The Garden Parasol
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA |
The first thing that captured my eyes is the bright, sunny, summery day with the huge Japanese-style umbrella in the garden. It just gives that rich feeling of an English background. And then the main lady enjoying her lunch tea while reading, that's just like a regular person doing that kind of thing. Of course I can't miss the white furniture and the matching dresses worn by the ladies, the artist did justice to his work. While the visitor is arriving for tea, the host waiting for her in her garden is a beautiful, elegant picture. The orange colour of the umbrella adds a summer tinge to the scene. The green, lush, nicely trimmed garden in the background adds another texture to the painting. I can't ignore the visitor's hat either, kind of tells you what class the lady belongs to, honestly. And knowing this is actually Frieseke's own garden, at his house in Giverny, and he lived close to Claude Monet there too, that makes it feel more personal to me. Like he's not painting some made up woman, it's his actual wife, in their actual garden, just a normal afternoon basically. And the moment she looks up from her book cause someone showed up, it's not some big dramatic thing, but I like that he picked that exact small moment instead of just posing her for a portrait. Makes it feel more real, less staged, like we actually just walked into their garden and she noticed us standing there.