American Art Collaborative

Intimate in scale and private in mood, the watercolor Sleep combines realistic representation with decorative arrangement. The artist’s wife, Margaret Mason Perry, is shown reclining in a shallow, interior space, her limp arms and gracefully turned head suggesting complete repose. Repeated patterns and soft washes of color connect the figure with the surrounding space. Images of enclosed spaces inhabited by artfully posed female figures were popular during the late nineteenth century. Contemporary notions of gender situated men in the realms of industry, business, and physical activity, while women inhabited the private world of imagination and self-reflection. For many of the artists represented in this gallery, the female realm was analogous with the subjective world of aesthetic appreciation and creativity.