Analysis Of A Pastoral Visit By Richard Norris Brooke

Richard Norris Brooke was a prolific artist in the 1800s. He was most famous for his paintings of African-Americans.1 What made him so special was the fact that he was a Caucasian man painting positive depictions of African Americans by portraying them with dignity and happiness in the late 19th century. This was a time when African Americans were at a much lower societal class and weren’t liked by society. Brooke was an apprentice of an artist named, Leon Bonnat. He studied with Bonnat in France from 1877-1878. Once Brooke returned from France he created one of his most famous paintings, “A Pastoral Visit.”2 This painting portrays an elderly, African-American pastor sitting for a meal with an African-American family in a calm, comfortable setting.
The mood of this painting is warm and hospitable. …show more content…
The painting appears to be glossy because it was painted using oil based paint. Brooke applied the paint thinly onto the composition. The oil paint then dried through a process called oxidization, which caused the paint to dry slowly and created a glossy effect onto the painting. “A Pastoral Visit.” is an oil on canvas painting.3 Therefore, the painting’s support, or surface in which the paint is painted on, is the 119.38cm x 167.16cm4 white canvas. The canvas was white because a layer of primer was applied to help protect the canvas from future layers of paint.
Brooke’s designed this composition to have symmetrical balance. A Symmetrically balanced painting means that the painting is symmetrical along the axis of the composition. “A Pastoral Visit” is nearly symmetrical along its axis. If the painting was cut in half, each half could survive as its own separate piece of work. Because both sides of the painting have equal visual weight. The only thing that would look weird on each half is the banjo. The top half of the banjo and the neck would be in the first half and the rest on the second