Can someone try to find any grammatical errors I might have made. Also, if there is any vocabulary or structural criticisms to offer, please do so. It's my first "essay" in that class, so I want to hit the ground running. Here is the paper:
The deterministic nature of American character resonates throughout the portrait. At first glance, the portrait seems relatively standard among its colonial predecessors. But upon further examination, one notices the stronger colors, rather meticulous detailing, and general improvement among previous colonial portraiture. For example, Catherina Elmendorf's ribbon-trimmed lace cap shows prodigious advances from early, less 3-dimensional Dutch portraits. Additionally, the artist enriched her double-strand pear necklace by including a slightly larger pearl in the middle, a common arrangement in Dutch jewelry. Now, one might question the reason for colonial portraitists to keep making art. After all, at that time colonial portraiture was just becoming a vehicle for colonists to make a living. Even so, the money that could be made was not significant. But, colonial artists found large incentive in their determination, and so this enticed them to make portraiture a large part of colonial culture.
This portrait is a product of a pioneer or colonial society for two reasons. Firstly, the work of art attempts to display wealth. It was commonplace for a colonial family to have portraits done of its members displaying success in some way. This is done effectively in Catherina Elmendorf due to the expensive flowers and vase. Secondly, the portrait depicts a young girl, which reflects highly upon the young and developing colonies. At the time of the portraits conception, it had only been roughly 300 years since the first European colonization. Thus, the New World still acted as a child would to its motherland, Europe, or more generally, England.
The American themes of opportunity and success are represented in the work. As for opportunity, one notices Catherina's left hand is cupped upward in the codified gesture of receiving a friend or a gift. This is a metaphor that represents the colonists receiving the "gift" of land, which was to become the New World, a new and fertile region that held many opportunities. One also notices the blue, white footed and two-handled cup on the table beside her is filled with parrot tulips, carnations, and roses, exotic flowers in a special vase testifying to her family's prosperity and success in America. This shows that a colonist could make use of his or her opportunities and become wealthy, a perennial axiom in the American dream.
And so, in accordance with the aspects of colonial portraiture that have been mentioned, portraiture became a large part of colonial culture and a vehicle to exhibit Americanism.
The deterministic nature of American character resonates throughout the portrait. At first glance, the portrait seems relatively standard among its colonial predecessors. But upon further examination, one notices the stronger colors, rather meticulous detailing, and general improvement among previous colonial portraiture. For example, Catherina Elmendorf's ribbon-trimmed lace cap shows prodigious advances from early, less 3-dimensional Dutch portraits. Additionally, the artist enriched her double-strand pear necklace by including a slightly larger pearl in the middle, a common arrangement in Dutch jewelry. Now, one might question the reason for colonial portraitists to keep making art. After all, at that time colonial portraiture was just becoming a vehicle for colonists to make a living. Even so, the money that could be made was not significant. But, colonial artists found large incentive in their determination, and so this enticed them to make portraiture a large part of colonial culture.
This portrait is a product of a pioneer or colonial society for two reasons. Firstly, the work of art attempts to display wealth. It was commonplace for a colonial family to have portraits done of its members displaying success in some way. This is done effectively in Catherina Elmendorf due to the expensive flowers and vase. Secondly, the portrait depicts a young girl, which reflects highly upon the young and developing colonies. At the time of the portraits conception, it had only been roughly 300 years since the first European colonization. Thus, the New World still acted as a child would to its motherland, Europe, or more generally, England.
The American themes of opportunity and success are represented in the work. As for opportunity, one notices Catherina's left hand is cupped upward in the codified gesture of receiving a friend or a gift. This is a metaphor that represents the colonists receiving the "gift" of land, which was to become the New World, a new and fertile region that held many opportunities. One also notices the blue, white footed and two-handled cup on the table beside her is filled with parrot tulips, carnations, and roses, exotic flowers in a special vase testifying to her family's prosperity and success in America. This shows that a colonist could make use of his or her opportunities and become wealthy, a perennial axiom in the American dream.
And so, in accordance with the aspects of colonial portraiture that have been mentioned, portraiture became a large part of colonial culture and a vehicle to exhibit Americanism.