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Love's Melancholy
Constant Mayer (American, born France, 1832–1911)
1866
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 51.4 × 35.6 cm (20 1/4 × 14 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Herbert A. Vance
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Constant Mayer specialized in sentimental scenes of everyday life yet he also displayed a fidelity to nature that harmonized with the detailed landscapes painted by contemporary artists known as the Pre-Raphaelites. The young woman’s black dress, solemn disposition, and wedding ring signal a state of mourning. A church steeple in the background symbolizes her faith and purity, while the vegetation and stonework in the foreground suggest that she stands near her loved one’s grave. The golden lighting, low vantage point, and the figure’s windblown hair contribute to the air of introspection. Executed just after the Civil War, Love’s Melancholy resonated with the American public, who likely came to know the painting through a color reproduction that was produced and distributed by 1869.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
