The Ruling Passion/Reading Aloud (colour & mood)

These are some more paintings from Kelvingrove museum which I think have beautiful tone and colouring. In the first, below, I particularly like the variation in hair colour, and the expression and form of the people. I'm particularly interested in the girl on the left, and her distance from the scene. She looks more subdued than the rest. Colder? I felt like I can sit in her place. There's this strange feeling of relation that I have towards her. This has great value to my work, it's a very interesting emotional response. I see myself in this girl, but why? It's not just because I like her hair (although you know, that's compelling). I think she looks like later she'll run away across a field, although that may just be evidence of me having seen too many dramatic Jane Austen dramas.

The Ruling Passion (or The Ornithologist), 1885
John Everett Millais

The second painting I saw has a similarity to the first in that it depicts rest. It's a bit different though. Again I'm drawn to the humanity of these women. The one on the right looks relaxed, maybe, but the others seem as if they could be having a lot of hurried thoughts. The colours here are amazing, very pale and delicate sort of ethereal. I feel again, as if I want to be them. I see the painting through such a strong relational feeling (as in the first painting).

"This is one of Albert Moore's best paintings. There is no hidden meaning, no story to tell. Moore wanted to create a decorative harmony in pink, white and grey."
Reading Aloud, about 1884
Albert Joseph Moore

Wikipedia says of Albert Joseph Moore:

"[He was] known for his depictions of languorous female figures set against the luxury and decadence of the classical world."

"[...]every picture was the result of a carefully thought out and elaborated harmony in pose and colour, having as its basis the human form, studied in the true Hellenic spirit."

"The chief charm of Moore's pictures lay in the delicate low tones of the diaphanous, tissue-like garments in which the figures were draped."

 Other paintings echo the ethereal, ideal sense of "Reading Alone" - they're very cinematic, and I feel a sense of childlike awe looking at their soft peachy colours and depiction of sheer fabric.

Silver