Good Ernest Martin Hennigns: “The Goat Herder” Essay Example

“The Goat Herder” is a painting that was created by Ernest Martin Hennings in 1925-1927. The work is a part of a private collection. It was demonstrated in the Denver’s museum. This is two dimensional work. The picture’s type is oil paint on canvas and its dimensions are 45x19.69 inches. Hennings’s work shows an old man in blue pants, brown jacket and hat on the foreground. He turned his back on the auditory. Auditory can define character’s age by his posture and the lower part of face with grey beard. The man is a goat herder and his herd is shown behind him. There are about ten white and clean goats. Herd has adult and young animals. Some goats eat grass and other just stare into vacancy. The background demonstrates hilled area with areas of grass and several houses with trees in the distance.
This work is referred to the genre art. The picture shows a scene from the herder’s everyday life. There are also traits of animalistic and landscape genres. The picture is made in classic style. Shadows and other small details gave volume to the work. Viewers can see pleats on man’s clothes, goats’ nebs, pattern of their hair, grass and rocks on the ground. The background also shows many details like hills’ terrain, but they are less sharp. The lighting and painting’s natural features play serious role in the final impression. I saw a small copy of “The Goat Herder” in the Internet, and light brown is the main hue on this image. It looks like a morning. Picture in the museum had more reddish palette. Red areas on hills and landscape’s color create an impression it is an afternoon. It feels like the man already finished his work and gathers herd to go home.
Goats and herder create united composition with two focal points. Man’s position makes him the first thing that catches the attention of the auditory. He is also the biggest freestanding object on the picture. After the herder person moves view lower to goats, which catch attention because of their fur color. Animals create wide white stripe at man’s hip level. Herder’s face and jacket have similar hues with elements of background behind them. This makes the man a “part” of the landscape, while goats are the lightest part of the picture. Work’s frame completes the composition.
The picture leaves a complex impression. It shows the calm atmosphere – an ordinary scene with the herder who leads his animals out at grass or back home. Man’s position demonstrates he is focused on his task. Viewers can not see his face, but a bend of herder’s had shows he looks on goats, not on the landscape. There are no other animals or signs of weather changes that can endanger goats or their herder. The second impression is that picture has an atmosphere of loneliness. The herder is the only human on the picture. The work shows couple farms in the distance, and it seems to me the man walked all this distance from buildings to the foreground. The old herder stirs up sympathy. Auditory can not see his face, bur it feels like the man is tired. It is easy to suggest goat were his only company for many years. Character’s visible part of face and clothes make me think there is a connection with the other Hennings’s work, which is called “The Sheep Herder”. The painting is a portrait of an old man who is sitting on the rock.