Rotunda, National Gallery of Art 1950

Ruth Perkins Safford made this painting of the Rotunda in the National Gallery of Art, sometime during 1950. I love the tonality of this piece, it's a very quiet colour palette which feels very calming. The texture is so flat, and yet the artist has really captured the scene's depth. The pillars framing the fountain are these heavy, almost oppressive forms, and then the space just sort of opens up behind them. The painting is like a stage set. Look at the way the light is hitting the vase on the left. It's almost as if Safford is saying, "Here is beauty, but it's cold, like a museum piece." I'm reminded of Edward Hopper, there's a similar sense of stillness, but also of something unspoken. Safford’s painting invites us to contemplate the silent dialogues between art, architecture, and the solitary viewer.