The White Parasol 1907

Editor: Robert Lewis Reid’s “The White Parasol,” created in 1907. It has such a light, airy feel. All the visible brushstrokes almost dematerialize the scene, so that you don't immediately grasp it's an image of a woman, flowers, and a sunshade. How do you interpret this work? Curator: I find the subject matter, an elite woman within nature, less interesting than the visible labor involved in creating this fleeting effect. Consider the materiality: oil paint, canvas stretched, pigments ground and mixed by hand or perhaps pre-packaged. Note how the paint application attempts to capture light effects and movement, which attempts to dematerialize her societal role. Editor: You mean, all the effort that goes into this 'effortless' scene reveals a class-based perspective? Curator: Precisely. The impressionistic brushwork is a conscious choice and stylistic embrace connected to consumer culture that hides artistic production. Do you see how the ‘painterly’ execution itself becomes a commodity? How it obscures the work that went into acquiring and grinding those pigments in the first place? Editor: It's like the labor of the artist is meant to disappear. The beautiful, carefree moment becomes the only thing we’re meant to see, almost a type of luxury product itself, in the way it masks production costs. Curator: Exactly. The "white parasol" then, symbolizes an entire structure of leisure, and obscures production, labor, and its own material construction. Editor: I didn't consider how the very style and material choices contribute to this sense of privilege. Now I'm starting to see beyond the surface beauty and light. Thanks!