TitleOld Church--Düsseldorf
Artist
John Beaufain Irving
(1825 - 1877)
Date1873
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 17 x 14 in.
Framed: 23 3/4 x 20 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.
SignedSigned at lower right: "J. Beaufain Irving 73"
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, April 21, 1873
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number645-P
Label TextThe subject of a monk within a church was one which occupied Irving throughout his career. As early as 1849, before his European trip, he had won a silver medal for the best oil painting at Charleston's South Carolina Institute. His entry was described as "interior of chapel and monk at prayer." Irving's small diploma contribution would fit that description, but its title, polished execution, and somewhat leaden colors characterize it as a work painted after the benefit of his training in Düsseldorf. Despite the attention to detail and surface qualities, Irving employs a reduced geometry to structure his composition. The monk, his keen eye raised upward, occupies only a small portion of the perspectival space. His contemplative passivity is the emotional center of the work, yet it is juxtaposed with the active blessing gesture of the opposite-facing figure dimly perceived in the painting hanging above.
