The Garden Seat

The Garden Seat was painted circa 1915, after Richard E. Miller's summer stay in Giverny, France where he was working with other members of the Giverny Group. "In Giverny Miller painted women in gardens or rooms open to the garden, singly and in pairs, often seated at small tea-tables." (M.L. Kane, A Bright Oasis, New York, 1997, p. 30) The Garden Seat is a wonderful example of this theme. The woman sits with grace and dignity in a wicker chair. Dappled sunlight fills the composition and the parasol shades the left side of her face. "A frequent prop that is used in the Giverny Group paintings is the Japanese parasol, whose decorative properties--circular shape, ribbed structure, colorful surface design--were exploited by Miller (and Frieseke) in particular." (M. L. Kane, A Bright Oasis New York, 1997, p. 36)

Miller often executed these paintings with a brilliant palette, playing with light and color to create a variety of shades and values in the paintings. Miller would continue to develop this colorist sensibility and would use a fresh spring green in many of his paintings. The palette of The Garden Seat is full of beautiful pastel colors which have been intertwined with this bright spring green. Miller also varied his brush strokes to give interest to the surface of The Garden Seat, using dry, small flickering strokes, as well as broad strokes throughout the composition. The Garden Seat exemplifies Miller's more mature painting style with it's bold color scheme, and textured brush strokes.