DOI Heft:
No. 189 (November, 1912)
DOI Artikel:The miniatures of Héloïse Guilloû Redfield
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43451#0383
The Miniatures of Heloise Guillou Redfield
The miniatures of heloise
GUILLOU REDFIELD
An interesting example of the trend
of modern study of painting is seen in
the work of Heloise Guillou Redfield, exhibited
recently at the Copley Gallery in Boston. These
miniatures are remarkable for their “paint
quality” and a carrying force equal to that of
life-size painting. It is interesting to trace the
influences which have produced this unusual
development.
The art of miniature painting has departed
from the traditions which made it what it was
in the eighteenth century when the masters of that
time set us a very high example in what was,
definitely speaking, “water-color drawing.” In
later times we have seen a great deal of thin
color, uncertain values, and hesitancy between
painting and water-color drawing. Miss Red-
field has developed a form of expression which is
really painting although the medium is water-
color and the scale miniature.
The training of this artist has been broad and
varied in the painting academies of America and
Europe. The influence of no modern teacher
predominates but an appreciation of the old mas-
MINIATURE PORTRAIT BY HELOISE G. REDFIELD
MINIATURE PORTRAIT BY HELOISE G. REDFIELD
ters such as Holbein, and the later English and
French schools has made the years spent in
Europe the period of greatest growth as to taste—
that which is rarest of all qualities in modern
painting but which is very nearly the raison
d’etre of art. Under William Chase and Cecelia
Beaux at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts she profited by the wholesome influence
Hals and Velasquez are still handing down to us,
later in Paris coming in contact with Blanche,
Cottet, Desvaliere and Delecluse. A few months
only were devoted to working under miniature
painters in order to learn the technical matters of
the medium.
But Miss Redfield is more especially an intel-
lectual painter using much calculation and scienti-
fic analysis in order to understand the phenomena
of beauty and our means of expressing it in
plastic form. Her work shows that she has a
strong mental conception at the outset, virile
enough to bend the means of expression to serve
the artist’s will. Her miniatures are perfect
portraits in little, showing all the qualities of
composition and handling of accessories that one
demands in a large portrait, the size of the work
in no way limiting beauty of design or character-
istic posing of the sitter. This breadth of con-
ception and paint tonality mark the position of
this artist as unique in the art progress of the
times.
XIX
The miniatures of heloise
GUILLOU REDFIELD
An interesting example of the trend
of modern study of painting is seen in
the work of Heloise Guillou Redfield, exhibited
recently at the Copley Gallery in Boston. These
miniatures are remarkable for their “paint
quality” and a carrying force equal to that of
life-size painting. It is interesting to trace the
influences which have produced this unusual
development.
The art of miniature painting has departed
from the traditions which made it what it was
in the eighteenth century when the masters of that
time set us a very high example in what was,
definitely speaking, “water-color drawing.” In
later times we have seen a great deal of thin
color, uncertain values, and hesitancy between
painting and water-color drawing. Miss Red-
field has developed a form of expression which is
really painting although the medium is water-
color and the scale miniature.
The training of this artist has been broad and
varied in the painting academies of America and
Europe. The influence of no modern teacher
predominates but an appreciation of the old mas-
MINIATURE PORTRAIT BY HELOISE G. REDFIELD
MINIATURE PORTRAIT BY HELOISE G. REDFIELD
ters such as Holbein, and the later English and
French schools has made the years spent in
Europe the period of greatest growth as to taste—
that which is rarest of all qualities in modern
painting but which is very nearly the raison
d’etre of art. Under William Chase and Cecelia
Beaux at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts she profited by the wholesome influence
Hals and Velasquez are still handing down to us,
later in Paris coming in contact with Blanche,
Cottet, Desvaliere and Delecluse. A few months
only were devoted to working under miniature
painters in order to learn the technical matters of
the medium.
But Miss Redfield is more especially an intel-
lectual painter using much calculation and scienti-
fic analysis in order to understand the phenomena
of beauty and our means of expressing it in
plastic form. Her work shows that she has a
strong mental conception at the outset, virile
enough to bend the means of expression to serve
the artist’s will. Her miniatures are perfect
portraits in little, showing all the qualities of
composition and handling of accessories that one
demands in a large portrait, the size of the work
in no way limiting beauty of design or character-
istic posing of the sitter. This breadth of con-
ception and paint tonality mark the position of
this artist as unique in the art progress of the
times.
XIX