All of the participants in our Get Closer photography contest displayed a true passion for art when they made the effort to capture a detail in a work from our collections and describe why they found that detail compelling. The hundreds of entries comprise a treasure trove of intriguing images and thoughtful writing.
We are delighted to announce the winners of our contest! See all five winning entries in Now at the Met.
Garshin is more than just a beautifully rendered head. In this painting I feel like I am seeing the whole story of a man’s life depicted in the eyes alone. When I first saw Garshin, I immediately did some research to discover who he was in real life. I learned he was an idealistic author who lived during the Russian revolution, and he committed suicide at a young age. I only know Garshin from a portrait, but I was not surprised to learn that his real life personal anguish was so similar to the sadness I had already seen in his face.
What I liked about this detail is the simplicity, and the effect it had on the whole painting. It is easy to miss this beautiful detail, but once I have noticed it, it was captivating. Small and simple detail, bright brush strokes in a very gloomy and beautiful painting. This detail is the exclamation point of the painting.
The positioning of the figures in Edouard Vouillard’s painting, Jos and Lucie Hessel in the Small Salon, represents the common need for isolation, even in a relationship. The vague face in the portrait is overlooked by the quick movement of lines and vibrant color that moves the eye through the whole work.
These tiny Greek terracotta figurines are just a few inches high, and are easy to miss, tucked in with the Greek pottery. Despite being thousands of years old, the faces strike me as extremely modern. They show us that while we’re separated by millennia from the people who carved them, we are still the same people today.
