Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Hope (painting)

Hope (painting)

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/January 19, 2017 by Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 15:00, 30 December 2016 (UTC)



Hope is an 1886 Symbolist oil painting by the English artist George Frederic Watts. Radically different from previous treatments of the subject, it shows a lone blindfolded female figure sitting on a globe, playing a lyre which has only a single string remaining. Watts intentionally used symbolism not traditionally associated with hope to make the painting's meaning ambiguous. As reproductions began to circulate in large quantities worldwide, it became a widely popular image. Theodore Roosevelt displayed a copy at his Sagamore Hill home in New York, and a 1922 film was based on the painting. By this time Hope was coming to seem outdated and sentimental, and Watts was rapidly falling out of fashion, but despite the decline in Watts's popularity Hope remained influential. Martin Luther King Jr. based an influential 1959 sermon on the theme of the painting, as did Jeremiah Wright in 1990. Among the congregation for the latter was the young Barack Obama, who took "The Audacity of Hope" as the theme of his 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address, and as the title of his 2006 book; he based his successful 2008 presidential campaign around the theme of "Hope".
 * Most recent similar article(s): Vincent van Gogh (December 16) as last visual arts TFA, Migration of the Serbs (December 2) as last painting TFA. While all three are late 19th-century topics, there's virtually no similarity other than the medium of paint, as one would be hard-pressed to come up with three less similar artists.
 * Main editors: Iridescent
 * Promoted: October 22, 2016
 * Reasons for nomination: To mark Obama's last day in office, without running an overtly political article over what's going to be an unusually sensitive inauguration and transition. This painting, rather than the abstract philosophical concept, is explicitly what Obama was referring to in both the 2004 Audacity of Hope speech that originally made him famous, and his book of the same name. The blurb intentionally gives stronger than might be expected weight to American politics, as its connection to US politics is what makes this day relevant.
 * Support as nominator. &#8209; Iridescent 21:07, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Support as poignant. I'll pay that. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 05:14, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Support given the poignancy, per Cas Liber. To ally fears that paintings are the new roads, the recent few noms have been atypical. Nonetheless, the intention and effort behind this nom is far sighted and admirable. Ceoil (talk) 05:48, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Support as it is a great selection for the date and very poignant (as others have already articulated above). Aoba47 (talk) 20:05, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Support in the same spirit, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:03, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Support per Cas. Thanks, Iri, for writing it and having it ready on the day. Sadly. Victoria (tk) 21:57, 21 December 2016 (UTC)