W. R. Leigh: Painting Analysis

Paintings, like poetry and other forms of literature, are created to be explored and analyzed. Each piece tells an individual story and has a particular meaning that the artist wants the audience to take away from their work. However, every person draws their own conclusions about what the artwork means to them, and this can stem from personal experiences, culture, religion and even the time period the person is in relative to when the painting was created. This proves to be increasingly true when examining works of art from different eras. Each hold separate standards and values from which the artists drew that largely affects the meaning behind a painting. For example, A Close Call by W. R. Leigh was painted in the Post-Impressionism Era, …show more content…
For instance, both A Close Call and Wivenhoe Park depict outdoor themes. A Close Call shows a cowboy on a horse, weapon drawn, heading into some sort of battle. This can be seen as the hardships in life and the importance of possessing the strength to confront them head on. Contrarily, Wivenhoe Park is a painting of a peaceful country scene complete with a herd of cattle, a calm pond with fisherman, and an overall gentle tone. Both works describe a more rural lifestyle as well as a showing an overall appreciation for nature. However, similarities in art, unlike most other forms of literature, can go beyond the meanings and into the physical characteristics or the styles the artists use. In both paintings, natural light is used to draw attention, while deep colors are utilized to deepen the picture to make the scenes pop. Neither show dark scenes in any sense, and while A Close Call may have more raw content and substance than the clearly calm Wivenhoe Park, neither are depressing. They do not show death, destruction, or war, but opinions on life in their individual times. Both also show extensive details within their respective scenes, such as A Close Call’s life-like horse and meticulous revolver and Wivenhoe Park’s clear reflections off the water, intricate trees, and grazing cattle with shadows to depict the …show more content…
A Close Call shows a much harsher take on life of the time. It demonstrates the hardships involved with the expansion of the period, and unlike Wivenhoe Park, nothing seems calm and peaceful. Also unlike the latter, W. R. Leigh’s painting encapsulates coarser edges and certainly utilizes less succinct brush strokes than those of John Constable. A Close Call also demonstrates a more chaotic lifestyle rather than the easy-going one envisioned in Wivenhoe Park. This can be drawn from the period in which it was painted more than anything else, as it was a time of expansion and hard labor. Nothing was given to anyone for free and people worked for what they had. It was no longer the simple, peaceful country life that could sustain families, and this painting does a fantastic job of demonstrating that. Wivenhoe Park, on the other hand, shows the artist's reluctance to let go of the past. It shows the rejection of a rules-driven society based largely on science and development and demonstrates a longing for the simple, rural lifestyle that was fast-fleeting. It also shows a softer side through the visual aspects of the painting itself. John Constable paints a picture to make people at peace, and it brings up warm feelings opposite the labor and struggles that are very apparent in W. R. Leigh’s