We do our best to use images that are open source. If you feel we have used an image of yours inappropriately please let us know and we will fix it.
Our writing can be punchy but we do our level best to ensure the material is accurate. If you believe we have made a mistake, please let us know.
If you are planning to see an artwork, please keep in mind that while the art we cover is held in permanent collections, pieces are sometimes removed from display for renovation or traveling exhibitions.
Contributor
Even the background, with its idyllic afternoon valleyscape, seems like a location that would attract a modern weekend getaway at a music festival.
That modernity is deceptive, however. Clark painted this reposing figure all the way back in 1944, nearly a lifetime ago. It was early into his career and he had recently completed a two year residency studying the works of Renoir (interestingly, he was the one to choose this; he could have studied everything in the collection, but he said he only bothered with the Renoir). A quick look and you are left with the sensation that the French impressionist left an imprint on Clark’s romantic landscape seen here.
Yet the focus is completely different from anything in the history of impressionism up until 1944, as the subject is the life of an African-American man. The unknown man, who appears playful, warm, and convivial in his body language (he even looks like he’s about to lean in to tell us a joke or a secret), has a muted face, perhaps even nonplussed, which confuses the simple rest touted by the painting’s title. This is because his position isn’t so simple. He is taking a break from his labor as a tenant farmer, a position which was legally defined as the use of rented land for farming. The land would be paid for in cash or in a portion of their yield, but if nothing grew there would be nothing to exchange and nothing to sell. By the 1940’s, the time of this painting, tenant farming was in decline due to the mechanization of farming practices.
Perhaps the figure is leaning in to tell us he is about to join the Great Migration of African-Americans to the north, seeking a life of greater opportunities. Claude himself was the son of a tenant farmer who took his family north to Pennsylvania for a new life. If nothing else, it’s a representation of an important American perspective that might have otherwise been forgotten in the history of art.
Not sure how he went from Renoir to this. It looks more like what would happen if Gauguin took steroids and was full of self confidence. In any case, Renoir sucked, Gauguin was great, and this piece gets five stars.
This painting by Claude Clark is called "Resting". In Clark's paintings, he shows African Americas' life and culture in things such as dances, their religion, and how they were treated as slaves. This painting shows a man resting from labor working on a farm and the hard work that African American's were made to do. He is tired and sitting in an uncomfortable-looking position which goes against the title of Resting. The colors are kind of vibrant and happy which is a bit misleading as the man isn't too happy with what he has to do, but enjoys the time he gets to rest. This painting tells a story that a lot of artists didn't do during that time and adds to the African American culture. It is atmospheric with the scenery in the background which is farther away, telling more of the story.