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Grapes and Olives

Henry Roderick Newman

American Art

Grapes and Olives displays a compositional formula that Henry Roderick Newman preferred—one that features a foreground dominated by objects in “close-up” (here, the grapes and olives) and that offers a sweeping, long-distance view (the Gulf of Spezia in Italy). Newman’s miniaturist application of watercolor paint on such a large format suggests that he sought not only to justify watercolor as an important medium, but to perpetuate Ruskinian notions linking the creation of art with moral righteousness, as expressed in the painstaking labor of the painter.
MEDIUM Watercolor with selectively applied glaze over graphite pencil on moderately thick rough-textured wove paper
DATES 1878
DIMENSIONS 26 x 18 13/16 in. (66 x 47.8 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS no watermark visible
SIGNATURE Signed and dated lower left: "H. R. Newman / 1878"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 1996.90.2
CREDIT LINE Purchased with funds given by Sol Schreiber in memory of Rose Schreiber, and with funds given by Joanne and Eugene Witty, Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Designated Purchase Fund
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Henry Roderick Newman (American, 1843–1917). Grapes and Olives, 1878. Watercolor with selectively applied glaze over graphite pencil on moderately thick rough-textured wove paper, 26 x 18 13/16 in. (66 x 47.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by Sol Schreiber in memory of Rose Schreiber, and with funds given by Joanne and Eugene Witty, Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Designated Purchase Fund, 1996.90.2 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1996.90.2_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 1996.90.2_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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