Dimensions: 25 1/4 x 31 9/16 in. (64.14 x 80.17 cm) (sight)34 3/4 x 40 3/4 x 2 3/4 in. (88.27 x 103.51 x 6.99 cm) (outer frame)
Copyright: No Copyright - United States
Richard Miller painted 'The Parasol' with oil on canvas, sometime around the turn of the 20th century. At first glance, it’s an intimate scene of a woman with a parasol in an impressionistic landscape. But consider the social conditions that shape artistic production. Miller was an American expatriate, one of many who flocked to France at this time, seeking to join the international art scene. He was part of an artistic colony, a common arrangement, and had made a name for himself painting pretty women in domestic settings. Such a setting is no accident; this image reinforces a conservative idea of femininity and the social elite, made at a time when traditional class structures were under considerable pressure. We can see how such institutions like the art market or the culture of expatriate artists in France shape the meaning of the artwork. Historians consult archives of letters, exhibition records, and period publications, and thus can offer insight into the complex interplay between art and society.
Comments
Traces of Impressionism can be seen here in the brisk brushstrokes and vivid colors. Richard Miller was a member of the Giverny Colony of American Impressionists in France, a group inspired by the famous resident of Giverny, Claude Monet. Miller is known as a figurative painter whose subjects are primarily young women posed in decorative interiors or beautiful gardens. The bright and colorful landscape surrounding the woman here alludes to nothing beyond itself. Miller believed that “art’s mission is not literary, the telling of a story, but decorative, the conveying of a pleasant optical sensation.”
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