Congratulations on receiving the Art History/Museum Studies Scholarship for Spring 2026 and best wishes ongoing to: Emma Harrison, a Senior at Mount Holyoke College majoring in Art History and minoring in French, and Music.
“After graduating from Mount Holyoke this coming year, I intend on pursuing a Master’s degree in Art History to become a museum curator. I am interested in writing my dissertation on the modernism of music and art and how the two artforms influenced each other in the 20th century, studying artists including Wassily Kandinsky and Franciszek Kupka and composers including Richard Wagner and Igor Stravinsky. I will investigate the best method for curating sound and music-based exhibits and potentially propose a new method myself. “
Winning ESSAY: Compare and contrast the 2 paintings below:
Emma’s Essay:
Throughout western art, depictions of bodies of water are frequently imbued with societal connotations that transform a seemingly simple form of nature into a commentary on human social interactions with the natural world. Seen in Winslow Homer’s sublime depictions of a turbulent ocean and in Vanessa Bell’s melancholic and modernist representation of Studland Beach, a body of water is not just water, but a symbol of nature manipulated by mankind. Watercolor painters Eileen Monaghan Whitaker and Frederic Whitaker participate in the waterscape tradition and create different narratives through their representation of water. In The Inlet, the Cove (Inlet), Monaghan Whitaker manipulates the translucent qualities of watercolor paint by using dry brush techniques to depict the luminosity of natural sunlight shimmering against the cove’s clear, teal water, creating an idyllic atmosphere for leisure. By contrast, in Day is Done, Norwalk River (Day is Done), Whitaker uses wet-on-wet watercolor technique to impose the shadows of a dramatic sunset onto the water of a working fishing community at the end of a work day.
Inlet depicts a sunny summer’s day spent relaxing on the shore and sailing for leisure on a cove in New England. The sandy beach outlined by groupings of differently sized rocks dominates the foreground with a flat, calm body of water in the background. Though there are no figural representations of human life, the variously placed boats with their sails at high mast indicate the interaction of humans on single-masted sloops: a type of sailboat used for recreational sailing rather than for work. The water is still with minimal waves, as depicted by drybrush technique strokes. A tall leafy tree stands on the beach and casts a shadow on the sand below as an invitation for beach goers to rest in the shade after sailing under the bright sun. The white highlights on the rocks, sand, and water combine with the blue-green color palette of the water and sky to produce a welcoming environment of ease and relaxation.
Rather than a spot for vacation and leisure, the body of water depicted in Day is Done belongs to a fishing community. The shore of Norwalk River is barely visible and functions only as a space to launch boats into the water, whereas the beach in Inlet is inviting with lots of lounging space, the shore on Norwalk River. While the sailboats in Monaghan Whitaker’s painting are vehicles for recreational sailing, the sailboats featured in Whitaker’s painting Day is Done are vehicles for commercial fishing. The largest boat of the composition, located in the lefthand corner of the foreground, features emptied fishing nets hanging to dry and other fishing supplies. The hull of the boat deep in the water signals the success of the catches of the day weighing the boat down. Similar to Inlet, there are no literal representations of humans, yet there is a sense of recent human interaction with the water that came to a close just moments ago. The seven dinghies anchored to the shore in the foreground symbolize the journey recently made by fishermen returning to shore from the larger working boats in the middle ground. Their haphazard placement signifies a longing to go home after the end of the workday. The day grows dark, and a sunset of pinks, dark purples, and blues evokes the ambiance of a workday coming to a close. The intensity of blue-gray shadows of the boats on the water through the utilization of wet-on-wet watercolor technique contributes to the painting’s overall sense of melancholy.
Monaghan Whitaker’s angular brushstrokes contribute to the crisp air felt when viewing Inlet, whereas Whitaker’s soft brushstrokes in Day is Done convey the hazy quality of dusk. The air of an easy day of relaxation spent on daysailers in Inlet is exchanged for an industrial sense of accomplishment following a long day of labor spent on working boats. While the types of boats are different, each boat represents a point of human contact and a different type of interaction with water. The Whitakers thus remark the range of associations humans hold with bodies of water, ranging from a place of relaxation to a place of work and nourishment. Though painted about thirty years apart, we can imagine the two paintings in conversation with one another, as if a tourist to New England boards a sailboat on the inlet, sails around the corner, and docks on the Norwalk River for the night, watching as the working fishermen anchor their boats for the night.
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