The Bright Side

The Bright Side by the American artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910), was made while he was attached to the Union Army during the US Civil War. Homer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1836.  In 1859 Homer enrolled at the National Academy of Design in New York and studied with Frédéric Rondel, who taught him the basics of painting in oils.  Homer is regarded by many as the greatest of the American painters in the nineteen century is best known of his marine subjects. 

In The Bright Side, four tired teamsters doze off in the morning sun and a fifth looks around to see who might be disturbing his rest.  Many Union Army teamsters were free blacks from northern states or former slaves from the South who had escaped through Union lines to join the war effort.

In 1865, when The Bright Side was painted, the Confederacy was near defeat.  When the war was over, the teamsters and other free blacks migrated into the cities seeking employment.  As most migrants they were confronted by white workers feeling threatened by the influx of new labor. Political freedom would not mean the end of hard times.

Since 1865 when Homer painted The Bright Side, generations of Americans have viewed this image and felt empathy for the black teamsters, but the hardworking men in this scene are obviously too tired after laboring all night to bring supplies into camp.  They have found a sunny spot where they can bask in the satisfaction of a job well done.

JAMA. 2016;315(24):2650-2651.

In Pursuit of Slaves

Captain John Gabriel Stedman (1744-1797) was a professional soldier who fought to suppress an 18th-century slave rebellion in Suriname and subsequently published the March Through a Swamp in Pursuit of Slaves. Although slavery was not abolished in Suriname until 1873, the publication of Stedman’s narrative in 1790 helped to erode public support for the slave trade in Europe and its colonies. The book was translated into several languages and published in more than 25 editions. Stedman’s descriptions of the brutality of plantation life debunked the myth that slavery was a benign, civilizing influence. By his own admission, Stedman was a mercenary, who also told the truth, and his narrative endures as a case study of violence and human rights abuses. To counter the argument that slaves were better off on New World plantations than living under comparatively primitive conditions in their native lands, Stedman storied that in the Maroon rebellion the slaves preferred to endure hardships and fight in order to escape get their freedom.

JAMA. 2015;314(5):434-435

Boogie Woogie

Jeanette Smith describes the painting Boogie Woogie by Paul Chidlaw (1900-1989), a native of Ohio, in Art of JAMA. 

Chidlaw attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati from 1919 to 1923 and in 1927 moved to Paris, which at that time was the epicenter of experimentation in modern art.

He returned to the United States in 1935, and initially painted murals for the Works Progress Administration.  

In Boogie Woogie, a cheerful inundation of colors reminds the exuberance of the genre that became popular in the late 1920 and visually suggests a torrent of bright streamers and confetti drifting down from the winter sky at New Year’s celebrations. Although each and every color is stimulating in itself, the work in aggregate is even more motivating because of the effect of the contrasting hues and shapes.

Although Chidlaw’s eyesight was diminishing in his late years, he retained his creativity and spirit of artistic adventure and created paintings with colors combining as in a joyful symphony.

Water Man

The painting Children’s Story (Water Dreaming by Two Children) by Native Australian artist Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula (1925-2001) and Thomas Cole comments appeared in Art of JAMA.  Life in the arid Northern Territory is difficult and is sustained on meager amounts of water found in locations well hidden and known only to the indigenous people who have survived for millennia by keeping the locations of water to themselves.  The Water Man depicted in this painting is important for survival as he knows where to find water in remote wells, caves, and soaks. He used mental maps known as songlines to find water in the desert. By repeating the words of a song or the movements of a dance, indigenous Australians could follow routes and find landmarks in the open country. Indigenous Australians believed that songlines have been existed thru eternity, a concept referred to as the dreamtime.