Bouquet to an American Impressionist: Willard Leroy Metcalf

Winter’s Festival by Willard Leroy Metcalf, 1913

Bouquets to Art has assigned me to design my bou­quet to this American Impressionist painting, Winter’s Festival.
This winter scene by Willard Metcalf shows an unusual and elu­sive color tech­nique. When you look at it in person, the snow veils the green and russet colors of the land­scape.
Yet, dig­ital images of the painting in the de Young museum’s data­base (and else­where on the internet) strip aside most of the white snow and reveal har­monies of color and details of the wild. So, I won­dered, “what’s going on here?”

Reading fur­ther into the internet com­men­tary, I learned that Willard Metcalf was influ­enced by both Claude Monet (he vis­ited Monet in Givenchy) and James Abbott McNeil Whistler. I see the Monet influ­ence in Metcalf’s treat­ments of the rus­sets and greens (espe­cially apparent in the dig­ital cat­alog images) and the influ­ence of Whistler in the veil of snow when you see the orig­inal oil painting hung on the museum wall.

So, here’s my plan for the design of my bou­quet to this piece of art: I will think about it while I col­lect winter branches, leaves and flowers. I have until March 16^th to get it right.

Meanwhile, you may want to check out Willard Leroy Metcalf’s Winter’s Festival in the Image Base of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums or use the soft­ware of the Amica Library.