Rower
1998
20th Century
34 in. x 38 in.
Object Type:
Work on Paper
Medium and Support:
encaustic and oil on paper
Credit Line:
Florence Griswold Museum Purchase
Accession Number:
2004.4
Australian-born Judy Cotton now lives and paints along the Connecticut River in Hadlyme. Rower alludes not only to her interest in water—a frequent element in her work—but also to her fascination with iconic American paintings, such as Thomas Eakins’s depictions of oarsmen. Cotton admires nineteenth-century landscapes for their Luminist light effects, which she evokes here through a fluid, translucent application of oil and encaustic, or warm wax mixed with pigment. Areas of intense blue below the figure impart the physical invigoration of rowing, an activity the artist enjoys.