"The Search for Light" octagonal, from the mural series "The Building of the House of Wisdom," Charlton Yarnall House

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Object Details

Title:

Date:

1910–11

Artist:

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

29 x 29 1/8 in

Classification

Murals

Credit Line:

Gift of the Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross, 1963

Description

Arching over the lunette Man and Science were three octagonal panels celebrating the technological innovations that were shaping the new century, Communion throughout Space, The Search for Light, and Aviation.In The Search for Light, a scientist leans into his book, like the Prophet Daniel in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. The glowing cathode tube on the table suggests that he may be English scientist Michael Faraday trying to understand the invisible source of light.

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The Violet Oakley Experience is funded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
For her expertise and scholarship on The Violet Oakley Experience, Woodmere thanks Patricia Likos Ricci. The foremost authority on Oakley, she is the Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Associate Professor of the History of Art, and a member of the Women and Gender Studies faculty at Elizabethtown College.
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