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 16th 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.