Philbrook museum explores the beauty of nature in various works of art; the excellence of nature is collected into different sections. The interesting thing about the museum is the tenacity with which the arrangement has been done, the orientation of historical perspective on the works and its importance on the developments of art over the ages. And the images, paintings and other works have been preserved well.
The focus of this work is to explore the beauty of nature from the angle of a ‘shepherdess’; it includes the explanation of this work in conformity with the jargons of paintings, and the peculiarity of the work within the context of the artist. The life of an artist can de deciphered by the nature of his/her works. The dexterity of a good orator, a great teacher can be determined from
...the tone of his presentations. In this vein, the painting ever depicted like those of Leonardo Da Vinci and other masterpiece painters show that the life of an artist revolves around his/her paintings.
This also shows in many of the compilations of Philbrok Museum. There are a number of such works there for the beholding eyes to see, appreciate the beauty of nature, the power of pen and paints, the board and other kits a painter employs to express his intent on that piece of drawing material. It a world of colors expression the present, the past and the future. It is a pastoral painting showing a solitary female dressed in a plain, peasant dress.
It is indeed one of most popular collections in Philbrook museum collection. The background color combination speaks of an astute sense of the use o
color paints to suit the overall message of an art. Well-engraved in stages and varying gradation, one notices that the subtle lines between streaks of deepening colors adopted by the artist; it is not far from the theme of the work. Every good work has a meaning best known to the artist, yet demonstrated in patterns that can be read by the intuitive and inquisitive mind.
This work has got the quality. Its subject is a professional model regularly engaged by Bouguereau. Beyond the background stands an object; it is more than object: a human figure expressed as female is dressed in simple wear with a stick hung around its neck. It rums from the upper limit of the clenched tight to the elbow of the left limb. This human has the face of an angel possibly awaiting an order or just watching the accomplishment of a given task.
The hairs are curled and depict the patterns of days of beauty in the language of Spanish Baroque painting which influenced the work of Bougueereau, the artist. Its composition is taken from Joseph de Ribera's painting made in 1642, The Club Foot Boy; he entered the Louvre in France) in 1869. It could also be seen as a young boy, lad in ancient Spain with the passion for work, poised to accomplish a task. Now, he is getting ready to move while his leg stands on 'soily' ground.
Beyond this, one can not loose sight of the other things apart from the pattern of our combination for the background and the figure’s apparel: these include the gardener’s environment that surrounds the figure I the painting. It is the picture
of a simple human figure dressed in the humble robe of a peasant member of a nearby community, brown on brown with sparse sky blue and white tops. It is the depiction of a shepherdess in the land where the safety of the flock that stands behind her matters more than wearing a slipper to prevent the stings of crawling insects with toxic stings.
The pasture is well guarded as he waits patiently for the animals behinds him grazing in the midst of green grasses and herbs. The compassion of a female is put into the strength of a shepherd on her face. Then a rock stands nearby, just at the corner of the work, incomplete in presentation, it might the source of the flourishing pasture; its source of running waters for the survival of the shepherd and her grazing flock. Every good retains a mystery.
