By the 18^th century, scientific studies yielded an illuminating artistic interest in differentiating the quality of light and color seen at night versus that experienced during the day. The color of things we see is based upon the wavelength of light that bounces back into our eye’s cones from the object being viewed. At night in the dark, the eye’s rods take over and because they are efficient at collecting light we are able to see in the dark. But what the eye’s rods do not do well is to distinguish between different colors so what we see takes on grayish tones.  As artificial light began to illuminate the night, artists like Joseph Wright ofDerby took an interest in and sometimes even painted comparative pictures of this phenomenon revealing the same location when seen at night and during the day.

Joseph Wright ofDerby(1734-1797)
Matlock Tor by Moonlight, 1777-80
Oil on canvas
Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund, 48.4

Other artists considered the limited palette of night a thing of beauty. Early 20^th century American Ashcan painter Robert Henri wrote in his 1923 guide to painting, The Art Spirit, “The beauty of night is not so much in what you cannot see as in what you can see. It is a fine thing, after the brilliant reds and blues and yellows of daylight, to see the close harmony of evening and night.”**

Beginning in 1920, illustrators Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell were commissioned to create a group of advertising illustrations for the Edison Mazda division of General Electric focused on the goodness of life in the light. The name Mazda was used by GE for its Edison Mazda lamp as a reference to the god of light in Persian mythology, Ahura Mazda, Lord Wisdom (Ahura means light and Mazda means wisdom). By 1927 Rockwell had painted at least twenty advertising illustrations for Edisonthat were used in magazine ads and for store displays. Most of these illustrations pictured people gathered indoors in electric light enjoying daily activities or familial interactions. The one pictured here, And the Symbol of Welcome Is Light, is the only Rockwell scene from this group that is set out doors. Even though Rockwell chose to set the scene under the light of a full moon, it is the combined glow from the various household lights, party lights, and even car head lights that make this illustration compelling.

Rockwell used the light radiating through the house’s windows and open door to silhouette the heads of the adult and child as they leave the car they arrived to the party in; the welcoming hostess backlit in the doorway glows like an angel in an illuminated manuscript with her arms outstretched in hospitality—inviting her guests out of the darkness and into the light; the colorful Japanese paper lanterns hang from and define the equally welcoming branches of the large tree that shade and protect the household even as the open spaces in its branches reveal the full moon; and the face of the car’s driver is seen in the reflected light cast from the control panel of the car’s dashboard.***

As we can see the advent of easy artificial light changed our perceptions of what was possible and expected until it became the new norm, as in the Yvonne Jacquette painting below. Jacquette paints bird’s-eye views of cities and landscapes. This one reveals the artificial light that defines the landscape at night when seen from above.

Yvonne Jacquette (b. 1934)
Route 3, to Augusta, Maine, 2008
Oil on canvas
Courtesy   D.C. Moore Gallery,NY

No longer is the art of illuminating darkness a transforming phenomenon.  Instead we are beginning to view our light drenched world as in need of toning down the light. As the English playwright Christopher Fry titled his 1954 play, “The dark is light enough.”

* First published as an ad in the Saturday Evening Post (August 7, 1920): 61.

** See, Robert Henri, The Art Spirit (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1923): 39.

*** Since the car has a front seat open to the elements and a protected back seat I believe the style is a cabriolet.

January 12, 2012

By Joyce K. Schiller, Curator, Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, at the Norman Rockwell Museum

Everett Raymond Kinstler in His Studio

The enthusiastic stewards of the world’s largest, most significant collection of original artworks by Norman Rockwell, the Norman Rockwell Museum is also fortunate to hold a growing collection of illustration art highlighting the contributions of historic and contemporary masters. Many important artworks have come to us through the generosity of caring donors who seek to find an appropriate home for their treasured collections. This is the first among several upcoming posts sharing stories of the art that have been entrusted to us, and the individuals whose passion has, most fortunately, led them to our door.

Recently, internationally renowned portrait artist Everett Raymond Kinstler invited us to his light-filled studio in southern New England to pick up the latest of his extraordinary gifts to the Museum’s permanent collection. These stellar Golden Age illustrations by Charles Dana Gibson, seen here, and James Montgomery Flagg, a close friend of the artist, are significant additions, the best possible representative works by America’s top illustrators during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A master draughtsman and an astute humorist, Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) was the creator of the Gibson Girl, the confident, refined beauty who graced the pages of our nation’s most popular magazines, inspiring millions to emulate her style and presence. This outstanding work, one of the great Gibson illustrations, has been in Mr. Kinstler’s collection for forty years. Look carefuly at Gibson’s inscription, which dedicates the piece to the great James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960). Widely published and admired, Flagg’s art was the gold standard for many, including  aspiring illustrator Everett Raymond Kinstler, who in his youth, sought Flagg out hoping to learn all that he could from a true master. With thanks to Mr. Kinstler, the Norman Rockwell Museum is also fortunate to own his heartfelt personal remembrance of his friend and mentor, a very fine portait painted from memory after Flagg’s death.

During the past forty years, Everett Raymond Kinstler has painted official White House portrtaits of two presidents, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, likenesses of Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, and cabinet members from every administration since that of John F. Kennedy. His painting of John Wayne is considered by many to be the actor’s definitive portrayal, and Carol Burnette, Tony Bennett, Tom Wolfe, Katharine Hepburn, James Cagney, James Montgomery Flagg, and many others famous American’s have been immortalized in his art. Recently, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery installed Mr. Kinstler’s life-size portrait of baseball legend Tommy Lasorda, the Hall of Fame manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. We are grateful to Everett Raymond Kinstler for sharing his own art, and the art of those who inspired him, with the Norman Rockwell Museum. He has learned their lessons well, and we look forward to preserving and presenting these important works for many years to come.