NO. 58 OF 61
La mère
Ismael Saincilus (1940–2000)
$1,700
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 16 × 24 in
- Year
- 1985
- Price
- $1,700
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About the work
Hands joined in prayer, a woman stands with two small children at her shoulders. Ismael Saincilus’s religious paintings often join Christian and Vodou imagery with detail reminiscent of Byzantine icons. Here, the close grouping gives the eye a place to rest. Each presence belongs to the same quiet moment, holding our attention through the closeness of the grouping and the stillness of the gesture.
A dark-blue robe and veil sit beneath a gold halo, with white clothing and smaller halos beside them. Flowers and yellow, red and green bands pattern teal ground within a wide gold border of repeated symbols.
About the artist
Ismael Saincilus, also listed as Saincilus Ismael, was born in Petite-Rivière-de-l'Artibonite, Haiti, on 24 April 1940. He began to paint in 1956 after visiting the Centre d'Art and the Foyer des Arts Plastiques in Port-au-Prince. In 1967 he led a group of artists commissioned to paint the community hall of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles, and he later directed the hospital's ceramics center. The Haitian Art Society regards him as the originator of the Artibonite style. He painted peasant life and religious scenes that combined Christianity and Vodou, in fine geometric detail. He died suddenly in February 2000.