"THE EPHRAIM HUBBARD FOSTER FAMILY."   Term Paper ID:29736 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analysis of the 1825 Ralph E. W. Earl oil painting on mattress ticking.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Analysis of the 1825 Ralph E. W. Earl oil painting on mattress ticking. Earl's style. His skill as an accomplished portraitist. Discusses the formal composition of the painting; variations, motifs, horizontal and vertical segments. Contends success of picture lies in Earl's compositional means rather than the naturalism of his space and figures. Paper Introduction: The Ephraim Hubbard Foster Family is an oil painting, on mattress ticking, by Ralph E. W. Earl (1785-1838) dated circa 1825. The painting is in the collection of the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville and was a gift of Mrs. Josephus Daniels, Jr. Earl was the son of an even more accomplished itinerant portrait painter who was also named Ralph Earl (1751-1801). The younger man was best known for his portraits of President Andrew Jackson, and he later married the President's niece. This group portrait is of a type common since the Renaissance but has a number of features, such as the unusual position of the girl on the window sill that display Earl's individual creativity. The painting is of a type frequently commissioned by wealthy families, eager to show both their wealth and their appreciation of the finer things in life. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Thecolor scheme of the painting is equally well designed. http:// www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/earl_r/biography /content.htmlCheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. Her face, however,is framed by the three points of pink made by the florets on her shouldersand the center of her headband. A fairly simple example is the setting off of each familymember's face with a white piece of clothing around the neck. Only the father and the girl on the sill look directly at the viewerand this has a calculated psychological effect that is quite impressive.The little girl looks boldly at the viewer because she is showing off. These tiers are not static,however, since Earl designed the painting so that three V shapes (thecentral one inverted) cross them. The lack of perspective makes it appearthat the little girl's chest, her mother's knee and her extended right armare all on exactly the same plane--as if she was a sheet of paper with aslit into which another sheet (showing her mother's knees) was inserted. Each face, for example, isfound at or near a convergence of diagonal lines. "http:// www.cheekwood.org/art/collection/iacollect/PermFrame.html----------------------- Nnotes [i]David R. Earl (1785-1838) dated circa 1825. The single child at the highest point in thepainting is looked up to by her mother and shares the proud glance of herfather. The left hand verticalsection is formed principally by the relatively straight line where thefather's jacket meets his shirt. The father, of course, is also displaying hispossessions. She has no white accent in her clothing,but the bottom of the infant's dress fulfills this function for her. The face of the child on the sill is located at theapex of the upper half of the main diamond, the baby is quite near theright-hand point of this diamond, and the two small standing children areat the outer points of the smaller, internal diamond. The middle section features thebaby, the faces of the younger boy and the girl with the whistle, and theinterplay of the lower portion of the girl on the sill and her mother'sright forearm, all of which is bracketed by the mirrored arms and elbows ofthe parents. A second, less distinct, diamond shapeexists within this one and frames the faces of the two small children whostand behind their parents' knees. It is by reflecting on themeanings inherent in this paradox that the viewer experiences and enjoysthe painting to the fullest. BibliographyBrigham, David R., Laura K. There are the faces of the male members on the left andthose of the female members (including the infant) on the right. The younger version of the father's strongnose, for example, is to be found on the older son's face while the nosesof the two small girls and the mother bear a strong resemblance. The pride of the father, the admiration of his son, theconcern of the mother, and the delight of the smaller girl are all asrealistic as the somewhat distracted looks of the younger boy and hissister with the whistle and this sense of psychological veracity is a majorunifying factor in the picture. Mills and Philip Klausmeyer. The variousmotifs never become monotonous because there is always an interestingvariation. The faces of the elderson and the father form a V shape that mirrors the larger V on the rightside of the painting. Thevertical segments are also violated by another compositional effect, adiamond shape that basically includes the entire family within it, with theexception of the lower half of the elder son, whose black pants more orless merge into the gloom of that corner of the painting. Rather thanestablishing an integrated foreground and a clear middle ground, forexample, Earl resorted to a stepped effect that, he hoped, would convincethe viewer that he had represented three dimensional space. Most interestinglythe mother's head is itself the apex of an inverted V that runs counter tothe large V shape on the right and is also the reverse of the negative Vformed in the space between her husband's and elder son's heads. Thus the trueforeground is the empty space between the viewer and the parents, and depthis indicated by the steps of their chair seats, their laps, and the windowsill--as well as by elements such as the open space between and behind thelegs of their chairs. The lowest horizontalsegment is marked off by the thighs of the parents and includes littlestrong visual interest except the details of the decoration on their chairsand the small whistle or fife grasped in the right hand of the little girlwhose arm encircles her mother's knees. The central diamond has its outer points in the elder son's rightforearm and the line that descends to the brighter colors of the spacebetween himself and his father and, on the right, in the corner of the backof