Books And Art Maternity 1917

Edmund Blair Leighton made this painting of a mother and a nun sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, probably with oil on canvas. Look at the folds in the fabrics. Leighton worked the paint to an incredible smoothness, almost like enamel, with no brushstrokes visible. This creates a hyperreal effect that's almost unsettling; it’s like you could reach out and touch the fabrics, but also like the whole thing is staged. Consider the light and shadow in the folds of the nun’s habit. Leighton meticulously rendered each pleat and crease, which gives it a sculptural quality. It’s tempting to compare this to the Pre-Raphaelites, who often explored historical themes with similar attention to detail, but Leighton's focus on domestic and sentimental subjects sets him apart. This almost looks like a photograph, but there's something dreamlike about it. Art is always in conversation with what came before, while also heading towards something new.