NOTE: An updated version of this essay is available in Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. More here.
A favorite artwork can provide you with enjoyment and inspiration, help you recall important events of the past, and help you project a course into the future. Get even more enjoyment from a work of art you love by approaching it with an active mind: studying its details and asking questions about its meaning. This essay illustrates that process for Henry Kirke Brown’s George Washington and Anna Hyatt Huntington’s Cid, and then explains how to judge these and other works re content, style, and the emotional reaction they evoke.
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