Dorothea Tanning Guardian Angels

Guardian Angels

Guardian Angels (George L. Vivant Gallery) by Dorothea Tanning is an oil painting on canvas. It depicts a wing-like figure looming over a cloth covered landscape. Tanning chose a cool color scheme with just a hint of red at the bottom of the picture plane. The painting is abstract, we don’t know exactly what the wing-like figure is and female silhouettes can be seen infused into the figure. Through the use of detail and her color scheme Tanning successfully gives the appearance of an abstract dream world. The composition of the painting is vertical and the texture of the painting is smooth. From afar Tannings brush strokes are invisible. Only through close inspection of the fabric in the bottom left corner do we see her
Toward the bottom of the picture plane Tanning paints a bright red figure hidden behind wing like objects. The wings gradate from an almost white blue to a bright royal blue on the right wing and a soft red color on the left wing. Tanning plays with her space in this painting, the winged figure looks as if it’s pushing its way from mid-ground to foreground as it swoops over the small red figure at the bottom of the plane. Wrapped up in the winged figure are silhouettes of women. On the left center of the picture plane a woman’s body is clearly visible from the neck down. Above her you can see a pair of legs with pointed heels vertically sticking out the figure. At the bottom of the picture there are two small child-like legs laying on a bed hidden behind two wing-like forms. The back ground is covered in what appears to be a thin bed sheet and starting from the bottom center white beds recede into the right side of the painting. My eyes follow an oval shaped path when reading the painting. Starting at the bottom center of the picture plane my eyes then travel up the wing-shaped figure and female silhouettes. From there I follow the cloth covered background to the right side of the image. Then I look
Tanning places different objects in different planes to give the piece depth. We have the small beds that push away from the picture plane in the back ground. Followed by the larger bed the child is laying on in the mid ground and finally the winged created pushing its way into the fore-ground. Her choice to make the winged structure vertical like the pictures composition was a wise choice because it makes the image easy to read. Naturally your eyes go to the tip of the winged figure at the bottom of the picture plane then you follow it up. Tanning also establish a sense of scale with the small child laying on the large bed at the bottom of the picture plane. Then we see how larch the winged mass is in comparison to a person. There’s also a sense of balance in the image, on the left we have the detailed angelic figure but on the right we have the detailed fabric. Dorothea Tanning’s execution of color, space, composition and detail were all contributing factors to the success of this piece. The color successfully set the mood of the painting, making it cold and mysterious. Her use of space made us feel we were looking into a deep landscape with a winged figure threatening to cross past the picture plane. The composition of the piece flowed and is easy for any viewer to follow. Finally her use of detail gave the chilling effect of mixing fantasy with reality (through the use of the human form and a mundane