is reading. Her white apron shows dirt on the edges from walking on the dirt and grass. The grass is not really striking, it is more of grass and dirt mixed together with brown and green blended together. You can see the small blades of grass against dirt leading to the water. Beyond the dirt and grass where she is standing appears to be green water with just one or two small white caps. I don’t believe it’s a shore line, more the edge as if she is standing on a cliff. When viewing this painting it made me wonder if Johnson painted her alone like this to convey certain feelings. Is the woman longing for someone out at sea, is she feeling a certain isolation because she is alone. She is just walking to the sea to read for a while to take a break from her normal everyday life. It is a very contemplative scene that really makes you think of all the different feelings the woman might be feeling. The art piece that I picked for comparison is “Letter” by Mary Cassatt. I feel there is a similar quality to both pieces. There is a lone woman in both the “Letter” and “Woman Reading”, and in both I wonder what the women might be thinking. They are both doing everyday tasks such as reading or writing and sealing a letter.
In both art pieces the viewer is looking at the women in perhaps private moments. Both pieces have beautiful colors in them, used in very different ways. In the “Letter”, they is lots of patterns and contrast in colors between the blue dress and the light walls with patterns on them. In “Woman Reading”, there is beautiful use of colors but they are almost all blended together, with the exception of a few outstanding pieces, the boat, and her bonnet and dress. Overall when I saw Eastman Johnson’s “Woman Reading”, I went back to it several times while at the museum. There was something about it that spoke to me. I’m not sure if it was the lone figure of the woman, or just the way the colors muted together. One of the things I liked about the piece was the feeling of solitude. Both the woman and even the boat in the painting, both images are by themselves. There are no other people around nor are there other boats around. Perhaps someone might see it as isolation. I loved the colors in the piece, but did dislike a little bit the way Johnson blended some of the colors together. I’m not sure if it’s the age of the piece or the the way Johnson painted it but I felt it was a little hard to distinguish between the water and land. Because the sky and water seem to blend together, it made me feel like the boat was kind of just floating in the sky. Overall I loved the piece. I liked the feelings it invoked in me when looking at it. Calm, peace and serenity.