Charles Herbert Woodbury (Lynn, Massachusetts, 1864 - 1940, Jamaica Plain)
Porpoises, about 1916
Watercolor on paper, 52 x 74 cm (20 1/2 x 29 1/8 in.)
This watercolor painting depicts six porpoises jumping into a large wave. The water, painted in shades of blue, green and white in broad, rough strokes rises on the left of the painting and cascades down sharply to the bottom of the work, about a fourth of the way in from the right bottom corner. The remainder of the background represents a pastel-colored sky of mostly lighter tones of rose, green, beige and blue, that flow across the surface of the paper and comprise much of this work, including most of the top half and the bottom right section. In the center of the picture six, relatively small black-backed and white-bellied porpoises arch their backs as they jump, almost in a semicircle, into the massive wave. Overall, this an impressionistic work, in that the fish, waves and sky are all loosely painted with very little detail and light-infused, blurred colors.
Macknight Room
Commentary
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