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| SYMBOLIST MELANCHOLY | ||||||
| While departing from the divisionist technique he had been using, Manigault maintained a focus on overall decorative patterning in his works of this period. Subduing his bright palette, Manigault opted for a more muted color scheme and rhythmic, frieze-like arrrangements. The Procession heralds this shift in 1911. With this turn towards somber tones and more static compositions, Manigault infused his painting with a sense of the mystical, creating eerily dramatic scenes and Symbolist landscapes informed by the romantic nude figures of Arthur B. Davies. In 1912 Manigault embarked on a four-month European sojourn; numerous visits to Parisian and London museums encouraged his growing interest in Symbolism. This summer in Europe encouraged Manigault to explore various traditions and imagery to which he had not previously been exposed. Works completed upon his return to the U.S. reflect the artist’s synthesis of earlier European styles, such as the bucolic paintings by Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, with Manigault’s highly personal, imaginative vision. His assimilation of the European tradition is also apparent in his adoption of the figure of Pierrot, a melancholy clown from the Italian commedia dell’arte, to which Manigault would have been exposed through the work on view at the Louvre of French eighteenth-century painter Jean-Antoine Watteau. |
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EYES OF MORNING
(NYMPH & PIERROT) 1913 Norton Museum of Art Wedt Palm Beach Gift of Mr & Mrs E Douglas Graydon 62.36 |
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