One of the tests of the quality of a painting is that it should produce emotions in the viewer. Yet, among the arts, painting seems the most disadvantaged when it comes to expressing feelings. I mean, people are often moved by a work of music – be it a symphony concerto, a film score or a simple wistful melody. Literature lovers are also often moved by a turn of phrase in a novel or poetry. But I’ve hardly come across visitors to an art gallery who are so visibly moved by a painting that you can see them wiping a discreet tear from their eyes. Without the “tools” of words and musical notes, painting must rely on figurations, shapes and color to draw out an emotional response from the viewer. It can be done, and has been done, a testimony to the ingenuity of the best artists. Indeed, some of the most powerful works of art in history have the ability to sweep us up emotionally even when the work does not depict any humans or animals (i.e., is largely abstract). In the hands of a master painter, the play of shapes and colors are sufficient to elicit profound feelings of what it means to be human. Featured in today’s post are a small sample or works which I think resonate emotionally with most of us (with anyway). I hope you will enjoy viewing them.

The Angelus by Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875)

The Angelus (Latin for Angel) is a work by French artist Jean-Francois Millet executed in 1857. It is unquestionably the most famous of all French paintings. The painting is quite small, measuring only 66 cm (29 in) in width, but evinces an emotional depth far greater than its size. The scene shows two peasants standing on the field, heads bowed in prayer in the early moments of dawn or the late moments of dusk. The low viewpoint makes the viewer feel as if one is standing on the same level as the couple. Like Millet’s other small works depicting humble people working on the land, Angelus evokes a sense of magical stillness and peace that isn’t overloaded with drama. Depending on your viewpoint, Millet is depicting either the dignity or the harshness of manual peasant labor, and he does it in a way that rarely fails to bring a tad of sadness in our hearts.

Daphnis and Chloe by Niccolo Pisano (1470-1538)

Pictures that sensitize us to important aspects of love need not be romantic nor erotic. The best works often use the power of suggestion to help us remember and stay sensitive to part of what love is about. This is the case in this painting by the Italian Renaissance artist, Niccolo Pisano. Daphnis and Chloe depicts two young lovers at the beginning of love, a moment when the sweetness and grace of the other is intensely present. Daphnis regards Chloe as so precious he hardly dares to touch her. All his devotion, his honor and his hopes for the future are vivid to him. He wants to win her but he does not know if she will love him, and this doubt intensifies his delicacy. In his eyes, she absolutely cannot be taken for granted. This is a representation of one should properly appreciate a person one loves. In a world where the words love and sex is used interchangeably and personal egos take precedence over submission, this picture is particularly necessary because of its power to return us to a woefully forgotten sense of tenderness. 

The Thankful Poor by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)

I doubt anyone will not be moved by this painting in the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis. The artist, Henry Ossawa Tanner was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to an African Methodist Episcopal bishop father and a mother who escaped enslavement via the Underground Railroad. He later became the first African American artist to attain international recognition. Tanner initially studied with the famed American Realist painter Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts but later decided to move to Paris to study at the prestigious Académie Julian art school, in part to escape the discrimination he experienced in the United States. There, he became a mentor for other Black artists such as Aaron Douglas, Palmer C. Hayden, William H. Johnson, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, and Hale Woodruff. The Thankful Poor showcases the humanity of an impoverished older black man and a young black boy, as they bow their heads in a dignified prayer before a humble meal.

No. 14 by Mark Rothko (1903-1970)

The Russian-American painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970) is one of the pioneers of abstract expressionism, the movement that emphasizes that painting is meant to be a revelation of the artist’s authentic identity and emotions, not a reproduction of what the artist sees externally. He once described his goal as elevating art to the level of music and poetry, and he chose color fields as his medium in place of words or musical notes to achieve his goal. For Rothko, painting was a high stakes proposition: to transcend the trivialities of everyday life and open up a space for introspection.

“I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on – and the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate those basic human emotions. The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.”

This 1960 work, titled No. 14 exemplifies the kind of profound expression Rothko seeks to convey to himself and to his viewers. In the above quote, Rothko mentions doom and ecstasy. Looking at painting, I can viscerally sense these very emotions. The brilliant glow of the orange-red in the top seems to evoke a sense of ecstasy or hope while the sombre background in the form of a bruised eggplant kind of purple speaks to me of the other part of the human condition – sorrow, despair, gloom, tragedy etc – “the darkness between the good moments” so to speak. These powerful emotions are amplified by the large canvas; the painting measures 291 cm by 268 cm, making it necessary for the viewer to look at it from a distance. And in the spacious gallery accented by muted spotlights, No. 14 looks stunning, even numinous. The work encapsulates the very essence of a Rothko painting: that art is as necessary as words and music for the outpourings of the soul.