(gentle music)
- [Steven] We're in the Art Institute of Chicago.
We're looking at a painting that is actually part
of the Terra Foundation for American Arts collection.
It was painted by Willard Metcalf in 1902,
and it's called Havana Harbor, and it's beautiful.
It's a place I want to go.
- [Katherine] And you've hit on the exact thing
that Metcalf is trying to convey.
We're looking at something exotic
and peaceful and beautiful.
He wants to engage the viewer
and make us think that this is where we want to go.
- [Steven] We're overlooking the Port of Havana,
but a port that is surrounded by this lush vegetation.
You can feel the warmth of the sun
and the cool breeze that blows through.
- [Katherine] Metcalf is using some of what he has learned
from Impressionism by trying to convey the brushiness
of these different plants,
but he is also carefully portraying for us
what he is seeing when he's in Havana,
so those are palm trees.
This is a little bit exotic, but of course,
a beautiful sunny day.
Everything is calm and peaceful.
- [Steven] And those rich colors were intended
to be vivid reminder of the tropics
for a very different context.
This is a painting that was intended to be seen
in New York City.
- [Katherine] Willard Metcalf is commissioned
by Stanford White, an architect friend of his.
Stanford White is hired to design the interior
of Havana Tobacco Company Store in New York City.
So Willard Metcalf is commissioned to go to Cuba
for a few weeks in early 1902 and make these paintings.
- [Steven] This store interior is not to be underestimated.
It was described as one of the most luxurious stores
ever created.
It had beautiful white columns, paintings, palms.
It was meant to recreate a luxurious vision of the tropics.
- [Katherine] Stanford White knew what he was doing.
He uses mostly white marble with these columns and the floor
but then puts real potted palms into the store,
has Willard Metcalf work on these really
brightly colored paintings.
The idea is that buying a cigar in this store
is like as if you could go to Havana
through this one act of entering into the store.
- [Steven] But it's important not to forget
the historical context in which this painting was produced.
It was made in 1902 in Havana.
1902 was the year that the island was turned over
from the United States to Cuba itself.
It was first moment in centuries
that the island had been independent.
- [Katherine] It's true that there is troubled history here,
and Metcalf is not indicating that at all,
but we cannot forget that 1902 date,
because just four years earlier,
it's the US military that takes over control of Cuba
from the Spanish government,
and it's only a few months after Metcalf's visit
that the Cubans governed themselves independently.
- [Steven] Although, importantly, with American oversight.
The United States was not willing to cede total control.
As we look at this beautiful, lush painting,
with its Impressionist brushwork
that so softly renders this tropical paradise,
it's so easy to forget that in the years
before this painting was made,
Cuba had suffered terribly under the Spanish.
An enormous percentage of the island's rural population
had been placed into what were essentially
concentration camps,
and hundreds of thousands of people perished.
- [Katherine] And even under US rule,
the island is not without diseases, economic difficulties.
We're not getting that in Metcalf's image.
And of course, anyone wanting to buy a cigar
in New York City would not want to be reminded of that.
But here's Metcalf giving us a view overlooking
something really peaceful,
but he still is distanced and up above
perhaps a kind of patriarchal overlooking,
without getting into any of the seamier sides of the city.
- [Steven] And so this is really interesting conflict,
because we have an image that is incredibly beautiful,
that is visually luscious,
and yet it's also erasing a very complicated history.
- [Katherine] And it's hard to know exactly
how much the people
going into the Havana Tobacco Company Store in New York
would know about all that history.
What they were interested in is purchasing very high-end,
hand-rolled tobacco from Cuba, but today,
looking at the exact moment when Metcalf is there,
we need to be understanding of that whole context.
- [Steven] The composition is so skillful in this painting.
My eye enters into the lower right.
It's caught by that brilliant red.
It slowly proceeds in and around the trunks of the palms
and then down to the buildings below.
- [Katherine] The red roofs of these quaint buildings,
even though some of them are larger structures,
catches our eye because of that
exotic red flowering bush in the foreground.
We have palms.
We have ferns.
It's actually a carefully constructed composition
with foreground, middle ground, background,
the curve of the harbor echoing those soft curving hills.
Even the palm trees seem to be moving in the wind.
Everything is designed to catch our eye
and help us to move around the painting.
So Metcalf is skillful at creating a composition
that looks almost casual
but is in fact carefully constructed.
- [Steven] And I love the way that he is able to imply
that tropical breeze.
Not only do we see its effect on the tall palms,
but if you look for instance at the colors
of the smaller palm in the foreground,
you can see the dark tops of the leaves,
and then it seems almost as if
the fronds have actually been blown over
so we can see the lighter undersides.
- [Katherine] That little puff of smoke
coming out of a chimney
seems to be pushing in the breeze.
There's a sailboat in the far distance.
Everything is designed to help you think
you are in fact there,
and you can feel also the warmth of the sun
and the soft breeze of this exotic city.
(gentle music)