Study for "Heroism (David and Goliath)," the left panel of the "Heroism (Young David), Sacrifice (Christ among the Doctors), Service (Young Solomon)" mural, Chestnut Hill Academy
Date
c. 1907Medium
Oil on canvasCredit Line
Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2015Dimensions
30 x 20 in.Description & Inscriptions
58 in triangle, marker 94
The three preparatory studies that Oakley made for the murals at the Chestnut Hill Academy (now Springside Chestnut Hill Academy) are beautiful unto themselves, and they reveal a great deal about Oakley’s process. The artist first establishes the gestures of figures, the compositional elements, and the placement of color. In the central image, Study for "Sacrifice (The Boy Jesus among the Doctors)," she applies a charcoal grid that would serve as a guide when she transferred the composition onto a larger canvas. Apparently she was unhappy with the figure of Christ at center of this image, and she rubbed him out, redrawing the figure in a new pose that would be more commanding. Study for "Heroism (David and Goliath)" is a different sort of painting altogether that feels like an experiment with glazing and applications of thin layers and overlapping streams of paint.
The three preparatory studies that Oakley made for the murals at the Chestnut Hill Academy (now Springside Chestnut Hill Academy) are beautiful unto themselves, and they reveal a great deal about Oakley’s process. The artist first establishes the gestures of figures, the compositional elements, and the placement of color. In the central image, Study for "Sacrifice (The Boy Jesus among the Doctors)," she applies a charcoal grid that would serve as a guide when she transferred the composition onto a larger canvas. Apparently she was unhappy with the figure of Christ at center of this image, and she rubbed him out, redrawing the figure in a new pose that would be more commanding. Study for "Heroism (David and Goliath)" is a different sort of painting altogether that feels like an experiment with glazing and applications of thin layers and overlapping streams of paint.
