The Little Land 1905

Jessie Willcox Smith made this dreamy little painting called The Little Land. It's hard to put your finger on when exactly it was made but it seems to occupy a space somewhere between illustration and fine art. What strikes me first is the gentle, almost hesitant touch in the way Smith layers her washes of color. Look at the way the folds of the white fabric behind the child are rendered in strokes of soft yellow and grey - it’s like she’s feeling her way through the painting. You can almost see her thinking about the relationship between representation and abstraction. The face of the child seems to fade slightly into this field of muted color. The whole piece feels like a memory, something half-remembered or half-imagined. It reminds me a bit of Edward Hopper, he had this way of capturing a feeling of quiet isolation, although his palette was a little more severe. Like Hopper, Smith understands that sometimes it’s what you leave unsaid, or unpainted, that matters the most.