The "retina-burn" factor

[Alexandra Tyng]

Ha, Garth, a funny thing happened when I looked in my mailbox: I read your post, which of course had no images, and immediately I visualized the exact Vermeer you put up here. When I went on the Forum, there it was! That one has always been my favorite. The diagonal of the red hat is so daring, but I think it's the lighting and the shine on her open mouth that really grabs me. I feel like Vermeer did something daring when he painted that portrait: he saw a vision and had to paint it, even though it was a departure from his usual color and lighting.

Steven, I think your point about visual and psychological depth is brilliant. Of course we all have different taste and different reactions to the same painting, but I can definitely relate to what you are saying. The value contrast and maybe a crisply-painted edge near the focal point is something I've been paying more attention to lately.

There are so many Sargents with this "retina-burn" factor that it's hard to pick a couple. Here's a link to my husband's all-time favorite, Asher Wertheimer. Not only does Mr. Wertheimer look like his Uncle Alan, he says it makes him feel like his Uncle Alan is about to walk out of the canvas and say hello:

http://www.jssgallery.org/Essay/Arti...998-Left2.html

My favorite of Sargent's is the Boit Children, probably because I first walked into the room where it was hanging in the Boston museum when I was a college student. I knew very little about Sargent and this absolutely took my breath away. First of all, it's really big, 87" x 87", and it has an incredible sense of atmosphere and depth. I felt like I could walk into it, or that I was being pulled into it! It fueled my ambition to someday learn how to paint atmosphere.

[Linda Brandon]

Interesting question and interesting responses. To me, it's partly a factor of pulling you closer to the painting. Not just a peevish, peering "gee, how did he do that transition" but "gee, I want to be next to that, I want to touch that." So in addition to values and color there's a paint quality factor - a wall presence - that distinguishes a painting from a photo. I guess for me personally this is why I don't like overly-rendered paintings where every surface has the same degree of polish.

And let's not discount the sheer joy of something that is knock your socks off beautiful. That's pretty subjective, though.

[Jeff Fuchs]

Originally Posted by Alexandra Tyng

I knew very little about Sargent and this absolutely took my breath away.

So funny you should say that. My wife still laughs about the first time I saw it. I was in the adjacent gallery and caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye. I gasped loudly and turned on my heels. I just had to sit in front of it and gawk for a while. I think I could gladly pay the admission fee just to sit in front of that one painting for a day.

Edit: For those who haven't been there. The huge vases in the painting were given to the museum by the Boit family. They stand on either side of the painting. A nice touch.

[Richard Monro]

Garth,
You hit my all time favorite sculpture. His sculptures of Louise Brougniart at the Met or Getty ( I forget which) and his Voltaire in Louvre are stunning favorites.

[Marcus Lim]

Hi, this is an interesting thread that, pulled out something i kept at the back of my head for a long time.
For me, a couple of artworks came into my mind immediately when i read this thread:
(1)Frederick Hart's Ex Nihilo sculpture which now sits on the doorway of National Cathedral in Washington DC (i think)

(2)Nikolai Fechin's portraits

These works are amazing! Wow...even till today, i'm still thrilled by them!

[Steven Sweeney]

In Robert Genn's most recent newsletter, he includes the observation:

The obvious is enchanted by the hidden.

That taps into what I was getting at earlier, about depth, and different levels of a painting.

And it called to mind a self-portrait by Rose Freymuth-Frazier, which was just mentioned yesterday in another thread. I think this one has retina burn, and that it is enchanted by the hidden.

There might be an impulse to think, yeah, but the intense red background was a gimmick to

[Linda Brandon]

Steven, it's the beautiful woman thing at work again. You're sucked in, you can't help it. Why do you think they're everywhere you look? They're magnetic; beauty is magnetic.

[Rob Sullivan]

David, that's a solid choice. Gabrielle Cot haunts my dreams - so that obviously got its hooks into me.

When that big Sargent show came to Boston MFA a number of yers ago, just about everything there left me either a drooling gawper or a gibbering idiot. I had to see the whole thing about three times during its tenure there, just so I could digest it all. Talk about retina burn! My opthomalogist has never forgiven me.

This may seem to some an odd choice, but in that whole incredible show, Elsie Palmer really got to me. Her countenance was (as shown in photos of her) already compelling, but the composition and limited palette brings it all together in the most subtle, but gripping way.

[Steven Sweeney]

Originally Posted by Linda Brandon

Steven, it's the beautiful woman thing at work again. ... Why do you think they're everywhere you look?

Luck o' the Irish, I guess.