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Artwork of the Week

Artwork of the Week: Through the Port Hole

blue, purple sea seen through a ship's brown and green porthole
James Taylor Harwood (1860-1940), "Through the Port Hole," 1911, watercolor, 10 x 10 15/16 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, 1937.

As one of the first artists from Utah to receive formal training abroad, James Taylor Harwood was no stranger to international travel, shuttling between the United States and France to study at the Académie Julian and École des Beaux Arts. James also maintained a studio in Paris with Harriet Richards Harwood (1870-1922), who likewise was one of the earliest accomplished Utah artists to be trained in Europe.

Offering a glimpse of an ocean through an open window of a maritime vessel, Through the Port Hole speaks to a robust world of passenger ships that crossed the Atlantic in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, which made the Harwoods’ extensive travels possible in the first place. The tight compositional focus on a porthole with a view of an expansive ocean subtly conveys the claustrophobic confines of a ship. The precise rendering of the metallic frame, portlight, cover, screws, and hinges in watercolor serves as a foil to the looser handling of the blue sea and white froth of the wake. Bon voyage.

Past Artworks of the Week

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Artwork of the Week: The Blind Man at the Pool of Siloam

September 25, 2023
The Gospel of John contains 7 signs or miracles, and the healing of the blind man at the Pool of Siloam is the 6th.
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Artwork of the Week: Lazy Autumn

September 18, 2023
In 1939, Dixon and his wife built a home in Mt. Carmel, Utah. Here they admired the natural landscape of the area until his death in 1946. This quintessentially Utahn scene portrays Native Americans as part of the natural landscape.
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Artwork of the Week: Sunset, Hudson River

September 11, 2023
As we anticipate the transition from the blistering of summer heat to the crispness of fall, let us celebrate a painting in which the sun itself retreats into the autumn leaves.
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