The Wake (also titled El Velorio) is a genre painting by José María Jara. It was painted in 1889 and is 70 inches by 52 inches. The medium is oil on canvas. It depicts a sad, somber scene of a group of people, most likely the family, mourning a lost loved one.
Analysis
To some, if not all people, the focal point is the bright candle and figure in the almost exact center of the painting. Then there's an abundance of diagonal lines radiating from said candle, leading your eye downwards into the shadows. However, these lines are balanced neatly, or 'stopped', by the cluster of vertical lines in the upper left corner.
The painting mixes the soft, round shapes of figures with hard, immovable squares and rectangles of the surrounding architecture.
Analysis
To some, if not all people, the focal point is the bright candle and figure in the almost exact center of the painting. Then there's an abundance of diagonal lines radiating from said candle, leading your eye downwards into the shadows. However, these lines are balanced neatly, or 'stopped', by the cluster of vertical lines in the upper left corner.
The painting mixes the soft, round shapes of figures with hard, immovable squares and rectangles of the surrounding architecture.