Iceberg Blues Visual Analysis

This essay provides an analysis of Edmund Alleyn’s portrait created in 1975 called Iceberg Blues (fig. 1.) on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the Expanding Fields Exhibition. It also includes comparisons to other works by Jean Paul Lemieux and Jean Phillippe Dallaire that are images of city people. I will be comparing some of the same techniques that are being used among these talented Quebec artists.

Edmund Alleyn was a very popular Quebec artist who was inspired by his life in Montreal and this definitely shows in his artwork. The Iceberg Blues (fig 1.) portrait that is on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a very engaging painting of people who are depicted as having just spent the day at the popular amusement

2), it has been created with the same materials as the previous work of art in which I discussed however it measures 244 x 244 cm. In this work of art, we are able to see two females standing still and facing towards the sunset as two older men are on opposite sides of them facing towards us. It seems as though this image depicts individuals who have just finished their workday based on the way in which they are dressed. It is evident that he puts forth some of the same techniques used in Iceberg Blues (Fig. 1) such as the images containing city people and the sunset landscape. Also, the individuals in this painting are not communicating with each other or making any eye contact perhaps because they also have different beliefs and cannot relate to one another. This piece also effectively compares with the works of Jean Paul Lemieux and Dallaire as they all depict city people in their

4) is of a man and a woman in what we can gather is the kitchen. We are able to see by their clothing and his hat that this portrait takes place in the 1940s. We are unable to see the face of the woman, which gives this portrait a feeling of a lack of communication among the people just as the previous works of art that I have discussed. The room gives off a dark and eerie vibe because the dark shadows on the wall. The man has a knife in his hand and has a very strange facial expression as though he is thinking about something very important. All of these elements make us not feel at ease with this portrait. Again, we can see that these individuals are facing toward us and they are not shown doing any type of movement or communication just as the other paintings by Alleyn and Lemieux. This work is also similar with the work of Alleyn and Lemieux because his work contains images of city people.

In Conclusion, Alleyn seems very interested in depicting people who are from the city and so did many other artists as well. They all used interesting techniques to spark the interest of viewers and they used common landscapes in which people can relate to. The individuals were standing still in the paintings and not communicating with each