Hermes and the Infant Dionysus 1900 - 1915

Arthur Bowen Davies made "Hermes and the Infant Dionysus" with oil on canvas; it’s this dreamy scene, kind of muted and hazy, like a memory. Davies wasn’t laying it on thick with the paint, you know? It's more about washes and letting the canvas breathe, and the blue just gets everywhere. Look at the figure on the right, Hermes running with the baby Dionysus, the way the limbs stretch, and those almost peach skin tones. It’s like he’s trying to catch up with a feeling, like happiness. I wonder about that choice of colour? He isn't trying to trick you into thinking this is “real.” It’s more like the figures and landscape are emerging from a dream. There’s something of Puvis de Chavannes here, maybe even a little of Gustave Moreau, that sense of classicism filtered through a modern sensibility. It’s like Davies is saying, "Hey, we can still dream, even in the modern world."