1858
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Twelve Etchings from Nature: En Plein Soleil is a 1858 by James McNeill Whistler, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a woman standing on a hill with a town and tree behind her. She's holding a parasol, and the sun is shining on her face. The way the sunlight and shadows play on her face is interesting because it shows how the artist used contrast to create depth. Check out the technique of chiaroscuro to learn more about this effect.
En plein air typifies the taste for French art and for the practice of executing landscapes out of doors. Whistler referred to the Twelve Etchings from Nature as the "French Set," so-called because the chief sources of inspiration were to be found in the avant-garde French art of the day. Working from a low vantage point, Whistler placed his model on the crest of a hill with a distant town and poplar tree behind her. The bright play of sun on her face, the veiled half-shadow cast by the parasol, the wind-whipped fringe and grasses all contribute to the immediacy of the scene and to the…
Read the full account in the museum source.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom.
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