Art&Artifice
Link Loop Hook at the National Gallery Washington DC Portrait of my Grandmother Emily Motley - by Archibald Motley Jr 1922

Art and Artifice

ARCHIVE PAGE 32 - Summer 2020


Dark Outside VMFA Museum

Dark Outisde Museum

Inside 2013 the VMFA

Inside the VMFA in Richmond, Virginia



Winslow Homer Kissing the Moon

Winslow Homer Kissing the Moon image diagram

National Review: Puzzling over Meaning in Winslow Homer's Kissing the Moon

Writer Brian T. Allen works on understanding Homer's large painting (30" x 40" inches) and finds a River Styx symbolism. Allen notes that Homer left no written info about the image, that it was a personal work and not a commission, and that Homer's later works contained few figures, so these particular three must've been purposefully placed and not just "appropriate decoration."

My first question, not discussed by Mr. Allen, is that Homer was one of three male children, and the three in the image could be he and his two brothers incorporated into an intense sea scene with a sunset (presumably not a sunrise) sky. On the right hand side the wave coloring is passing over the stern of the boat, also on the bow (see the two image snippets below). The waves action is either handled haphazardly, or is meant to imply a kind of ghostly effect around the edges of the boat, a translucency which might suggest the image is an apparition (or is becoming one).

More likely, though, the details such as these are just Homer not giving enough time to model the boat realistically as it dips and moves through the high waves.

The title itself, Kissing the Moon, may suggest a certain Homeresque humor that could be the central meaning in the image for the painter.

Stern of boat Winslow Homer Kissing the Moon

Boat Bow - Kissing the Moon Winslow Homer

For more: The Addison Gallery Collection of American Art - Kissing the Moon by Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer – Breezing Up, 1876

Winslow Homer – A Light on the Sea, 1897

Winslow Homer – Right and Left, 1909

Winslow Homer – Kissing the Moon, 1904


Gilbert Stuart portrait painting of Matilda Cruger

Gilbert Stuart, portrait painting of Matilda Cruger


Jean-Claude Bonnefond

Jean-Claude Bonnefond artwork "Military Event from Napoleon's Spanish Campaign," 1823

Detail from Military event from Napoleon Campaign by Jean-Claude Bonnefond

Detail from Military Event from Napoleon’s Spanish Campaign, 1823 - by Jean-Claude Bonnefond, Virgina Museum of Fine arts


Lower level, National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art Lower Level Waterfall


East Building Washington DC

East Building Washington DC April 2019 - National Gallery of Art




Classical Painting Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice - AMAZON Published by Watson-Guptill, 256 pages

Visiting Greece 2021



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Original Page July 2019 | Updated May 2022

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