Art Criticism Brenda Donjuan, 8 th Griffin Middle School
“Old Kentucky Home” by Eastman Johnson oil on canvas, 1859
Description In the painting “Old Kentucky Home” by Eastman Johnson made with oil on canvas, in the year of 1859, I see a old broken down home and outside of that home there are many African Americans. As I look closer there is an American woman peeking out the door of the second house with an African American woman behind her.. There is also a tree overlapping the house. Also dog that is full of joy and everyone seems very happy with what they have even though they don’t have very good property. He showed texture on the building because he made it look like the wood on it was breaking off. Its great because event though its something small it makes a big difference in the artwork. Its also showing a lot of shape. This is because the tree by the side of the house has a very odd shape, and the roof of the porch has broken wood planks on it showing the shape of the object.
Analysis In this artwork I see movement in the tree, it showing how the tree is living through life. There are many kinds of unity, which means that everything in the artwork goes together and nothing is randomized everywhere. Emphasis is used on the greenery of the mossy roof and the tree. Its that because everything is all a brownish color. The greenery is the only kind of color that’s a bright color.
Interpretation This artwork is very beautiful. I feel that the story in this, shows a white woman probably keeping slaves in her property because she didn’t want them to out there. They probably love her because of that and that’s why the African Americans seem happy than depressed. They were probably slaves and she bought them but didn’t use them like most white men do. And she took very good care of them, gave them clothes, food, and a very great place to live in at that time period.
Judgment I feel that this artwork would be a success because it’s very beautiful. The things that makes it good is that the brush strokes Eastman took to make this. Its very detailed and the details are what make it complete. Its very unified, it doesn’t just have a bunch of random objects everywhere. Everything on this make it come together as one and help tell the story of the artwork. The only thing I would change about this artwork “Old Kentucky Home” is the fact that there isn’t much color in it the are mostly warm colors rather than a mixture of both warm and cool. Other than that I feel that Eastman did a wonderful job on this.