The Fortune Teller 1893 - 1894

Robert Loftin Newman painted this small oil on canvas called "The Fortune Teller", though the date of its making remains unknown. Newman was an American artist, working at a time when the art world was starting to look back to the old masters. The rather blurry, dreamlike, and romantic image here, is a product of that cultural moment. Fortune telling is presented as an act of intimacy and feminine connection in the painting, though it was, in reality, often seen as a form of deceit, especially when practiced by women. It is interesting that Newman does not tell us who is being deceived here, or what is at stake. To interpret this work more fully, we would need to dig into its social and institutional history. Who was Newman's audience and what kind of values did they hold? And how did this painting speak to those values? This kind of research reminds us that art always takes on its fullest meaning in relation to its social context.