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Draft:The Garden of The Hesperides

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For information or other artwork on the Hesperides, see Hesperides.


The Garden of The Hersperides
ArtistM. Louise Stowell
Year1900
MediumWatercolor, pastel, charcoal, and ink on laid paper
LocationMemorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY

The Garden of The Hesperides is a watercolor and mixed-media painting by M. Louise Stowell, in 1900.[1] Influenced by Japanese art aesthetics, mysticism, and Symbolism, this piece depicts the mythology of the Hesperides while referencing Christianity, and potential Spirituality ideologies.[1][2] Originally owned by Margaret Woodbury Strong, it is now a part of the Memorial Art Gallery's permanent Collection (acquired in 2016), and displayed in the "Faithfully Thought Out": The Artistic Collaborations of M. Louise Stowell and Harvey Ellis exhibition in 2024.[1][3]

The Artist: M. Louise Stowell

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M. Louise Stowell, a Rochester. NY-based Arts & Crafts artist was born on June 16, 1861, in Hornell, NY, to Thomas Stowell (1819–1896)—a fire insurance adjuster and special agent for Aetna—and Henrietta Fowler (1820–1902); they moved to Rochester, NY in 1884.[4][5]

M. Louise Stowell worked as a faculty member at the Rochester Mechanics Institute—known now as the Rochester Institute of Technology. From 1890 to 1892, she taught courses on drawing, composition, and "Saturday Classes".[2][4][5]

From there, she moved to Massachusetts to study with Arthur Wesley Dow.[2][4][5] Dow taught extensively on Japanese art and aesthetics, as well as watercolor painting; it is through his teachings that she found inspiration for her artistic style.[2][5] Stowell then went on to further her studies of art at The Art Student League (prior to 1895), an art institute that was founded in 1875 in New York City; and considered to be the "birthplace" of American Art.[2][4][5][6] The Art Student League taught prominent artists like Georgia O'Keeffe, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, Louise Nevelson, Ai Weiwei, and Jackson Pollock which shaped what we know today as American Art.[6]

Returning to Rochester, she held a studio space in the Powers Building with Ada Howe Kent.[4] Fully immersed in the Rochester Artist scene, M. Louise Stowell was a member of multiple organizations, including the Rochester Art Club, the American Watercolor Society, and the New York Watercolor Club. Stowell and other local artists, including Harvey Ellis, founded the Rochester Arts and Crafts Society and held the position as their secretary.[2][4][5]

Being known for her watercolors, posters, illustrations, etc., M. Louise Stowell passed on February 8, 1930, and resides in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester, NY.[2][4]

Formal Analysis

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M. Louise Stowell. The Garden of the Hesperides, 1900. Watercolor, pastel, charcoal, and ink on laid paper. 17 3/16 x 11 9/16 in. (43.6 x 29.3 cm).[1]

Displayed as part of the "Faithfully Thought Out" exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery, M. Louise Stowell's The Garden of the Hesperides is a mixed media piece from 1900 from the United States.[1] Measuring 43.9 by 29.3 centimeters, this piece invites viewers into a world where mythological themes intertwine with natural elements.[1] The artwork's moderate size, about the size of a small poster, encourages intimate engagement, allowing observers to closely examine the meticulously crafted details of the seven female figures and the enigmatic central tree, prompting viewers to explore the deeper narratives and symbolism embedded within the imagery.

The viewer's eyes immediately gaze at the upper portion of the piece. The upward pull from the bottom of the piece promotes the visual direction—rocks, soil, and grass cover the ground the women stand and kneel upon. Moving up the paper, the viewer notices the roots of the center tree twist around a collection of boulders. The women's skirts take form; taking up two-thirds of the picture plane, they gather around a central tree, reaching up, readying themselves to pick from its branches, or hugging it in quiet devotion. With the upward movement of the women's arms, the lines created by both the trees, and the folds in the women's dresses, the viewer's gaze is brought to the main focal point of the piece: the branches and leaves of the central tree. Within the branches, a collection of red heart shapes, set on fire with gold-yellow flames, sit in the branches and leaves like fruit, imbuing mysticism to the naturalistic scene.

