Friday, October 26, 2007

John Sloan, Wake of the Ferry (1907)


Consider this other Sloan painting: what thematic interests can you discern? What stylistic elements?

1 comment:

m said...

In Sloan's painting, much like the various other artists of abstraction communicates a multiplicity of perspective. The artist communicates the overall forward looking perspective from where the artist sits to paint the image, but also inserts a man who is standing in the foreground of the image but is observing from an entirely different angle and therefore witnessing an entirely different experience than those who are forced in the perspective behind the man in the painting. From the outside perspective, the image’s illumination is in the background of the painting, meaning that the eye is drawn towards the background of the painting, where the ships are moving on the ocean, and the foreground is almost lost due to the shadows cast on it from the light of the background. However, the interesting aspect of the painting is that due to the stance of the man in the painting, the man is witnessing illumination from a different source than the perspective that is seen from the outside viewer.

Ashley McFadden