The People of Chilmark

Palette shopping? How about an afternoon at your local museum….

On a recent visit to  Washington DC, I enjoyed an afternoon at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, visiting one of my favorite paintings, The People of Chilmark by Thomas Hart Benton.  I have always been enamored by this painting as the artist’s uses of color and rhythm can so easily be transcribed into good design and a beautiful interior.

The most striking aspect of this 1921 painting is his use of color and the suggested roundness of the forms.  The most pleasing aspect is the rhythm and melody present in the movement of the forms. Perhaps the least pleasing aspect is the difficulty in understanding the narrative.

At first sight the picture is interesting for both its design and subject matter.  The design is composed of nine figures in a triangular format.  There is a flowing rhythm from one to another.  The most conspicuous element in this painting is the use of red in a triangular movement; a red ball in the center, a red cap on the right and a geometric red shape on the lower left.  This triangular shape is once again repeated in the use of light, illuminating the painting from the center with shadows around the perimeter and separating the figures.

What attracted me to this painting was the use of the vibrant array of colors, and I love color, both vivid and intense.  Although scholars have interpreted the colors and textures in this painting to be entirely unrealistic, its colors tend to add spirit to this composition, just as they would in an interior space, or even a garden.  The colors add vibrancy to the melody.  The array of colors is both warm and cool, containing many different values of that particular color and repeating in separate locations.  The overall result is pleasing because the colors continually dance around one another and involve themselves in each other.

If you are contemplating the perfect palette, the layout of your furniture, lighting your space, or just adding an accent color, I recommend visiting a museum, spend time learning from the masters, observe color relationships, composition and lighting.

As I have mentioned before in the Top 10 Decorating Essentials,  great painters are terrific colorists, so they are a wonderful reference point when you are searching for the optimal palette.

photo credit:  Shelby Elsbree