Student Essay for CWR 209 / ART 223 / COM 240 / GSS 277 Along the Edge: Leonora Carrington
Crow Soup is a color lithograph completed by artist\nLeonora Carrington in 1997. The artwork provides the viewer with a mythological\nscene in which one lacks the ability to discern any concrete judgement as to\nwhere they have been placed in time, setting, or space. This disorientation of\noneself as the viewer in Carrington’s pieces is typical, denoting her fondness and\nattraction towards the world of Surrealist art.
\n\nCrow Soup varies from other works of Carrington such\nas Bird Bath and Crookhey Hall in that Crow\nSoup possesses a muted, pastel color palette. Such coloration muting is\nutilized throughout the piece to contrast the sky in the background - which\nappears in muted, streaked shades of green and pink, with the darkened,\nscribbled figures presented in the foreground. Aside from the sky, the only\ncolor to appear in the piece is yellow, which has been used to highlight the figures’\neyes as well as a glowing yellow orb which rests in a crown-like shape sitting\natop the head of a figure in the right-hand side of the work.
\n\nThe highlighting of\neyes as yellow in Crow Soup prompts the viewer to question why Carrington chose\nthis coloration. One potential explanation was Carrington’s fascination with\nthe distortion of the human figure and the ‘animal’ as ‘human’. This is especially\nprevalent in Carrington’s love for cats- an animal that is often presented in\nher artwork with green or yellow eyes and the presence of a feline figure in\nthe bottom right-hand corner of the piece. By giving all figures yellow eyes,\nCarrington continues to push the boundaries as to what it means to be human but\ndepicting animal-like and human-like figures with similar physical traits.
\n\nThe Carrington-esque\ntheme of ‘doubling’ is also readily apparent to viewers of Crow Soup. Starting in the middle, left-hand side of the artwork,\nthe viewer can make out two cow-like figures: one cow in the foreground and a\nmore faded cow in the midground. As the viewer moves their eyes across the\nartwork from left to right, the viewer will see additional doubling in the whale-\nlike figures: one that appears to be in a pool in the mid-ground and an\nadditional whale that appears to be levitating in the sky above. The doubling\nof the human form is presented with the witch-like figure in the right-hand\nmidground and the half-sketched human-figure in the right-hand background.
\n\nCrow Soup serves to highlight Carrington’s fascination\nwith what it means to be human and what it means to be contextualized in a\nphysical space, emphasized by the creation of a space that is dystopian,\nspatially confusing, and ultimately freeing, allowing her viewer to partake in\na surreal self-contemplation.
Vail Linn, Princeton Class of 2021
\n\n","remarks":"CWR 209 / ART 223 / COM 240 / GSS 277 Along the Edge: Leonora Carrington"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Course Content","textentryhtml":"\n\nExquisite Corpse #3\ninspired by “Crow Soup”
\n\n25 September 2019
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a cloud like sour milk
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a whale like a dog
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claws like a menacing\ntiger
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a pipe like a finger
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a hardening like stale\nbirthday cake
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a pale child like a\ndrowned man
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a pool of water like melted\nstone
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a shadow lingering\nlike smoke
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an arch like\noutstretched arms
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an orb like the waxing\nmoon
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a fountain like\nflailing arms
\n\n","remarks":"CWR 209/ART223. Fall 2019. Jhumpa Lahiri"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"[Possibly Brewster Arts Ltd, New York, NY]. Purchased by 1999 by David L. Meginnity, Class of 1958; given to Princeton University Art Museum in 1999.","remarks":null}],"media":[{"id":78595,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/INV09409","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":"Restricted","caption":"Inventory Project"},{"id":594,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/1999-47_GS","isprimary":0,"rank":10,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":"Restricted","caption":"Luna Digitization Project"}],"hasimage":"true","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1999,\" Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 59, no. 1/2 (2000): p. 70-101.","citation":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1999,\" Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 59, no. 1/2 (2000): p. 70-101., pp. 75–76 (illus.)","date":2000,"id":3036,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774806"}],"exhibitions":[],"geography":[{"displaygeography":"Place made: North America, Mexico","code":"Place made","continent":"North America","subcontinent":null,"country":"Mexico","region":null,"state":null,"city":null,"county":null,"subregion":null,"locale":null,"locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":"https://www.geonames.org/3996063/mexico.html","location":{"lat":"","lon":""}}],"terms":[{"id":2055657,"term":"figures (representations)","aatid":300189808,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2038506,"term":"Mexican","aatid":300107963,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2054256,"term":"prints","aatid":300041273,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2135524,"term":"rituals (events)","aatid":300065284,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2188534,"term":"whales","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2188580,"term":"creatures","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2045312,"term":"skull (skeleton component)","aatid":300191856,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2092228,"term":"witches","aatid":300252827,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2031586,"term":"British","aatid":300111159,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2103922,"term":"cows","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2171752,"term":"crows","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2127397,"term":"lions","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2054605,"term":"color lithographs","aatid":300041383,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2043813,"term":"paper (fiber product)","aatid":300014109,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2155017,"term":"color lithography","aatid":300190525,"termtype":"Techniques"}],"classifications":[{"id":2054605,"classification":"color lithographs"},{"id":2054256,"classification":"prints"}],"cultures":[],"cultureterms":[{"id":2038506,"culture":"Mexican"},{"id":2031586,"culture":"British"}],"periods":[],"periodterms":[],"attribute_groups":[{"id":2199323,"term":"Latin American Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199324,"term":"Art Since 1945","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199327,"term":"Prints and Drawings","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"sheet","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"81.00"},{"element":"sheet","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"60.80"},{"element":"image","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"61.20"},{"element":"image","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"47.00"}],"packages":[{"packageid":182980,"name":"x-COMPLETE-P&D_British_prints"},{"packageid":173647,"name":"web_carrington_2019-10"},{"packageid":175567,"name":"Web_All-Latin-American-Art_11_2018"},{"packageid":176251,"name":"web_2019_carrington"},{"packageid":196701,"name":"MoCo-Surrealism"}],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/INV09409"],"displaymaker":"Leonora Carrington, 1917–2011; born Clayton Green, England; died Mexico City, Mexico; active Mexico City","displayculture":null,"displayperiod":null,"caption":"Leonora Carrington (1917–2011; born Clayton Green, England; died Mexico City, Mexico; active Mexico City), Crow Soup, 1997. Color lithograph; 47 x 61.2 cm (image), 60.8 x 81 cm (sheet). Gift of David L. Meginnity, Class of 1958 (1999-47)","captionhtml":"Leonora Carrington (1917–2011; born Clayton Green, England; died Mexico City, Mexico; active Mexico City), Crow Soup, 1997. Color lithograph; 47 x 61.2 cm (image), 60.8 x 81 cm (sheet). Gift of David L. Meginnity, Class of 1958 (1999-47)","published_date":"2026-03-31 02:24:57.938931","campusart":[{"campuscollections":"false","campusart":0,"neighborhood":null,"lat":null,"lon":null}],"extended_content":true}