Good Ol' Art History

Large (LACMA)

I don’t particularly like this painting, dear reader. 

It’s beautifully rendered: the ominous suggestion of strong waves in the distance, the translucent green waves close to the shore, and the wash of seaweed left just beyond their reach by the higher tide.

The dark clouds at the horizon and the pale blue at the top make the time ambiguous—it could as easily be a stormy midday as a bright sort of evening.

All that is lovely.

But then there’s the face.

Now, I do understand the impulse—Elihu Vedder, who painted this (Memory) in 1870, probably wanted to evoke memory a little more strongly than the beach scene might alone. And, as the LACMA writes, he “would [later] be fascinated by the related classical motif of the head of Medusa.”

But really, dear reader.