Though vertically oriented, the compositional structure of the scene unfolds in three sections—horizontally—using the trees within the landscape as dividing lines. The first section holds two women; one faces away from the viewer, extending off the picture plane, with reddish-brown hair pulled into a bun, similar in style to the other six, wearing a brown draping robe or dress with a blue belt. The other woman is seen in profile, gazing into a flaming heart that she holds in her hands. Crossing a thin, twig-like tree that stretches from the bottom to the top of the paper, the viewer enters the second section of the scene. This section features a single woman facing away from the viewer, with yellow hair and a gold dress, reaching up into the center tree that divides the second from the third section while also dividing the overall piece in half. The third and final section takes up roughly half the page and holds four women. One with her back to the audience, wearing a green dress and kneeling in front of the tree with her arm wrapped around its trunk above her head. The following two women stand side by side in profile view, wearing red and black dresses, reaching up into the tree's branches like the woman in gold, in an act of desire for a heart of their own. Behind them, the viewer catches a sliver of the final woman's blue dress and yellow hair as she steps off the picture plane.

The use of line and color contributes to the mythological quality of the piece. M. Louise Stowell's mixing of watercolor, charcoal, and ink creates a muddy and muted color palette.[1] Primarily done in neutral colors, Stowell sticks to a palette of muted yellows, greens, blues, and reds, laying the colors down in their purest form while using black ink lines to outline the details of the women, surrounding nature, and hearts. The black lines, lack of gradient, interaction between colors, and shading flatten the piece, producing a style reminiscent of posters from the Art Nouveau era of the late 19th century and early 20th century.[7] The color palette and lines provide a flat, non-dimensional, quality to the piece, removing it from realism and into graphic arts.

The close-cropped composition of the work creates a scene in which the viewer is—purposefully—absorbed into the crowd of women worshipping the tree. The scene is clustered, raising questions about the significance of the tree these seven women surround. Is the viewer also supposed to worship the tree? The claustrophobic nature of the piece draws the viewer into the scene, pulling one to get a closer look, enveloping the viewer in the scene, blurring the lines of where the viewer's space ends and the garden begins. With little to no space to move within the garden, the only way out is to move out of the picture plane—like the two women on either end.

Art Movements

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Arts and Crafts

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The Arts and Crafts Movement first originated in England during the 19th century as a counter-movement towards the Industrial Revolution.[8][9][10] Many European artists began to long for the time of pre-dominant and dependence on machine production, monotonous work life in factories, and the unhealthy living conditions.[8][9] This longing started a Romanticization of medieval and gothic craft skills and folk culture, generating a Pre-Rapaelite, neo-medieval counter-culture to the era of classicism—Arts and Crafts Movement.[8][9][10]

John Ruskin (1819–1900), a writer and art critic, led the philosophy and aesthetic of the Arts and Crafts Movement.[8][10] He claimed that art could not exist separately from the artist and that the machine era took the freedom and expression of pleasure in labor out of the artist and their work—noting the difference between "manual labor" and "intellectual labor".[8][10] Ruskin spoke of three departures in his teachings: political economy (the poor conditions of industrial labor and the creation of "art" for money sake), the theory of beauty (beautiful things are useful to men because of only their beauty), and the doctrine of work (art can only be produced by artists and not by machine or unintelligent laborers).[10]

Ruskin's teachings were later printed by William Morris (1834–1896), a note-worth artist of the era, which linked Ruskin's ideas on improving work conditions and art and made them more accessible.[8][9][10] Morris is known for being a father of the Arts and Crafts Movement and for the creation of Morris and Company that produced furnishings and decorative art for the home.[8][9][10] It was his ideas on the democracy of art ("art made by the people for the people") and his views simplification of interior design inspired the evolution of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States.[8][9] In the later stages of his life, Morris, focused on his printed works; most of which revolutionized the printing industry.[8]

The Arts and Crafts Movement was brought to the United States in the late 19th century after the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, peaking in the decade before the First World War, 1914.[8][9] primarily centralized in New York State due to its immigration and trading ports and railway system; organizations, teaching institutions, and magazines—on the topics of aesthetic standards, techniques, and activities across the U.S.—spread quickly throughout the region.[8]

Organizations:

  • Elbert Hubbard's Roycroft Press (1895), East Aurora, NY
  • Rochester Arts and Crafts Society (1897), Rochester, NY

