Garden Figure "Pomona" c. 1939

Elizabeth Moutal made this figure of Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruitful abundance, at an unknown date with watercolour and graphite on paper. I love to imagine what the act of painting this work might have been like. What was Moutal thinking as she was making it? She may have been sympathizing with the statue, thinking about where it had stood, in which garden. Perhaps she was imagining the artist who made the original sculpture. The texture of the paint on the surface is quite matte, especially the light ground, which makes me wonder about how this texture shapes our experience of the sculpture. Notice the slightly smudged graphite lines, as if Moutal was trying to get it just right. See how the soft graphite shading communicates the roundness of Pomona's fruit and the folds of her dress. Artists engage in an ongoing conversation through time, and I wonder if someone was similarly inspired by Moutal's painting.