EDVARD MUNCH

Surreal manifestations of modern anxieties, the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch used individual vignettes to speak to universal themes of loneliness, despair, and pain. Yet while his work has consistency in its emotional potency, his variation of style is enormous. This delicate, romantic image of girl, standing at the billowing curtains of a window in her flowing night dress as the light illuminates squares of darkness was painted in the same year as his more famous ‘The Scream’. While the latter work has become one of the most famous pieces of modern art, acclaimed for bold brushstrokes and radical composition that was inspired by his visits to mainland Europe and interactions with the impressionists and symbolistS, ‘The Girl by the Window’ speaks more to his native Scandinavia. Both in its romantic subject and its aesthetic style, it is a work firmly in the tradition of Northern Europe and yet for all of its simple, innocent beauty, there is the Munchian sense of disquiet across the canvas. We become voyeurs, peering in on our unknowing subject in the small of the night, watching a private moment of worry or despair as she contemplates, unaware of our presence.

FREDERIC REMINGTON

Less concerned with history than with mythology, Frederic Remington created a persona around himself that matched the vision of America that he created with his inks, oils and watercolors. An illustrator of the ‘Old West’ who became lauded on the East Coast for his portraits of cowboys, native Americans, ranchers, military men and great battles on horseback, his work sits somewhere between historical record and fantastical storytelling. The work is narrative and dramatic, capturing moments of action with dynamic composition and modern aesthetics, and Remington spent time in the landscapes he painted enough to capture a truthful accuracy to the color, light and natural forms. Yet this technical accuracy did not translate into a historical one, and Remington’s vision of America was just that: a vision. It was, however, strong enough to ingrain his ideas into the popular imagination such that the common understanding of the ‘Old West’ is in part the creation of a wealthy New Englander, educated at Yale, and hired by Harper’s to create illustrations that would excite and enthral their readers. 

PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER

Bruegel takes a small parable from the Gospel of Matthew, no more than two lines in most translations, and turns it into a painting that serves as aesthetic masterpiece, political allegory, and medical record. Six blind men follow in a diagonal line, holding onto each other by hand and stick. They walk, accurately, with their heads facing up, relying on other senses to orientate themselves. Each of them has a different affliction that has lost them their sight, ranging from corneal leukoma to a removal of the eyes themselves, and Bruegel paints these conditions with such accuracy that modern doctors can diagnose each figure with ease. The biological accuracy of the figures is but one small element of this painting’s majesty - compositional Bruegel pulls off a masterful trick. Dividing the scene into nine equal parts, where visual and informational conflict exists throughout and angling the entire movement downwards to disorientate us, the result is that when we look at the image, it is very hard to dwell on a single element. We become the blind man being led, our vision blurs and moves the longer we engage with the work until, like the figure leading the pack, we fall into its corners and cannot escape.