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Song of the Siren

John La Farge American
ca. 1883–84
Not on view
Throughout his career, La Farge used watercolor in preparation for creating stained glass windows and mural compositions and as independent works of art. La Farge moved easily between mediums, often translating his preparatory watercolors into independent compositions for exhibition. Song of the Siren, a mythological composition depicting a shepherd lured by a siren’s song, is a replica of an illustration that he had made in the early 1870s, which appeared first as the frontispiece for Abby Sage Richardson’s Songs from the Old Dramatists (1873). Song of the Siren displays the artist’s interest in Japanese design with its compressed, flat composition organized around the sweeping diagonal between earth and water and his technical skill as a watercolorist, evident in the subtle modulation of tones and delicate control in rendering form and shadow.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Song of the Siren
  • Artist: John La Farge (American, New York 1835–1910 Providence, Rhode Island)
  • Date: ca. 1883–84
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Watercolor and gouache on paper
  • Dimensions: 9 × 5 in. (22.9 × 12.7 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020
  • Object Number: 2021.14.41
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Three Saints (Alternate Study for Chapel Windows, Caldwell House, Newport), John La Farge American, Watercolor and gouache on white wove paper mounted on gray pulpboard, with cut-out "mat" of off-white laid paper, American
Three Saints (Alternate Study for Chapel Windows, Caldwell House, Newport)
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Scribner's Monthly Illustrated Magazine Midwinter Number: February 1881
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The Wise Men out of the East, John La Farge American, Wood engraving
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