Sarah Olinger-Stout

They Thought They Heard the Angels is set in the late 1780’s in a European theater. In order to create the scene I did research to find out how the clothing and setting might have looked. More importantly, I imagined the characters’ states of mind at the end of the 18th century. The era in question is a time of transition. Medieval ideas such as the “four humours” were giving way to new scientific theories and a multitude of new inventions. Some of these inventions were met with equal parts fascination and fear.

In the scene depicted, a strange new American instrument produces wonder and hysteria in its listeners. In Germany the instrument would eventually become a scapegoat for the lingering superstitions of the time; those who played it were said to go mad and it was even blamed for the death of a child during a performance. I find that when I am drawing these historical characters I begin to understand their reactions. I imagine how their bodies would move in their restrictive clothing and how they might perceive this concert as a transcendent experience. The result is a new understanding of the past, as interpreted in 2005.

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Bio

Sarah Olinger-Stout is an artist and illustrator living in New York City. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts MFA program “Illustration as Visual Essay” in 2004. Her work has been shown in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and California.