Artwork of the Week: November 4
Thomas Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910), 'Woodland Glade,' c.1880, oil on canvas, 27 1/4 x 34 1/4 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, gift of Dr. Merrill C. Oaks and Dr. Robert W. Petty, 1975.
In this painting, the fallen timber evokes Nature's eternal cycle of death, rebirth, and renewal. The fallen limbs and branches are the result of natural decay, not man's intervention in the land.
Whittredge departs from the panoramic scenes of the Hudson River School in this work, creating an intimate view inspired by the French Barbizon painters. The trees meet at the top like the arches of a cathedral, while the central light source suggests the illumination of a cathedral apse at the end of a nave, thus adding to the painting's reverential mood.
