War News From Mexico By Richard Caton Woodsville

Although one of the first few paintings displayed, Richard Caton Woodville’s oil on canvas War News from Mexico (1848) captured my attention. His painting captures a group of people gathered around one gentleman who is reading the newspaper on the porch of a hotel. All the people have some expression on their face of what appears to be shock, disbelief, or even wonder. Woodsville use of vertical and horizontal lines brings shape to the hotel, its pillars, the porch and the steps leading up to the porch. Woodsville’s color pallet is mostly darker in color, greys, blacks, browns, while using a touch of white and red to accent key features of his painting.
At first glance of the painting, my eyes were drawn to the white newspaper, centered to