Spring Tapestry

Artist: Ernest Lawson
Title: Spring Tapestry

Media: Oil on Canvas

Dimensions: 40 1/8 x 50 in (101.9 x 127 cm)

Date: 1930

 

Ernest Lawson was born March 22, 1873 in  Halifax, Nova Scotia and arrived in the United States in 1888 and settled in Kansas City.  In 1891, he went to live in New York and enrolled in classes at the Art Students League, studying under John Twachtman, who introduced him to Impressionism and would become one of his biggest influences. He was a member of "the eight" which was a group of artists who formed a loose association in 1908 to protest the narrowness of taste and restrictive exhibition policies of the conservative, powerful National Academy of Design. Ernest was known to be a landscape painter, but he also painted realistic urban scenes. His style of painting is influenced by John Twachtman, J. Alden Weir, and Alfred Sisley. He later married his former art teacher, Ella Hollman. "Lawson was accused of failing to disguise the more rugged elements in his canvases. His rocks looked hard and harsh—in other words, like rocks, not cream puffs; and he often included some human sign—a tumbledown shack, a sagging jetty, an abandoned rowboat—which in those genteel days were evidently considered no better than ashcans, and no fit subjects for 'art.'—William Glackens, quoted in Ira Glackens." This piece, Spring Tapestry is one of Ernest Lawson's most masterful summations of his landscape painting style. The tension between the gentle Impressionist poetry of spring and the bustle of urban life makes up a large part of Lawson's unique vision as a landscape painter. I admire the simple colors used in this painting. They are simply just orange, yellow, green, and blue; all spring colors. That is one of the big reasons why I chose this work, but I also chose it because it's a little messy as the trees are covering the mountains, the colors are scattered, as you can see on the top of the mountains where there is some orange and yellow painting on them yet, the whole piece comes together and looks right. On the bottom of the painting there is green, and plant life such as flowers as if spring has sprung and is popping daisies up. This is a very unique way of showing spring, but it clearly shows that it is spring in its very own way. Last, I love the blue stream of river and how there is one section where it is white to show the reflection beam of the sun shining down on the water.