the mother's chair. The patterning of the composition with these diagonal, horizontal andvertical lines provides a variety of devices that lead the viewer's eyefrom one point to another within the painting. The painting isin the collection of the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art inNashville and was a gift of Mrs. Josephus Daniels, Jr. There are,basically, three triangles formed with the pink-cheeked faces of theHubbard family. But all of Earl's compositional effects contribute to the atmosphereand meaning of the painting. It is probably the contrast betweenthese two factors that makes this such a surprising painting. The red or pinkaccents, for example, are also given subtle variation. It makes its ascent via the creaseat the father's elbow, his left lapel, and the outer edge of the curtain.On the right side of the painting the V runs down the mother's right arm tothe curves of fabric where her dress meets the chair and back up throughthe infant, the mother's collar, and the restrained drapery. "Ralph Earl." Worcester Art Museum Online Gallery. This placement of the girl provides the thematic core of thepicture--the family unit in which the father provides the framework withinwhich the mother raises the children. Brigham, Laura K. Sheis wearing clothes and an elaborate headdress and clearly believes that sheis on display--and is delighted to find herself in this position as thecenter of attention. On the left side the V is formed by theline running down the curtain fold, down the elder boy's right lapel,continuing in his right arm, buttons, and fob, and climaxing at the spot ofcolor between the boy and his father. And throughout the picturethere are repetitions of V shapes on a smaller scale--some running in thesame direction as the overall zig-zag pattern and some running counter toit. On-line Collection. This kind of variation occurs throughout the painting. Mills and Philip Klausmeyer, "RalphEarl," Worcester Art Museum Online Gallery, http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/earl_r/biography/content.html [ii]Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, The Ephraim HubbardFoster Family, Online Collection, "http://www.cheekwood.org/art/collection/ iacollect/PermFrame.html The upper point is the rather surprisingly dressedhead of the girl on the sill while the lower point is formed by the linesof the lower legs of the parents. His fine family and the degree of wealth demonstrated bytheir elegant clothing, furnishings, and the hint of land behind them--aswell as his cultured status--are all being memorialized by the painting hehas commissioned. In formal terms the composition is divided into three horizontal andthree vertical segments, roughly equivalent in size. One of Earl's principal problems as a painter appears to have beenthe creation of a sense of three-dimensional space. But theface of the girl on the sill is alone in this respect. The girl onthe sill, however is all in white and the girl who rests against hermother's knee is wearing blue. Yetdetails such as the father's impressive eyebrows and the blondeness of thegirl with the whistle, as well as effects such as the benign glance of themother and the admiring look on the face of the older son, show that Earlapproached his faces with a desire to individualize them. Earl was the son ofan even more accomplished itinerant portrait painter who was also namedRalph Earl (1751-18 1). Earl's successes in the picture lie mainly, therefore, with hiscompositional means rather than the naturalism of his space and figures.The exception, however, is in his representation of the family's faces.Although it is impossible to say whether these are accurate portrayals ofthe Hubbard family, the faces are quite individual, while retaining strongtraces of family similarities. While it istrue that the startling feathers of the girl on the window sill firstattract the eye, the most intriguing aspect of the work is the paradox ofapparently singling out one child for special attention while the othersare sheltered by parental arms and knees. The Ephraim Hubbard Foster Family is an oil painting, on mattressticking, by Ralph E. On the right hand of the picture thewindow frame makes an even more emphatically straight dividing line. But the representation of the younger boy's legsbehind his father's chair and, most of all, Earl's difficulty in conveyingthe depth of the knee around which the girl with the whistle stretches herarm, strongly counter this effect. The upper segment features the faces of the elder son, theparents, and the little girl on the sill. Although he manages tosimulate the basics of one-point perspective (aided by the flat surfaces ofthe table at the mother's elbow and the window sill) his exterior reallysuggests little depth and the interior is somewhat confused. The Ephraim Hubbard Foster Family. The younger man was best known for his portraitsof President Andrew Jackson, and he later married the President's niece.[i] This group portrait is of a type common since the Renaissance but has anumber of features, such as the unusual position of the girl on the windowsill that display Earl's individual creativity.[ii] The painting is of atype frequently commissioned by wealthy families, eager to show both theirwealth and their appreciation of the finer things in life. While Earl'sstyle does not demonstrate genuine ease with the naturalistic portrayal ofhuman beings or landscape he is, none the less, an accomplished portraitistwhose greatest skill appears to be in the depiction of faces and the livelyarrangement of his composition. The three vertical segments do not merely contain these V shapes,which actually transgress the segments' boundaries. But the parents are also seen asequals in this family endeavor, twin pillars of great stability who enfoldthe children in their arms and keep them away from the dangers of theworld, tucked behind their knees. The central,inverted, V is shaped largely by the same elements that make up the inneredges of the outer Vs and is reinforced by the sturdy pyramid of the(rather ironically) wobbly child at the center of the picture who issupported partly by her mother's reaching hand. W. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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