The subject matter in The Convalescent is a literal depiction of a young girl who appears to be sick in bed and is passing the time while reading a book. Therefore, this realistic piece is focuses on the young girl. When looking at this piece a viewer is automatically drawn to her, making her the focal point for a viewer. This is because she is distinguished from the rest of the work through placement and the colors used to draw a viewer’s eye to her. By using her as the subject matter, it creates a piece that is transformed into something more meaningful with its content, or the overall meaning of why Willard Metcalf chose to produce this piece.
The title of this work, The Convalescent, literally means a person recovering from …show more content…
When looking at the piece it is clear to the viewer that shape is used within the two-dimensional area of the painting where “its boundaries can be measured in terms of height and width” (Sayre, 79). Metcalf’s image contains multiple shapes: the young girl, the bed, the pillow, and the book. However, even though there are multiple shapes in the piece, the viewer can see what portion of the piece commands our attention and portion of the piece that seems to be the background, also known as positive and negative shape. The positive shape of this piece is the young girl, she commands our attention because she is the focal point and the ground of the piece, or negative shape, is the rest of the painting (the pillow, the book, and the bed). There is also both positive and negative space within this piece as well. The positive space is the space that is occupied by the young girl just like the positive shape, whereas the negative space is the space that is not the subject in this piece that surrounds the positive space to create a successful composition with the girl. The artist also creates an illusion of three-dimensional space because of Metcalf’s use of overlapping the bed from the walls in the background of the piece. However, it is subtle overlapping making the composition appear flat, but enough to know the bed is away from the wall enough to create a subtle three-dimensional
The title of this work, The Convalescent, literally means a person recovering from …show more content…
When looking at the piece it is clear to the viewer that shape is used within the two-dimensional area of the painting where “its boundaries can be measured in terms of height and width” (Sayre, 79). Metcalf’s image contains multiple shapes: the young girl, the bed, the pillow, and the book. However, even though there are multiple shapes in the piece, the viewer can see what portion of the piece commands our attention and portion of the piece that seems to be the background, also known as positive and negative shape. The positive shape of this piece is the young girl, she commands our attention because she is the focal point and the ground of the piece, or negative shape, is the rest of the painting (the pillow, the book, and the bed). There is also both positive and negative space within this piece as well. The positive space is the space that is occupied by the young girl just like the positive shape, whereas the negative space is the space that is not the subject in this piece that surrounds the positive space to create a successful composition with the girl. The artist also creates an illusion of three-dimensional space because of Metcalf’s use of overlapping the bed from the walls in the background of the piece. However, it is subtle overlapping making the composition appear flat, but enough to know the bed is away from the wall enough to create a subtle three-dimensional