Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
Each set of two pictures represents one of the elements. The first of
the Earth pictures in the northwest corner of the corridor is a harvest
of orchard fruits, products of earth. Tall cypresses on the right
enhance the vast space of sky over the orchard, the best sky in all the
eight paintings. The colors are those of the rich fruits, the autumn
flowers, and the garish costumes of Brangwyn's peasantry. The companion
picture represents a vintage, with great purple grapes hanging among the
bronzing leaves on a trellis, and yellow pumpkins and flowers underfoot.
The color is in these, and in the same Southern costumes seen in the
first picture.
The first of the Air pictures is as easy to read as the second is
difficult. (p. 74.) In it a huge windmill stands on a height against
rain-laden clouds and a glowing rainbow. The slope is covered with
heavy-headed grain, and stained with vivid flowers, all bending before
the swift currents of air. Laborers, men and women, hurry homeward
before the wind, from their task of winnowing grain. Boys flying their
kites complete the symbolism.
In the companion picture a group of archers are loosing their arrows
between the boles of tall, straight hardwoods on the brink of a deep
valley. Great white birds are winging outward through the tops of the
trees. The distance in the sky beyond is wonderful. The color is of the
gorgeous autumn leaves of hardwoods and of rich flowers.
In one of the Water pictures fishermen are drawing a net from a lake
suggested by a fringe of purple, white and yellow iris. The men seem to
stand on an island or a peninsula, for behind them, beyond tall trees,
is a deep indigo lake. Great pregnant clouds float in the sky, and the
picture glows with autumn colors.
In the other, men and women come forward with water jars to a source
suggested by tall white water birds and flowers growing thick among the
sedges. There are the same clouds, big with the promise of rain, and the
same profusion of vivid hues.
Primitive Fire is suggested in the next pair by a thick-clustered group
of peasants with hands outstretched where a thin column of smoke rises
straight. Autumn skies and foliage tell of chill in the air. The colors
burn in dying leaves, in the sky, in fruit and grapes. A man is bringing
a burden of fagots. Men of bovine anatomy crouch before the fire, their
backs arched, their cheeks bulging, as they blow it into flame. These
folk are all primitive, candid in their animalism, Samsons in limb and
muscle. Brangwyn's mastery of anatomy is notable, and he builds his men
with every flexor showing, like a machine.
Pottery burners working around a furnace dimly suggested convey the idea
of Industrial Fire in the last of the pictures. There is the same motif
of cold in the sky and the fruits, intensified by the somber leafage of
fir and pine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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