Evelyn Page is a talented woman from New Zealand. She delivers a painting with a punch!
Evelyn Page Summer Morn, (1929)
The main focus is an arrangement of a diagonally placed boat with two dressed women seated fore and aft as a full nude figure bisects the two. The rear figure holds an open parasol. The second figure looks up to engage with the standing woman on the river bank.
The dominant figure stands at full height with her back towards us. She is holding on to disconnected, overhanging branches to steady herself. She is in shadow as tiny highlights and dappled light sparks with fleeting spots of sunlight. She unselfconsciously stands with her hand on her hip on the edge of an undefined riverbank. The boldness of the central figure contrasts with the demure seated women in the boat. Sunlight floods the boat and river bank. The effects of the translucent light of the parasol, brightly lit from behind, and the silhouetted seated figure glows hot like a burning Sun.
Rapidly applied impasto mark-making is energetic and direct. Green foliage at the top clashes dynamically against the cool blues and the green is picked up again towards the bottom. The dark at the top and bottom of the painting brackets and contrast with the central passage directing the viewer to focus on that part of the narrative. The warm pink tones contrast with dappled, deep blues with glints of light that shimmer, dance and sparkle across the cool water. Dark, light blue, violet, and other colours describe water ripples and reflections. The bright orange of the parasol dynamically counterbalances the central figure.
The posture of the woman oozes relaxed confidence. Her hand is casually placed on her hip with no apparent attempt to cover up. She is comfortable within herself and with the company she is with. She appears to be engaging in conversation, perhaps suggesting or daring the dressed ladies to disrobe and join her. The lady on the right gives the impression that she is willing and in the process of undressing.
This audacious painting owes much to Impressionism and the influences of Japanese art, for example, the overhanging branches with flowers. The diagonal river bank cuts through the bottom left corner and the boat’s ore on the right. Both are truncated by the picture plane. Both are suggestions of the continuation of the world beyond and unconfined by the painting’s edges.
These are devices often used in Japanese art and picked up avidly with the advent of the popularity of Japanese art flooding into Paris.
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