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Sir Edward John Poynter

 

            
             "The Festival" by Sir Edward John Poynter, completed in 1875 is a very striking painting. A recent acquisition of the Art Institute of Chicago, it is housed in Gallery two twenty six, which contains works by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Part of the Aesthetic Movement, the "Classical revival was also a reaction against the predominance of Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites in the 1850s." Often said to be one of the most obscure and underappreciated of the Victorian painters, "there are two main reasons why Poynter has been neglected. First, his reputation has always been overshadowed by that of Leighton Secondly; it was Poynter's misfortune to live too long into the twentieth century.".
             President of the Royal Academy in London, Poynter received most of his training in Rome where he closely studied the works of Michelangelo. "Poynter was an outstanding draughtsman in the academic tradition, who loved drawing for its own sake, and he made numerous fluent studies, many of them in black chalk, for each of his paintings." Furthermore, Poynter painted mostly religious and biblical figures, although "Despite impeccable Academic credentials, Poynter's work was surprisingly wide in range and eclectic influences [He] was closely connected with the Pre-Raphaelite circle." .
             This image, which is approximately three and a half feet tall and two feet wide, exhibits neo-classical style. It was painted in oil, which is evident by the three dimensional illusion that the painting gives. Two women are depicted clothed in large, heavily draped attire. One of the women is perched upon a ladder; hanging up floral garland (the title gives some inclination as to the intention of their activities) while the other is seated on what appears to be a step. At her feet lay the heads of many roses, in a variety of colors. A basket holds many more. Poynter conveyed a scene of obviously upper class women decorating for what I would assume to be some sort of formal affair.


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