Details:

In this oil painting on a wedge-shaped panel, the artist has reinterpreted a section from "The Hunt of the Unicorn," which was produced at the end of the 15th century and is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Cloisters. Wrought-iron gates divide the painting's surface into segments, protecting images of a unicorn’s head, a lion-shaped fountain, and various foliage. Meanwhile, tree-filled landscapes adorn the angled sides of this artwork.
Unframed
Signed

① Artwork:

Untitled (Unicorn Tapestry # 4)

In this oil painting on a wedge-shaped panel, the artist has reinterpreted a section from The Hunt of the Unicorn, which was produced at the end of the 15th century and is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Cloisters. Wrought-iron gates divide the painting's surface into segments, protecting images of a unicorn’s head, a lion-shaped fountain, and various foliage. Meanwhile, tree-filled landscapes adorn the angled sides of this artwork.

This series of artworks finds the artist continuing to explore the inner world of The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Cloisters—a set of seven tapestries made of silk, wool, and metal yarns that were made in the Netherlands between 1495 and 1505. Painted on her signature wedge-shaped panels, Harrison approaches this “Unicorn Tapestry” series much like her plein-air paintings.

Both working in and subverting the tradition of plein-air landscape painting, Sarah Esme Harrison’s art asks us to interrogate who is looking and from what perspective. Packed with naturalist imagery, her paintings take the form of wedge-shaped panels, prompting viewers to move around them in an exploratory way.

Specs:

18 inches
24 inches
3.75 inches
24 inches

③ Artist:

Sarah Esme Harrison

Both working in and subverting the tradition of plein-air landscape painting, Sarah Esme Harrison’s artworks ask us to interrogate who is looking and from what perspective. Densely packed with naturalist imagery, her paintings take the form of wedge-shaped panels that prompt viewers to physically move around them in an exploratory way.

Sarah Esme Harrison was born in 1990 in New York City, NY, and lives and works between Brooklyn, NY, and Long Island, NY. She earned her MFA in Painting from The Yale School of Art in New Haven, CT (2017) and her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI (2013).

She has mounted solo exhibitions at Saint George Street in London, UK (2022); Nicelle Beauchene in New York City, NY (2021); and The Valley in Taos, NM (2021).

Harrison’s work has been featured in group exhibitions such as Greenwoods 2058, organized by Molly Zuckerman-Hartung and Fox Hysen, in Norfolk, CT (2022), Leave A Light On at The Valley in Taos, NM (2022), and Out of Hand at Gildar Gallery in Denver, CO (2018).

Sarah Esme Harrison:
Untitled (Unicorn Tapestry # 4), 2023
Oil on panel
24.0 × 18.0 inches /