Institutions:

  • Rochester Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology), Rochester, NY
  • New York State School of Clayworking and Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY
  • Teachers College of Columbia University, New York, NY
  • Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

By the 1920s, the style of the American Arts and Crafts Movement had dissipated. Still, the philosophies behind the design, health conditions in the workplace, and labor ethics continued to affect and influence daily life.[8]

Symbolism

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The Symbolism Movement, best described as a movement of the imagination—played a similar role as The Arts and Crafts Movement— a counter to the current state of industrial modernity.[11][12][13] Born in the middle of the 19th Century as a French literary movement, it spread quickly through Europe and America, much in the same manner as The Arts and Crafts Movement; except the Symbolism Movement for art did not hold one artistic style.[11][12] Artists of this movement focused mostly on the content of the work—rather than style—to convey their own goals in aesthetics.[11][12]

Similar to The Arts and Crafts Movement, Symbolists romanticized and longed for life pre-machine.[11][12][13] Rather than focusing on beauty and realism aesthetics, artists rejected the notion of naturalism and withdrew from society.[11][12] They created work that embodied artists' inner subjectivity, often conveying dreams, visions, ideas, and the human condition.[11][12] The trope of the virgin and the femme fatal began to enter visual and literary works as women became a favored symbol of universal human emotions; for artists of this movement tend to view women as "monstrous" because they hold the origin and essence of human life; therefore being the source of the cycle of human existence.[11][12] This pessimism resulted in a screwed view of human life and nature; artists produced dream worlds—imbued with spiritual iconography, biblical stories, and Greek Mythology and figured often accompanied by monsters and creatures of the artist's imagination—that promoted nature as an alternative to the industrial versus a symbol of life or the putrescible.[11][12] The desire is to escape reality.

Notable Artists:

Symbolism ended with the start of World War I in 1914 with the rejection and criticism of its nativity towards modern life. The rise of the war opened the door for the Dada Movement and Surrealism Movement—both drawing inspiration from Symbolism while exploring the violence and trauma of modern-day.[11][13]

Mythology & Religion

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The Hesperides

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The Garden of The Hesperides by M. Louise Stowell depicts the Greek Mythology of The Hesperides.[1]

The Hesperides are the 3-7 daughters of Altas and Hesperis.[14][15] Referred to as nymphs or goddesses, they reside in The Garden of The Herperides—also known as Hera's Orchard—on the western edge of the world, "near the realm of the setting sun".[14][15] Though they are not prominent figures within Greek Mythology, they are often associated with the evening hours when the sun casts a golden light and remain a symbol for artists of the mythical and magical.[14]

Their story begins with the creation of the orchard—a wedding gift to Hera by Gaia, planted in the garden in which The Hesperides live.[14] Due to this, Gaia asked the goddesses to tend to and guard the orchard, for these trees grow golden apples that grant the gift of immortality.[14][15] Though they did their job well, they would occasionally give into their temptations and pick the apples to eat themselves.[14] Hera, noticing this, puts a hundred-headed-never-sleeping dragon, Ladon, to keep watch of the goddesses and to watch the garden while they slept.[14][15]

The Hesperides are seen in the story of their father, Altas.[14] After rebelling against Zeus, Altas was sentenced to hold up the heavens on his shoulders for eternity.[14] Distrot by losing their father's presence, The Hesperides go to Zeus to express their upset.[14] In hearing this, Zeus grants the goddesses a place in the sky to be closer to their father. This place is Pleiades, a star-cluster, a part of the constellation Taurus.[14]

They are brought up again in the story of Heracles (Hercules).[14][15] Heracles—the son of Zeus and his mistress—was cursed by Hera out of rage towards the affair and the decision to name the child after her.[14][15] Due to the curse, Heracles murdered his wife and children.[14] Out of distress, he visits Apollo who tells him he can be forgiven for the act after completing Twelve Labors.[14][15] It is in his Eleventh Labors that Heracule is commanded by Eurystheus to fetch him a golden apple from The Garden.[14][15] After his travels and going through various trails along the way, he is instructed by Prometheus to commune with Altas; to ask him to retrieve the apple because Heracule was not allowed to step foot into Hera's Orchard.[14][15] Altas agrees to the task and Heracules completes his Eleventh Task.[14][15] Though the apples are not intended for human consumption and are only for the gods and goddesses—Athena is sent to retrieve the stolen apples and return them to The Garden to restore balance.[14]

For more information head to: Hesperides.

