The Dream of the Shulamite

This painting is based on Song of Songs 5:7: “The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the wall took away my veil from me.” The work is typical of R.H. Ives Gammell’s academic style. Although the narrative illustrates a Bible text, it also symbolically represents the artist’s concern that ideal beauty has been lost in the modern world. The desire to combine realistic subject matter and symbolic content was at the center of Gammell’s beliefs about art and imbued his approach to teaching.