J. C. Coovert - "In Search of J.C. Coovert"

This picture was taken in Gunnison, Mississippi, in 1897. You can see the same elements:

Tableau-like composition
High angle
Mid-morning or mid-afternoon sun

All the women have their hands folded -- something Coovert arranged repeatedly.
The scene is carefully, as well as artfully, organized. The woman in the center front has removed her hat so it will not block the view behind her.
Everyone is gazing in the same direction, on an angle away from the camera.

Every element is in place -- the bucket on a cloth-covered table, the stove set up to cook.... Notice the white male in the back with umbrella. He's just part of the composition.

The entire scene is organized, from the foreground to the distant background. Coovert placed these men in canoes, holding onto posts rising above the flood -- an arrangement he used over and over.

Home

Lecture
"In Search of J.C. Coovert" An illustrated lecture on the life and work of J.C. Coovert by Jane Adams and D. Gorton

Image Galleries

Cotton

Flood

"Cirkut"

Health Department

Portraits

Steamboats

Sunny Side Plantation

Discussion
Viewer comments about J.C. Coovert

Notes for collectors of Coovert's work

Contact us

In Search of J.C. Coovert

page 2

This early Delta picture shows his sense of formal composition and balance:

The scene is viewed from an elevated angle
It is shot in mid-morning or mid-afternoon
He has a strong sense of balance and organization
The horizon splits the picture in the middle or two-thirds.

I believe he drew on the conventions of the tableau vivant: "a grouping of silent, motionless actors which represents an incident and presents an artistic spectacle." In the late 19th century, tableau vivants were created by drama and other social clubs, and were organized in parlor games similar to charades. As in a tableau vivant, Coovert created a world organized, ordered, and made absolutely still, creating a dramatic story about the world as he conceived it.

continued