Interior/Before the Picture

Date1872

MediumOil on board

Dimensions12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Framed: 19 × 16 × 1 in. (48.3 × 40.6 × 2.5 cm)

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2006.78

Signedl.l., in red-brown paint: W. Rimmer [signed twice] (The upper signature may have been added when the lower signature was damaged by a crack in the support.) verso, on support, in pencil: Interior / W. Rimmer / 1872 / [illegible]

Accession number 2006.78

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCaroline Hunt Rimmer (Artist's daughter); by descent to Edith Rimmer Durham Simonds (her niece) [d. 1935], Lexington, MA, 1918; Edward R. Morrill, Boston, MA; by descent to Samuel Morrill (his son); Clifford A. Kaye, Brookline, MA; (Robert W. Skinner, Boston, MA, May 21, 1981), lot 51; Private Collection; (Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York, NY); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2006
Label TextWilliam Rimmer was a man of many talents. He was a painter and a sculptor who taught anatomy to artists, practiced medicine, and wrote drawing manuals. His interest in science (and pseudo-science) might help explain the strangeness of this painting. Most of the room is hazy and soft, but the woman is strongly outlined and painted in more saturated colors. Rimmer erroneously believed that a person’s physical traits indicated their place in an evolutionary hierarchy. The dark line defining the woman’s profile accentuates her features, which conform to his ideals of the highest beauty.

William Rimmer poseía muchos talentos. Fue un pintor y escultor que enseñó anatomía a artistas, practicó medicina, y fue el autor de manuales de dibujo. Su interés en las ciencias (y pseudociencias) podría explicar lo extraño de esta pintura. La habitación es borrosa y suave, mas sin embargo, la mujer está intensamente delineada y pintada en colores más saturados. Rimmer creía, equívocamente, que los rasgos físicos de una persona indicaban su lugar en la jerarquía de la evolución. La línea oscura que define el perfil de la mujer acentúa sus rasgos, conformándolos así a los ideales de la belleza suprema, según el artista.