Week 7: Feb. 18, 2024

View of Alcalá, Emilio Sánchez Perrier, Spanish, about 1886, Oil on wood panel

Reality….

I continued thinking about the concept of reality in artwork having focused on photorealism a couple weeks ago. But this week I wandered through the impressionist gallery. I remember when my sister found out she had an astigmatism and came home with her first pair of glasses. She looked up at the trees in the front yard and said, “I never realized you could see each individual leaf!” My mother responded, “Kind of gives you a different view of impressionist painting, doesn’t it?!”

When I saw View of Alcalá, I immediately thought, “I could just walk right in to that painting!” But as I tried to photograph it, the frame took that feeling away completely. So I cropped out the frame. The depth in the center portion of the painting draws me into the painting in a way that makes this setting become real.