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Nolan Vail
ENGL 2050
Dr. Palmer
10 October 2016

The Babysitter,. Bo Bartlett, 2001

Date of Visit: 29 September 2016

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Nolan Vail
ENGL 2050
Dr. Palmer
10 October 2016
Bo Bartletts Great American Mythos
Bo Bartletts The Babysitter seems to be a piece that blurs the lines of the nostalgic and
the modern. This particular painting finds itself quite interested in playing with the ideas of
female propriety and the male gaze. Bartletts masterful use of details and focus create a work
that toys with the way society views women and echoes the idyllic world of the 1950s.
Bartletts work accentuates refers to the almost epic nature of the commonplace. His style of
painting falls under the category of realism. He follows in such footsteps as that of the late great
Norman Rockwell. Bartletts expert manipulation of common themes within our constructed
American mythos create a piece that seems both ancient whilst still keeping glimmers of
modernity.
When one first looks at the piece, one cannot help but be simply drawn in by the subject
of the piece, a girl who the audience must assume can not be older than her late teens. I was
instantly entranced by the way which Bartlett chose to portray her. The piece seems to be giving
the audience a near voyeuristic view into this specific time of our subjects day. The young girl
as Dr. Sohui Lee would say represents the focal point of Bartletts The Babysitter. Lee states
Focalization, . . . refers to visual features or shapes. . . which are to be the main focus of the
viewers eyes. (6). Once done observing the young girl, I found myself intent upon the details
around her.The muted earth tones of the couch. The intricacy of the detail on the quilts and

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blankets. The solitary pair of brown loafers on the floor. These seemingly minute details add to
the realism of the piece. These subordinate aspects of the work serve as ways to refer back to the
primary subject of the text, the young girl. Bartlett creates a cycle in which the audience of the
piece move their eyes from the woman, to the subordinate elements like the couch, blankets, and
shoes and lay back to rest on the female subject.
Furthermore, the construction of the piece finds itself quite interested with the way that it
plays with balances. From the first gaze, the audience notices that a majority of the painting
fixates on the right side of the canvas. To offset the imbalance Bartlett, uses ornamentation on the
quilt as a ploy to try and even out the piece. This plan seems to backfire because myself as a
viewer come back again and again and find myself utterly fixated on the withdrawn and solemn
nature of the girl. As a viewer, the asymmetrical nature of the piece intrigues me more than if the
piece were perfectly balanced and sirene. One can find the viewing of formal, or symmetrical art,
to be quite uninteresting for the viewer at once knows the unnatural nature of the entire piece.
When an artist employs informal techniques of balance the piece gains an added layer of depth,
and gives the viewership an added layer of believability.
In addition, The Babysitter uses color to convey meaning. The earth tones of the piece
further cement in the mind of the viewer the importance of the subject. From the muted green of
the couch on which the subject sits, to the burnt orange of the blanket and the sandy yellow
accenting the bottom of the couch. Bartlett also re-echoes his theme of asymmetry in his choices
of warm and cold colors. In this particular text, one finds an unproportionate amount of warm
colors (i.e red, yellow, orange) compared to cold colors mainly the forest green of the upholstery
of the couch.

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Additionally, Bartlett uses smooth texturing and immense detailing to create a piece that
is a visual feast. His brushstrokes are smooth and give the overall feeling of the painting a sense
of liquidity. His muted tones give the work a natural look and feel. One would also be remiss if
they did not mention the subtle reference that seems to appear in the design of the painting. The
pattern on the blanket seems to imitate the erratic style of the robes in Gustav Klimts The Kiss
Both pieces uses of oils gave layers of life that cannot be achieved with other mediums of paint.
The oils add a layer of sheen that supplants the pleasure of the visual experience.
Another ever present aspect in the viewing of this piece comes in the power of the male
gaze within the work. This particular item seems to find itself fascinated with the way in which
the audience looks upon it. The Babysitter sets up an unnerving construction of superiority and
inferiority. In Practices of Looking , Sturken and Cartwright state that, The act of looking is
commonly regarded as awarding more power to the person who is looking than to the person
who is the object of the look. (111). Bartlett seems to operate on the classical assumption that
the viewer of the work is male. A large amount of the efficacy and unease gets lost if one
operates under the assumption that the individual gazing upon the work is female.
Additionally, The Babysitter seems to uphold aspects of various cultural myths that the
American people create about women. Bartlett paints his subject in a very solemn manner,
cementing the idea that women should be seen and not heard. Likewise, Bos choice of clothing
for his subject seem to concretize other aspects of cultural myths towards women. Her wearing
of a uniform can be inferred as a symbol of conformity to the ideals of modesty that finds
themselves imposed upon women from a very young age. Another symbol to accent comes in the
choice of button down shirt color, in this particular piece we find our subject wearing white
which throughout many cultures including that of the United States represents purity. This piece

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presents itself as a tableau on which Bartlett paints many aspects of the supposed Great
American Mythology.
This piece seems to find itself deeply interested in appeals that specifically play into the
emotions of the viewer. Bartlett wants the viewer to feel at times deeply intrigued with his
subject and at others put in a state of unease over the fact that the viewer even though they are
presented within a position of power seems to be viewing something that could be deemed as
quite private. This text's ethical appeal seems to beg its audience to feel a certain sense of
revulsion towards the act of viewing the girl as an object and seems to challenge the way in
which the viewer looks at the work. Bartletts painting seems to both uphold and abhor that
which it finds at center of its meaning. These ideas about what a women should be and how she
should comport herself sit at the center of this work.
Throughout the American cultural myth we find many representations of women. In Bo
Bartletts The Babysitter, he seems to present us with a rather specific version of the mythic
female in American society. Bos subject seems to be a refined individual who reinforces the idea
of being seen and not heard pervasively present in the 1950s. This piece also plays around with
the idea of the male gaze and the power relationship inherently present within that concept.
Through his use of asymmetry, focalization, color choice, and line movements, Bartlett crafted a
text loaded with cultural meaning, whether it be the purity of youth or the role of the female in
the world. The Babysitter stands as a stunning example of an artistic work that blends quite
ingeniously these somewhat abhorrent ideas of what femininity and masculinity look like and
causes the audience to think about the implications of viewing the piece. Bo Bartletts The
Babysitter serves as a work of art that is cemented within bygone traditions but tinged with
salient themes for a modern viewer.

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Works Cited
Bartlett, Bo. The Babysitter. 2001. Oil on Linen. The Hunter Museum of American Art,
Chattanooga, TN.
Lee, Sohui Visual Design Principles. PowerPoint presentation.

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Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture.
Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.