Gardner's Art Through The Ages Analysis

While returning to the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, I stumbled on a painting that was in our book Gardner’s Art through the Ages by Fred S. Kleiner on page 705. The composition intrigued me a hundred times more in real life then it did in my book. I wanted to know the story, who are the girls, where are they and why is there no certainty in the painting? Are the girls in an insane asylum, a museum, a house? The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, captivated me, it is like no other piece of art that I have even written about, I wanted to challenge my artistic ability and try something different. Throughout this paper I will be analyzing the story, the girls and the overall meaning of why this painting exist. John Singer Sargent painted …show more content…
The title suggests it should be a portrait, but the arrangement of figures says otherwise. Greatly influenced by his teacher who was encouraging up and coming artist to skip the sketches step and go straight for the canvas, he wanted his students to break free of the old rigidity styles. Sargent took a great liking to renowned artist Velásquez while he was studying in Spain. We see Sargent mirroring a more “loose” version of Las Meninas. Both artist have figures in a dark room, have a similar color scheme of browns, whites, blacks, hints of red’s and blue’s, as well as indescribable in-between colors. There are figures that are confronting and engaging the viewer (you) and also figures that aren’t. Everything from the single light source to the shape and size of the canvas are the same. The change of focus shifts from person to person in both pieces of art, there is no direct connection. Another thing that is very similar is that Margarita and Julia are both in a very similar portrait-like pose. Both girls look bored even with other figures around them, like they want the observer to give them attention. There are quite a few differences that are noticeable as well though. For one the brush stroke, Velásquez is