Retablo - Virgin & Child 1935 - 1942

E. Boyd painted this Retablo of the Virgin and Child, with watercolor, probably on paper. I can just imagine Boyd there with his brush, hovering, trying to get the likeness just so. There's something so genuine and straightforward about this painting. The quick strokes of red and brown, the way the figures float against the ground, and the simplified forms are so disarming! It's like he's trying to get to the heart of the matter. That gesture, where Mary holds the vials, seems so tentative, so full of care. I find myself wondering about the tradition of retablo painting, about the many hands that have depicted the Virgin and Child over centuries. It reminds us that art is never made in a vacuum.