The Old Violin - Texture, Value, & Illusion of Space

William Michael Harnett, The Old Violin, 1886, National Gallery of Art, Washington

This is a composition by the American artist William M. Harnett  (1848 - 1892) entitled, The Old Violin, which was painted in 1886 and is displayed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The audience for this work is gallery visitors and art spectators.

William Harnett was a still life painter who use the technique called tromp l'oeil .  Trompe l'oeil meaning trick of the eye is a method that can "so resemble reality that deception occurs." [Stewart p.25-26]  This work of art was so realistic that the people actually reached out to grasp the violin to see if it was real or painted.  This style is also called illusionism.  This technique was popular with the public but often criticized by the art reviewers of the time as "exact copies" or "threatening the ideal of art as beauty and truth".

I was intrigued by the explanation of and debate about this method and started looking at artists and works which employ this device.  This particular piece attracted me because of the beautifully aged violin, the curl of the music, and the letter at the bottom of the painting.  Everything in this painting looks aged, well-used, even loved - the door with the rusted braces, the varnish on the violin worn from years of practice, the dog-eared music, the lighter color beneath the curled corner of the music, and the letter...  The  letter, what does the letter mean?  Is it innocuous - just representing a correspondence to be noticed?  Does it represent the reason that the violin was hung on the door, never to be played again?  A lost child, a jilted lover, a rejection... 

The colors are melancholy, earthy, subdued.  The color value refers to the relative lightness or darkness of a surface and contrast is the amount of difference in the values.  Value distribution refers to the proportion of lights and darks in the composition. This piece is visually heavy due to the dark colors, low contrast, and darkness of the value distribution.  In this painting, darker values create the sense of sadness, loss, or a forgotten past.  The lighting appears to be from the left of the painting which help to create the three-dimensional feel of the composition.  Cast shadows appear on the letter, music, and the door (from the bow and violin).  Even the rusty nail on the door casts a shadow to its right.   Maybe a hint to the contents of the letter?

This work (and the device of trompe l'oeil) is an example of color value distribution, visual texture, and linear perspective.  Each fold in the music and letter was drawn and shaded to represent the objects as if they were lighted from a source to the left of the painting.   The strings and body of the violin show the white residue of the rosin and it's reflection from the light.  The bow's shadow is projected due to the source of light.  The color of the door darkens from left to right. 

As stated in the text, this technique is visual texture taken to an extreme.  Each and every detail is drawn - nothing is left for the observer to complete - except the interpretation.

http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/harnett/oldviolin_1.shtm