Manchester’s Shakespeare Club studies ladies in white

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw. John Singer Sargent (1856–1925).

submitted by Joan Gaughan, Shakespeare Club

Barbara Madaj’s presentation on ladies in white was not just about the subject of paintings. She also gave us a lesson in how an artist who, like herself, might work largely in oils, mixes colors in order to get the effect (s)he wants. Starting with the primary colors, red, blue, and yellow, then the secondary colors, purple, green, and orange, and finally the tertiary colors, she gave the group a lesson in how colors are mixed in order to get shadowing and light. In an earlier presentation, Barbara had discussed the challenges an artist faces with depicting fog or clouds. In this lecture, she dealt with how an artist manages to paint the color white in such a way that it doesn’t look “dirty” and how to get the effect of shimmering luminescence.

Then, using two artists who also used oils, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) and Tom Browning (1949–), Barbara showed how they made the color white appear translucent against dark backgrounds to create an effect called chiaroscuro. Sargent was born in Italy to American parents, trained in Paris, and spent most of his life in Europe. Neither a classicist nor an impressionist, he was more interested in creating realistic portraits of very rich women at the pinnacle of Edwardian society in shimmering white garments set against dark backgrounds, such as in his portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw shown here.

The work of the American artist Tom Browning (1949–) often has that same quality of luminosity against a dark background. Unlike Sargent’s “high society” portraits of the Gilded Age, however, Browning’s work often shows romanticized western themes or views of rural life, such as the charming depiction of a woman picking flowers shown here. He also gained fame with his playful images of Santa Claus, such as the one shown here playing golf.

Painting by Tom Browning (1949–).

Painting of Santa playing golf by Tom Browning (1949–).

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.