Artist:
Peter Paone
(b. 1936)
Annunciation
Medium: Etching and aquatint on paper
Date: 1961
Dimensions:
25 3/4 x 19 in. (65.4 x 48.3 cm.)
Accession number: 2023.13.4
Curatorial RemarksPeter Paone (b. 1936) often created a pensive mood by portraying a figure emerging from deep shadows. Here, dramatic rays of light highlight the rather louche reclining Virgin Mary with her attendant. Instead of a dove—the traditional symbol of the Holy Spirit—a bat hovers over the scene. The angel Gabriel, usually portrayed as a paragon of purity and grace, appears as a more deranged magician mesmerizing the Virgin with his bony fingers.
Paone is an artist well known to the Brandywine for the exhibition Reality Reassembled: The Halloween Paintings of Peter Paone, which was presented at Brandywine in the fall of 2019. Paone has had a long and successful career working in the figurative tradition, not only in painting and drawing, but also in printmaking, a medium that he has excelled in since he began studying it as a student at John Bartram High School in Philadelphia. Paone established the print department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught until 2009. Paone’s prints demonstrate his strengths in multimedia and his lifelong approach to storytelling that resonate with viewers through their mysterious but often poignant or dark portrayal.
Paone is an artist well known to the Brandywine for the exhibition Reality Reassembled: The Halloween Paintings of Peter Paone, which was presented at Brandywine in the fall of 2019. Paone has had a long and successful career working in the figurative tradition, not only in painting and drawing, but also in printmaking, a medium that he has excelled in since he began studying it as a student at John Bartram High School in Philadelphia. Paone established the print department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught until 2009. Paone’s prints demonstrate his strengths in multimedia and his lifelong approach to storytelling that resonate with viewers through their mysterious but often poignant or dark portrayal.