Rip Van Winkle
1829
oil
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
1829
oil
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Rip Van Winkle is a 1829 oil by John Quidor, a Romanticism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a man in a tattered coat standing in a village square, surrounded by people pointing and staring. His beard is long, his clothes are old, and he looks lost. This painting shows Rip Van Winkle waking up after twenty years asleep in the mountains. The townsfolk don’t recognize him, and Quidor makes the scene feel tense and strange. He didn’t paint Rip as a frail old man—he made him look wild, like someone who just stepped out of a dream. If you like how Quidor tells stories with paint, look up the technique called *impasto*.
