[id: three postage stamps, all with heavily stylized and colorful illustrations. the left depicts the sun, the middle depicts both a slice of watermelon and a whole watermelon, and the right depicts three koi. end id]
Cover art for the paperback edition of Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" - by William Teason
nobody will ever get me the way john singer sargent does
gayronan
like. are you kidding me
Okay so his portaits of people are my favorite! Pre-photography, portraits were mostly memetic, or life-like; you got a portrait because you wanted people to know what you look like (or maybe a little bit prettier).
But! Not Sargent’s portraits!! In his portraits, you often can’t even see the subject’s whole face, like in the 4th and 5th paintings above and in this one here (The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (ID in alt text)):
Edward Darley Boit spent a lot of money to have his daughters painted, but I still have no idea what that girl leaning on the vase looks like! Despite that, I’ve learned things about her. Between her and her sisters, she’s probably the introvert: she’s hiding her face and wearing darker colors than her younger siblings. Almost certainly none of these girls enjoyed sitting for this painting, but she’s the only one who looks like she doesn’t even want to be there.
That’s what Sargent’s portraits do! They show you something about the personality of the subject(s), even though they don’t always show you what they look like. And on top of all that, the paintings are simply beautiful to look at!
The Reservoir - Matt Bollinger , 2014.
American, b. 1980 -
Acrylic, flashe, and collage on unstretched canvas , 100 ½ x 141 in.
Hollow by Motohiko Odani Odani Motohiko, a well known contemporary Japanese sculptor.
