April Showers

A Grieving Women
In the meaningful painting “April Showers” Abraham Rattner portrays a women going through the stages of grief. With the deep cool blue tones, the many emotions of the women’s faces, and the small pops of orange and yellows in the flower bouquet, you get the sense that death has just passed. The many faces of the mourning women suggest she is going through the stages of grief. Some faces of the women are very depressed with deep frowns and sorrowful eyes while other faces are brighter with much happier features and almost appear to be smiling. This can be interpreted by the gloomy faces to represent denial, isolation, bargaining, and depression, while the contrasting faces in the middle with the more content faces representing acceptance. Another key point in this piece is that it is composed of mostly deep dark blues, purples, and black. This shows that all things around the women things seem dark and dreary. Wherever the women goes it is raining and discouraging outside, maybe to symbolize she cannot get away from her grief. The last key point in this piece if the flowers. The flowers are the one thing in this piece that is not dark, the flowers have warm tones and are reflecting light onto the women face. The flowers represent some light and some positive emotions even in the dark surroundings the women is incased in. The theme Rattner is displaying in this piece is that once one can overcome the sorrow of dark times, a light can be found. This is shown through the many emotions and faces of a grieving women surrounded by cheerless colors and moods. The women goes through hard times but ultimately finds a light in the situation with a light warm vibrant bouquet of flowers.