KRS                                                                 James Cline

The Martyrdom of the Harpist began as a pencil which can be seen in the Pencil Gallery at this site and has been a very long time in coming. It began as a rough back in 1982 and due to numerous technical/compositional problems, was not actually resolved into final architectural form until 1994. But that was only part of the trip. It has always been intended to be an oil of large size. So now in 2008 James finally feels confident enough to tackle this complex composition in its final color state. Talk about a substantial gestation period!

Martyrdom of the Harpist   40”x 51.5”

2008

Detail, The Harpist

finishing touches not shown

Figures Detail,  floor finished

Giclee on canvass

$2,200

Floor and chandelier details in complete state. Chandelier borrowed from Jan Van Eyck’s masterpiece Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride.

On the right is the first full size rough after the separate pencil studies were worked out. The individual characters were drawn on tracing paper so they could be moved around and overlaid  into position. Note at this time the chandelier hung vertically resulting in a more static composition. The kneeling character with the conical hat was at one time meant to push the mass of visual weight on the floor to the right but was eliminated, and finally the crumpled rug took care of this problem instead. Even so, the composition was fairly complete around 1982.