Watch Tower Heidelberg
Artist
Irving Ramsey Wiles
(American, 1861 - 1948)
Datec. 1886
MediumWatercolor
Dimensions17 1/8 x 27 in.
ClassificationsWatercolor
Credit LineGift of the Famous Artists School
Terms
Object number1972.18LIC
DescriptionWiles executed "Watch Tower Heidelberg" to accompany a travel article by Lucy M. Mitchell entitled "Heidelberg." Wiles may have based this watercolor on a previous sketch or drawing of this courtyard and watch tower in the medieval city of Heidelberg, Germany. The quaint, nostalgic quality of "Watch Tower Heidelberg" is further accentuated by the ivy which grows on the building and climbs up the stonework, windows, and arches. As he learned from the French academic painter Charles-Emile-Auguste Duran, Wiles does not attempt to render the scene literally but rather expresses how he viewed and interpreted what he observed. He has effortlessly applied both transparent and opaque colors to the surface and he infuses the image with graceful lines and a subtle rhythm of textures, particularly in the continuity of the shaded vegetation, masonry, and roof of the building to the left and the prominent clock tower in the center. On View
Not on viewCollections
