The experts are always urging us to tell a story with our art. I think back to my language arts course my first year of high school, in sending a message there is the sender creating and encoding the message, transmitting the message, and the receiver decoding the message. The same message may have different meanings to different decoders.
The painting above, to the gentleman's family, is a family portrait, an older man with his grandson (yes - grandson.) In the family home, it is a reminder of loved one's. Moved to the man's office, it sends a message of a devoted and happy family man, the kind of man you could trust. A connection between the generations of a family business.
To those who know the rest of the story, the grandson was added to the painting four years after the portrait of his grandfather, after the death of the grandfather. These two people would have never been alive at the same time. A connection between generations, created in the mind of the artist.
And yes, it is a grandson. Babies and young children wearing diapers, were dressed in androgynous gowns until the early to mid 1900's. My father was born in 1927, and the earliest photos of him, were in gowns. The baby photos of my great uncles were all dressed this way. It was very practical way to dress a baby.
CGI of the previous century.
ReplyDeleteShould we paint more portraits?
DeleteI do believe that that is "John Tait and His Grandson" finished by Sir Henry Raeburn in about 1800. "...hanging between the two figures, the watch connects them and at the same time calls attention to the vast distance of time that separates them."
ReplyDeleteCould be, but that is not the point of the post.
DeleteWhat was the point of it?
DeleteThat the meaning of art varies with the interpretation of the viewer. Creativity is always subject to interpretation.
DeleteNice work by YP. I didn't know about this androgynous form of dressing very young children. I now wonder if it happened here or in England.
ReplyDeleteProbably did.
DeleteInteresting that they added the grandson after the grandfather's death. I'd never heard of that happening.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was writing this post, I was reading about the history of the Rip Van Winkle bourbon brand, it is the kind of thing they would have done to connect the generations for brand identity.
DeleteInteresting! Talk about revisionism!
ReplyDeleteSomeplace deep in the archive is a photo of me as a toddler and one of my great grandfathers, the other one died shortly before I was born.
DeleteThat's why I love art in a museum. One can always make up the story if we don't know it. Would be neat to learn the story and what was going on in the lives of an artist when they did a work.
ReplyDeleteAt David's Florida alma mater in Florida, the director of the art museum had the first name of Arthur. Yep, Art was usually in the museum.
DeleteArt was also deeply in the closet.
DeleteMy grandpa was born in 1898 and I have photographs of him as a baby dressed in a gown. I have that gown and used it for both of my daughters' baptismal gown.
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat connection.
DeleteOne of the earliest pictures of my grandfather shows him in his "christening dress."
ReplyDeleteA couple of future blog posts, this summer will mark 100 years since my grandparents were married, 50 years later this year that my grandfather's died, next year would be 100th year since my parents were born.
DeleteThat's an interesting story about that painting. I love thinking about a painting before I read the story of it. About half the time I'm close to the true meaning.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the back-story is more interesting than the art
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