Silvery or golden, mysterious, melancholy, waxing or waning, the moon can be a beacon in the darkness or an unnerving omen. No matter what its interpretation, however, the moon has always provided nighttime inspiration for artists and has been captured in its various cycles in many impressive ways.
William Rimmer’s Indians Experiencing a Lunar Eclipse
Born in England in 1816, William Rimmer came to the United States as a child and eventually worked as a painter and sculptor. The mostly self-educated Rimmer would later guide such pupils as American Impressionist Childe Hassam, and Rimmer reportedly even taught himself to practice medicine as well.
An expert in the field of artistic anatomy, Rimmer’s fascination with the human form included research of North and South American Indian tribes. Rimmer’s circa 1848 Indians Experiencing a Lunar Eclipse combines his studies of Native Americans with an image of power and awe, as several tribal members behold and honor this natural phenomenon and the full white moon itself.
Winslow Homer’s Moonlight
American Winslow Homer (1836-1910) used the moon’s pale light as a backdrop for a number of striking works. Homer was highly skilled in recreating atmospheric effects like cloud shapes, surges of tides and appropriate length of shadows for the time of day, and he was also able to combine this technical finesse with a unique insight into human nature.
In such Homer paintings as Summer Night, the nocturnal spell of the moon appears to loosen daytime inhibitions and entices two women to dance together along the shoreline. In the 1874 Moonlight, a solitary couple sits on the beach staring at the ocean. The man appears to be edging toward the woman, and while the woman doesn’t face him directly, she still seems aware of and perhaps quite interested in his attentions.
Félix Vallotton’s Clair de Lune
French artist Félix Vallotton (1865-1925) shifted from his early classical and academic training to become one of the members of the Post-Impressionist group Les Nabis. Other Nabis included Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson and Edouard Vuillard, with a general desire to commune symbolic and spiritual intensity and creative work. Vallotton’s 1895 Clair de Lune or Moonlight was done during his Nabis' association and is a deeply-toned scene of the moon behind clouds with a dreamlike floating quality.
Arthur Dove’s Me and the Moon
Upstate New York-born Arthur Dove (1880-1946) was an abstract art pioneer, taking his own visual and personal expressions and combining them into what he often called extractions. In 1937, Dove linked himself with the moon in two works: The Moon Was Laughing at Me and Me and the Moon. In Me and the Moon in particular, Dove’s simple yet bold shapes and colors fuse the moon, the sky and the earth below. Dove preferred rural living to city strife, and his painting here seems to reflect a strong connection to the impressively overwhelming whiteness of a full moon on a country night.
Marie Laurencin’s Artemis
The moon is said to be ruled by many goddesses in many different cultures, but in Greek mythology the primary lunar deity was Artemis. Artemis was the twin sister of sun god Apollo, and like her Roman counterpart Diana, Artemis was an expert huntress. French artist Marie Laurencin’s portrait of Artemis focuses more on the goddess’s feminine and fertile side, with smooth curves and lines and a winding flowering plant. The colors are delicate yet earthy, and Artemis herself is nearly naked.
Laurencin was born in 1883 and spent a Bohemian youth in Paris, befriending Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque and becoming the lover of writer and poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Laurencin’s Artemis was done circa 1908, seemingly during her relationship with the intense Apollinaire. Laurencin was often referred to as Apollinaire’s muse, even though she was an artist in her own right, and as the Greek god Apollo ruled the sun, the similarity in the names Apollo and Apollinaire might have influenced Laurencin’s choice to depict Artemis and her subtler yet equal power.
Sources
- 19th Century Art Worldwide - Life Drawing from Ape to Human: Charles Darwin's Theories of Evolution and William Rimmer's Art Anatomy
- Winslow Homer - National Gallery of Art
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