James B Read Portrait of a Boy

The sheer size of this painting, which stands a little over 4 feet high, 3 feet wide, creates a sense that the child could

There is a sense of symmetry within this piece. Although the painting is not perfectly centered, the child’s presence is slightly to the right of the middle, and the pillar (another vertical form) is slightly to the left balancing both figures. There is an almost perfectly centered horizon line also, with brightness below, and darkness above. These uses of color differences create as much interest above and below, again creating symmetry. In addition, there is a great sense of proportion in movement on both sides of the vertical center. The roses off to the left have complementary colors, repetitive shape, and sporadic placement, whereas the contrast in color of the white trellis amidst the black sky as well as their repetitive diamond-like shapes draws attention to the right side.

There is a wonderful use of chiaroscuro throughout this work, both in the subject himself, as well as the objects surrounding him. Looking upon this work you feel as though you are the source of light, as there is no other obvious light source evident to the on-looker, especially with the dark clouds behind the subject. The subject’s face is shaded on his left side, and there are darker values used within his clothing to create the sense of folds and movement. The artist also used chiaroscuro to establish a light source by using shadows falling away to the background from the boy himself on the wood planks and on the bench. The artist chose this method of linear perspective for creating this 3-dimensional sense of depth and space. The pillar also has form, both by the shaded values on its edges and in the implied space between the flowers and their shadows upon it. This promotes the sense of a mass base object. There is also slight use of chiaroscuro in the braiding of the young boy’s hat. This, along with the shading on the rim as it gets further away from the viewer and goes behind the boy, also shows depth.

The picture is very photo-realistic. The artist uses clean, softened lines to frame his subject and his environment. The sky, however, is painted with quick strokes, as if to establish the movement of the storm that seems to be coming in. There are blobs of paint used to create 3 dimensional elements to the pistols of the flowers, as well as dabs of paint on the boys buttons to create a sense of lighted glare off of them, as though they were made of reflective material. His collar is also good use of texture with his medium as well, as it seems to stand out, or pop off the picture plane, in contrast to the shadows it creates on the material beneath it.

There are additional eleme

Some topics in this essay:
Portrait Boy, artist chose, content piece, dark gray sky, wood planks, deep red, complementary colors, gray sky, rolling hills, child real, visual elements, dark gray,