Description:
still life; dish/bottle; domestic life; woman; costume/uniform
Label Text:
Pearce was among the many American artists who studied in France during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Like his contemporaries, he was eager to explore the spare forms, nuanced tones and quietude of the Asian art that was then making its way to Europe. He soon combined those devices of color and composition with his own French academic training. A Cup of Tea is not an accurately observed scene of a tea ceremony but a carefully composed image of a model and studio props.
While the face and hands of the woman are softly rendered and highly finished, Pearce used bolder brushwork in areas such as the bare wall and the rich highlights on the vase. He is more liberal in his treatment of floral motifs, both in the quickly-rendered pattern which spills across the blue-gray silk of the sitter's kimono, and in the live blossoms that frame the woman on either side.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1934.3.6 |