Christianity

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Instead of apples adorning the tree, M. Louise Stowell has replaced them with flaming hearts.[1] It is unclear whether she meant this to be a reference to the Christian Sacred Heart of Jesus or Mary or if they hold a symbol of their own since they do not carry all the iconography related to the Sacred Heart. The Memorial Art Gallery references them as Sacred Hearts, but her connection to Christianity is unclear. It could be a familiar symbol due to her research and knowledge of medieval art and literature.[1]

To observe them as Sacred Hearts:

The Sacred Heart often refers to Jesus and his overwhelming love for humanity.[16][17] Often depicted as a flaming heart, pierced with a bleeding wound, encircled with a crown of thrones, surmounted with a cross, and surrounded by divine light.[16][17] Often painted within the Iconography of Medieval art created for devotion.[16][17]

Similar to the depiction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, The Virgin Mary also has a Sacred Heart symbol.[18][19] The Immaculate Heart of Mary refers to her interior life: maternal love for Jesus and his followers her virtues, and pure love for God.[18][19] The heart of Mary is also flaming, pierced with a sword of sorrow, encircled with a wreath of roses to represent her commitment to obedience and purity, and, also, surrounded in divine light.[18][20]

Spiritualism

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In Spiritualism—similarly to Christianity—the flaming heart represents the all-encompassing divine love.[21] Depending on the ritual practice, the flaming heart comes to be used to symbolize one's connection to the soul, spiritual entities, the creative spirit, or the divine.[22][23]

It has also been used in divination practices of fiery passion, love, and desire as the heart in Paganism represents Cupid, the god of love.[22][23][24]

The creation of the majority of M. Louise Stowell's work aligns with the rise of the Spiritualism movement in the 1840s in Rochester, NY.[25] Due to the lack of information regarding M. Louise Stowell and her work, it could be assumed that she could have been influenced by the cultural spiritual exploration of the time.

History

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Modern Spiritualism was based on the belief that the dead—their souls—could be contacted and interact with the living from the 1840s-1920s.[26][27] It started in Rochester, NY (Hydesville, NY, in Wayne County) with a series of ghostly encounters at a farmhouse owned by the Fox family.[26][27] It is recorded that the daughters of the family, Kate and Maggie Fox, would converse with the spirit who haunted their home through raps, eventually creating a code of communication that would identify the spirit as a man who was murdered in the house.[26][27]

Soon after, their father would bring the sisters around the state and country to perform—as The Fox Sisters—their spiritual performance of communication under the term "medium"—someone who can speak with those who have passed on.[26][27] These performances were referred to as séances: the sisters and their guests sat in a circle to conduct a session of making contact with a deceased loved one or other spirits nearby, an activity that would become popular with the elite as a pass time held within their Victorian drawing rooms.[26][27] Many mediums would use parlor tricks during their séance, such as photography of spirits or ectoplasm, tables vibrating, rotating or levitating, objects moving, automatic writing, and the use of Ouija boards, all to provide the psychic experience.[26][27]

The Church viewed these practices as witchcraft or an activity of necromancy.[26] Even with the Church condemning Spiritualism, the religious movement continued to gain popularity, with efforts made towards studying the phenomenon and verifying its credibility—many of which failed and exposed widespread fraud throughout the practice, ultimately ending its reign.[26][27]

Spiritualism regained popularity in the 1950s and continued into the 21st century as the New Age Movement.[26]

Cultural Context: Rochester, NY 1860s-1900s

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During the 1860s-1900s time, Rochester, NY became a booming city of business and social reform—The Eastman Kodak Company was founded in 1888–1892, as well as the Women's Suffrage Act was in full swing with its prominent Rochester-based leaders, Susan B. Anthony and Fredrick Douglass; and many others.[28][29]

Even the population grew, doubling for a population of 48,000 to around 162,000 in the 1860s, ranking it the 24th largest city in the country, only to double again by the 1930s to a population of around 325,000.[28][29]

For more information on Rochester, NY, during this time, see: Rochester NY.

