Gusztáv Keleti - The Exile's Park - 1870
My parents kept a print of this Gusztáv Keleti (1834-1902) painting in the living room, and I often paused to study it while I was growing up. I always admired the mood The Exile's Park evokes. The swineherd reclining, perhaps napping, against the trunk of an old tree in what was once a lavish garden, now forlorn and overgrown. His herd lazily grazing and rooting around a statue featuring two nymphs, which was once likely the centerpiece of a glorious water fountain.
An estate illuminated by a splash of cool light breaking through the overcast sky emerges from the background in the upper left-hand corner of the composition. That splash of cool, white light against the horizon contrasts well with the warm, yellow light falling upon the middle of the scene. The eye is drawn to the warm light first. Once it has taken in everything, it is drawn toward the cool, white light in the background. And only after that do the details in the darker areas shadowed by the clouds above -- like the steps in the mid-ground and the outlines of the distant trees -- begin to emerge.
I often wished I could step into this scene when I was a kid. That feeling remains today.
An estate illuminated by a splash of cool light breaking through the overcast sky emerges from the background in the upper left-hand corner of the composition. That splash of cool, white light against the horizon contrasts well with the warm, yellow light falling upon the middle of the scene. The eye is drawn to the warm light first. Once it has taken in everything, it is drawn toward the cool, white light in the background. And only after that do the details in the darker areas shadowed by the clouds above -- like the steps in the mid-ground and the outlines of the distant trees -- begin to emerge.
I often wished I could step into this scene when I was a kid. That feeling remains today.
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