Light Pattern

Robert Vickrey's oeuvre is perhaps best defined by his Lyrical Realist depictions of the religious habit of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, in particular the sisters' white, winglike headcoverings referred to as cornettes. Vickrey, along with Pablo Picasso and Andrew Wyeth, found the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul to be fascinating subject matter: "To him, these gentle women in their dark blue habits and white cornettes were, pictorially, like other worldly beings. They blended instantly with the artist's romantic ideas of the unusual and what he knew of everyday life's unexpected experiences...Vickrey saw that, despite what abstraction had come to mean to him, the sisters' head coverings were, first and foremost, splendid abstract forms. These winged appendages have intrigued his mind and eye more than anything else in his paintings." (D. Miller, Robert Vickrey's Nun Paintings, Creatures of the Spirit, Canada, 2002, p. 13)