John Wallace painted the Angel Choir in the South Solon Meeting House gallery in 1954. While a student at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1953, Henry Varnum Poor invited him to come back the following summer to paint angels in the gallery of the SSMH (“50th anniversary” 6). Wallace, who had only painted another fresco during his first year at Skowhegan, was coached by Poor and Ben Shahn and received assistance from an Italian plastered and from one of Willard Cummings’s daughters, who transferred his designs to the wall (“50th anniversary” 7–8).
Wallace’s fresco spans the entire back wall of the gallery, divided into two panels by a central window. A total of twelve angels, split into two groups of six, hold musical instruments and fly in celebration. Because, as he joked, Wallace had never seen an angel before, he modeled his figures after some of his classmates at the Skowhegan School (“50th anniversary” 8).
On the panel to the left of the window, five angels are placed on the same plane and face toward the right. The sixth angel, on the leftmost side of the left panel, turns their back to the viewer and plays the cymbals. On the other panel, the three angels closest to the window form a small group and face toward the right. The other three angels on the far left break from the nine previous angels’ plane and direction. They have more movement and look as though they have been caught in mid-flight. They dance around one another, forming a circle. Two of the angels float toward the top of the panel and face the viewer, while the last angel is positioned with their back turned to the viewer, down where the gallery’s staircase begins.
Wallace explained that:
“The composition is a rather simple one, several groupings of figures in each panel, trying for balance of some sort, yet attempting to bridge across the window space so that the two sides would work as a unit rather become separated by the window . . . The two panels were painted from left to right, following the motion of the figures, until the center of the right panel was reached. Then movement was topped, with several figures opposing the over-all action.” (Qtd. in Cummings 48)
Once he had finished working on the angels, Wallace realized that the gallery being a dark space his fresco needed a lighter background (“50th anniversary 8) so he painted a secco a white background that reflects natural light and brightens up the gallery.
The Meeting House’s gallery as the site for Wallace’s angels is fitting. Traditionally, the purpose of such a space was a choir loft. Subsequently, many artists have decorated choir lofts with images of musicians, as did Luca della Robbia in the Cantoria he carved in marble for Florence’s cathedral. On the side panels, we see a series of cherubic children playing instruments and singing their praise to God.
Wallace also followed the iconographic tradition of musician angels, as can be seen in Fra Angelico’s famous paintings from the early 15th century, with angels dressed in a variety of colors and each playing a different instrument.
Fra Angelico, Musician Angels from the Tabernacle of the Linaioli, 1432–33. Tempera on panel. Museo di San Marco, Florence (photos: Wikimedia Commons).
The choice of subject matter was determined before Wallace was involved in the project. Henry Poor had decided to follow the artistic tradition and instructed Wallace to paint an angel choir. Despite the fact that, as mentioned earlier, Wallace had very limited experience painting in fresco, agreed to paint the subject matter chosen by Poor. He later confessed that he didn’t sign the fresco and that he “had wanted to tear it down and do . . . the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (“50th Anniversary” 17).
Wallace’s fresco is painted with angular and visible brushstrokes. All of the angels’ elbows, feet, and tips of their wings end in sharp points, and even the fabric of the angels’ clothes has angular folds. The angels are very dynamic, caught in mid-flight and their musical performance. The viewer can imagine the music coming from their instruments and the sound of their wings flapping. While full of energy, the figures lack volume as they are painted with flat areas of color and without shading for modeling. An element of depth is nevertheless introduced by the positioning of some angels in front of others.
At the time Wallace painted this panel, Abstract Expressionism was still the leading style in the United States. This avant-garde movement, which had originated after the Second World War, was an attempt at rejecting the conventional structures and techniques of art, with artists instead seeking to tap into their “individual psyches” and their “universal inner sources” (Paul). This was done through the use of dynamic brushstrokes and bright color fields. Wallace’s desire to paint spontaneously, without pouncing, along with his expressive and visible brushstrokes betray the impact of Abstract Expressionism. Although figurative, Wallace’s fresco is a fresh, modern approach to traditional themes such as musician angels and the decoration of choir lofts.
—Mina Ekstrom
- “50th Anniversary of the Fresco Project.” Typescript. South Solon Historical Society Collection, Special Collections & Archives, Colby College Libraries.
- Cummings, Mildred H. South Solon: The Story of a Meeting House. South Solon, Maine: South
- Solon Historical Society, 1959.
- Paul, Stella. “Abstract Expressionism,” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.