Monday, June 12, 2017

Up Close: "Sonata" by Irving Ramsey Wiles

Irving Ramsey Wiles (1861-1948) ... or it it Irving Ramsay Wiles? Go to Google and you will find both spellings.

In December I came across his painting "The Sonata" (1889) at San Francisco's De Young. The placard next to the painting has it "Ramsey" whereas the De Young's web page for the painting favors "Ramsay."

A small matter, so far as this post is concerned. My interest here is that painting.

As for Wiles, his very brief Wikipedia entry is here. I blogged about his depictions of women here.

In that post I held that Wiles was not a great artist, but a good one who made some fine paintings. "Sonata" is one of those. Note the "X" composition as well as the brushwork in the Up Close photos I took. Click on the images to enlarge.

Gallery

This image is from the De Young web site.

"The Sonata" as seen in its gallery by my camera.

Detail of the upper part of the painting.

Detail showing Wiles' treatment of fabrics.
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2 comments:

  1. DamianJJune 12, 2017 at 9:43 AM

    'Ramsay' if his headstone is (one would hope) correct:

    from findagrave.com

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  2. Albert. SJuly 3, 2017 at 10:05 PM

    ..oh man, your camera does better justice to the painting. Looks much nicely rendered, and the blacks or darks being lighter balance the painting. I wish people would take time to get the proprieties/settings right on their cameras. Thanks for posting this.

    ReplyDelete