Artwork Title: Storebor Spiller

Storebor Spiller, 1890

Harriet Backer

...she was a pioneer. An Impressionist best known for her detailed, moodily lit interiors. Scanning through Backer’s work myself however, I found a motif that feels more worthy of acclaim. As in a large amount of Backer’s images there comes a distinct sense of absorption solely within the moment, a sensation that holds the viewer’s gaze as still as the image that it forms part of.... At the heart of this painting there is a three-way split of attention. Initially there is the pianist herself, she who is clearly engaged deeply with her own playing. Her slightly flurried hand sneaking between the left elbow suggestive of some great intensity. Whatever she is playing matters less than how clearly it has caught the young girl beside her. Anyone who has ever witnessed a familiar in such close quarters as they play music cannot help but be that girl – one who may have even rose from her chair against the window listening to now being perched, watching. Her eyes strictly on the playing rather than merely engaging with the reverie. The dormant violin on the lid could signal a teacher perhaps, but the informal nature in which the girl rests her arms and fingers above the keys suggest someone more closely known. Then above these two who are engulfed in their own raptures, there is us. Ourselves straining at this slow, quiet moment. One that engages so deeply through Backer’s aforementioned interiors. The lush imagining lends a great heaviness to the painting. The lamps on the piano intermingle with the night outside, as well as splitting like an orange in the sheen of the instrument. (https://kweiseye.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/harriet-backer-1845-1932/)
Uploaded on Aug 9, 2017 by Suzan Hamer

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