Yale Center for British Art / Assignment # 2

The Day’s Sport (c 1826)
Oil on canvas
James Ward
Yale Center for British Art

On Friday April 6 I visited the Yale Center for British Art. It is located directly across the street from the Yale Art Gallery (a fact that was lost on me until my second visit to Chapel Street). I really enjoyed the layout of the building and the staff was friendly and helpful. The day I went the third floor was closed so my visit was limited to the second and fourth. There are many portraits on display, and although portraits are not my favorite subject, I enjoyed the lifelike features the paintings displayed. Very often the paintings displayed details that only the most skilled painters can recreate.

According to its website (http://ycba.yale.edu/information/index.html), “the Yale Center for British Art houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom”. As I wandered through the Yale Center for British Art I was reminded of the paintings I saw in the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath, England. The two are very similar.

The painting I chose to write on was called The Day’s Sport by James Ward. (Please forgive the blurriness of the photos; I am still trying to figure out this camera and how to take clear pictures with the flash off). The initial thing that drew me to this painting is the way the sky meets the trees. The view offered here is breathtaking. It is a place I would like to visit. (See below)

The thing that led me to choose this piece is the detail of the snow covered branched. This certainly works to enhance the painting. The entire painting is well crafted, but the skill shown in the way the trees are done elevates this painting from ordinary to extraordinary. (See below)

The subject is standard in this painting (I could not locate additional info on this via the internet), a gentleman out on a hunt on a cold winter day. For me the subject (the people and the game) are not what makes this painting work, it is the scenery shown around it. The blue sky with a bright orange sun sits in perfect contrast with the brown branches covered in bright white snow. The branches look alive, much like when the morning sun hits ice covered branches.
As I first look at this work, my eyes go to the sky. Then I see the snow covered trees. My eyes then take me to the man holding the dead rabbit. From here my eyes move to the left first focusing on the two dogs and then on the man with the gun. At this point I go to the right, through the snow to the goose laying there. I scan upward to the two children and then to the woods. Finally my eyes go left again back where I started.
Although the scene takes place on a winter day, the painting is warm in color. The orange in the sun, the red found on the subjects clothing, the reds and browns found in the woods. The painting does not portray a sterile scene usually associated with the winter, instead thee is much life here in the trees, the people, the dogs, and even the fallen game.
According to his bio, (link provided at end), James Ward was “the most important animal painter of his generation”. He was born in 1769 and died in 1859 so The Day’s Sport was painted by a mature man. This was painted shortly after Ward suffered the loss of his wife and daughter. That might explain the sense of family this painting hints at with the two young children admiring the man’s (dad’s?) spoils. It also may explain why the viewers eye (at least mine) is drawn to the sky (heavens) first. Whatever it is this painting works for me. It is pleasing to look at and has a good contrast with color and darkness.

As I strolled through the rooms here are some other pieces that caught my eye:

Dedham Lock, John Constable (c 1819-1820)
oil on canvas laid on wood

Schoolgirls, Haverstock Hill, George Clausen (c1889)
oil on canvas

The Fruit Stall, King’s Cross, Charles Ginner (c 1914)
oil on canvas



Bio for James Ward: (http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=581&page=1&sole=y&collab=y&attr=y&sort=default&tabview=bio)