Rivals in Love
Soulen, Henry James, American illustrator, 1888-1965
oil on canvas
Gayle and Alene Hoskins Endowment Fund, 2005

Soulen’s illustration Rivals in Love depicts the adversaries Valentine and Proteus competing for the beautiful Sylvia’s favors from Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Two Gentlemen of Verona. This painting is typical of Soulen’s best work in its application of intense colors in impressionistic broken brush-strokes. In the 1920s Soulen’s color palette became more intense and brilliant after viewing an exhibition of the work of the Russian painter and stage designer Leon Bakst. Soulen’s exploration of color led him to make thousands of color notes juxtaposing tints in varying degrees of saturation to serve as his color reference.