Provenance

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Margaret Woodbury Strong (1897–1969), Rochester, NY; to the Strong Museum (of Play), Rochester, NY; deaccessioned by them and purchased by the Memorial Art Gallery in 2016.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "MAG Collection - [The Garden of the Hesperides]". magart.rochester.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Ludwig, Coy L. The Arts and Crafts Movement in New York State 1890s-1920s. Hamilton, New York: Gallery Association of New York State, Inc., 1983: 77.
  3. ^ ""Faithfully Thought Out": The Artistic Collaborations of M. Louise Stowell and Harvey Ellis". Memorial Art Gallery. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Biographical / Historical note, M. Louise Stowell Papers, D.506, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Schauber, Kerry, and Lauren Tagliaferro. Faithfully Thought Out and Patiently Evolved: the Work of M. Louise Stowell and Harvey Ellis. Rochester, NY: RIT Press, 2024: 1.
  6. ^ a b "Legacy of The League". www.artstudentsleague.org. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  7. ^ Gontar, Authors: Cybele. "Art Nouveau | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History". The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ludwig, Coy L. The Arts and Crafts Movement in New York State 1890s-1920s. Hamilton, New York: Gallery Association of New York State, Inc., 1983: 1-10.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Cooke, Philip. "The Resilience of Sustainability, Creativity and Social Justice from the Arts & Crafts Movement to Modern Day ‘Eco-Painting.’" City, Culture and Society 6, no. 3 (2015): 51–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2015.02.003.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Triggs, Oscar Lovell. The Arts & Crafts Movement. 1st ed. New York, NY, USA: Parkstone International, 2009: 7-42.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nezhinskaia, Rozina. Symbolism, Its Origins and Its Consequences. 1st ed. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2010: 1-12.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Myers, Authors: Nicole. "Symbolism | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History". The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  13. ^ a b c Wolfe, Shira (2020-10-02). "Art Movement: Symbolism". Artland Magazine. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Kerkhof, Maup van de (2022-12-22). "The Hesperides: Greek Nymphs of the Golden Apples | History Cooperative". Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harrison, Evelyn  B. "Hesperides and Heroes: A Note on the Three-Figure Reliefs." Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1964, 76–82.
  16. ^ a b c Morgan, David. The Sacred Heart of Jesus: The Visual Evolution of a Devotion. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2008.
  17. ^ a b c Hendrix, John Shannon (2014) "The Enflamed Heart: Architecture and Iconology". Iconocrazia. 6. Bari: Universita di Bari Aldo Moro.
  18. ^ a b c Staudt, Jared (2022-03-24). "The Biblical Symbolism of the Immaculate Heart of Mary". Building Catholic Culture. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  19. ^ a b "Immaculate Heart of Mary Devotion : University of Dayton, Ohio". udayton.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  20. ^ Hanna, James K. (2016) "The Patristic Pre-History of Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary," Marian Studies: Vol. 67, Article 6, Pages 133-158
  21. ^ "Sacred Heart Spirituality". America Magazine. 2003-06-23. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  22. ^ a b Dunwich, Gerina. Wicca Craft: The Modern Witches Book of Herbs, Magick and Dreams. New York, NY: Kensington Publishing Corp., 1991.
  23. ^ a b Blunden, Roy  H. A Witches’ Canon: Part 1. The Mystery and Symbolism of Celebratory Witchcraft. Victoria BC, Canada: Friesen Press, 2021.
  24. ^ "What Is the Origin of the Heart Symbol?". HISTORY. 2023-09-12. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  25. ^ Kelly, Franklin, Nicolai Cikovsky, Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. AMERICAN PAINTINGS of the Nineteenth Century . of PART I. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Spiritualism - Mediumship, Seances, Trance | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-10-11. Retrieved 2024-10-31.
  27. ^ a b c d e f g Cox, Robert S. Body and Soul: A Sympathetic History of American Spiritualism. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2003.
  28. ^ a b McKelvey, Blake. "Rochester History." The City’s Golden Age, No.2, XXXV (1973).
  29. ^ a b "19th and 20th Century Rochester · Epidemics, Economics, and Elections · RIT Archives Digital Exhibits". archives-exhibits.rit.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-31.
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