THE ARTIST AND HIS MODEL
Oil on panel
10.5 ins x 13.75 ins; 26.7 cms x 34.9 cms
Private collection
“A Modernist, William Henry Clapp is one of the monarchs of Canadian Impressionism. Indifferent as an artist to the emotional elements implicit in everyday experience, he extolled landscapes and the human figure — specifically the nude. In painting these works, he observed the phenomena of light on the generative forces of the organic world. The body is only a detail, an iconography, subordinate to the pattern in which light and shade govern vision. Immersed in golden quietude, Clapp’s art is all the more credible because of its objective truth — an art of passive reverie that has inspired all Impressionists since Renoir who are preoccupied with light and colour to the exclusion of human issues.”A signature of his works, Clapp’s setting is diaphanous and diffused. Mauves and violets blend with rosy white to form his model’s supple flesh. The eye is attracted by the sensuous application of colour, a hazy softness that tempts and beguiles us. The artist gazes back at the viewer, catching us in our intrigue of this Andromeda, against a backdrop of deep yellow. More on William Henry Clapp…
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Zaidan Gallery 