"Interior (The Rape)" by Edgar Degas

"Interior (The Rape)" by Edgar Degas. Oil on canvas. 1869.

Dana Donato


          While visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I found many pieces that inspired me. Some were favorites that I always like to go back and see, and some were newer pieces I had just noticed. Some of my favorites consist of “Liverpool from Wapping” by John Atkinson Grimshaw, “My Friends” by Viggo Johansen and many of the Monet pieces. But one that particularly caught my eye was “Interior” by Edgar Degas. I had never really noticed this piece before, but it was the first piece that day to catch my attention. After studying the painting, I found that I had a new appreciation for the piece and Degas. This was much different from what I’ve seen of his other work; like the famous ballerinas. But this painting is a dimly lit room with two figures. It was painted in 1869, in the Impressionistic era and it’s oil on canvas.
    While looking at this piece, you can clearly see that it gives off a strong feeling. The mood is very sad and lonely. To me, it seems like the couple in the painting just got in a fight. The woman looks very upset, with her back to the man and the man looks very separated and not willing to go comfort her. It comes off very tense and like there’s nothing left to say between the two of them. It’s a very sad piece and seems very mysterious.
    I also can appreciate the way this is painted. You can see all the colors in the dark shadows of the room and the figures’ faces. Although the painting is very dark and a dimly lit room, Degas still managed to use warm colors in areas to convey that. The glow from the fire really caught my eye, you can see the warmth of it reflecting off the floor boards, and the glow of the lamp in the middle of the room. Artificial light always gives off a nice warm glow, it’s sort of inviting, but in this piece it gives off a different feeling because of the tense figures who are also present. I also really enjoy Degas’ sense of realism in this piece and it is painted beautifully.
    After researching this work, I found out that many believe that Degas painted this as a narrative piece. On the PMA website, it says that a scholar Theodore Reff believes it is a scene from a novel called Therese Raquin by Emile Zola. The scene is supposed to be two lovers on their wedding night and the year before they killed Therese’s husband. The PMA describes it “the lovers are overwhelmed by the enormity of their crime and retreat from one another into bitter isolation.” I also found out that the painting is also referred to as “The Rape.” After finding this out, I studied the painting some more and realized why it might be referred to as that. You can see that there are clothes laying on the edge of the bed and it looks like a corset is lying on the floor. The woman‘s dress is also slipping off her shoulder and the man looks a bit cold to me, so it appears that maybe something had happened and this is the aftermath of the situation.
    There are obviously many interpretations of the painting, but regardless of the narrative it is a beautiful, dark piece. It has become one of my favorite works by Degas and it has inspired me a lot. I love interior scenes, and especially with this dim setting and its mysterious quality, it inspires me to do a piece like this one.

Shary Boyle and Emily Duke: The Illuminations Project

by Briana Giasullo

 On January 13^th, 2011, I visited the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania for an opening. I was immediately captivated by a series of poems and paintings in one of the rooms. The first painting I saw was titled “I Want to be Afraid of Nature,” an ink and gouache on paper by Shary Boyle. Accompanying the image was a short poem by Emily Duke that vaguely related to the colorful yet violent scene of a girl being attacked by a number of wild animals. I do not remember exactly how the poem went, but it described the fear people once had for the mysterious natural world that has been replaced by today’s sense of man being able to control and manipulate nature. The author wants to return to the lost sense of fear and respect for the natural world, relating to the image of a human being destroyed by nature rather than nature being destroyed by humans.

Shary Boyle, "I Want to be Afraid of Nature," 2003, ink and gouache on paper

 As I walked around the room I soon realized that while all of the images visually resembled children’s book illustrations, the content would never be found in a children’s book. One painting titled “The Island of Animal Laughter” appears cute and lighthearted at first, but upon closer inspection the menacing animals laughing on the island made me a bit nervous. Another vibrant painting was displayed next to a poem that declared “we’ll eat your soul with spoons.” I also noticed that while some of the poems accurately described the scene they accompanied, others were more abstract and only hinted at being a part of the painting. The vague relationships between the poems and paintings were created deliberately by Shary Boyle and Emily Duke. The two artists wanted to collaborate on a project in which they did not set any rules on the content. They wanted to use each other’s work as jumping off points rather than distinct outlines. Through long-distance correspondence between 2003 and 2010, Boyle would send a painting to Duke who responded with a poem. Alternately, Duke would first write the poem and Boyle responded with a painting. The exhibit is set up so that whichever came first, the painting or the poem, is displayed on the left side and the response is displayed on the right. The artists want the viewers to question the relationship between text and image. 

Shary Boyle, "The Island of Animal Laughter," ink and gouache on paper

 The illustrative nature of the paintings creates a tension with their dark and violent content. Vibrant, almost rainbow-colored scenes depict children dancing in the forest as massive explosions occur right behind them. Another painting displays rainbow colored liquids spilling from holes in a girl’s body. A continuing narrative in the poems between a boy and a girl named Peg-Leg and Bloody defies expectations of a love story when the two characters become disgusted by each other. The images resemble illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages but their content is much more surreal and almost political. One painting is titled “Soldiers Aren’t Afraid of Blood” and shows an explosion of blood and female body parts, creating a surreal child-like image of war. Overall, the exhibit is both beautiful and disturbing and gave me a new sense of respect for poetry, which usually tends to bore me. The project I am currently working on strives for the same balance of naïve imagery with dark content.

Shary Boyle, "Soldiers Aren't Afraid of Blood," 2005, ink and gouache on paper