Sleeping Beauty, painted in 1899, by Henry Meynell Rheam, is just one of those works that most people have a different perspective or view from one another. Something that someone sees could be a lot or a little different from what someone else is taking in. When walking into an exhibit, something that catches the viewer's eye is the way the painting is lit up and the size. Looking up at a painting, the first thing that the eye catches without analysis is the biggest and brightest thing. In a display, that is the characters facial expression. The viewer will try to figure out what is shown in the painting by the way the character is looking. When something is stable and the body language is being portrayed, that is something that is always caught by the eye as well. Viewers want to see what catches their eye the most, and how it relates to other things in the same object being viewed. The man is ready to parade and reveal Sleeping Beauty, showing her off as an object on display, seen with foreground and background, the man's lack of facial expression and arms, and the way Sleeping Beauty lies on the bed. 

The foreground is where much of the attention from the viewer is looking, in which this case is Sleeping Beauty, as she is bright. When looking at the foreground we notice Sleeping Beauty. She is lying on a couch or bed with a big royal blue blanket over her. There are beautiful pink flowers spread around her. That is the image that is given in the foreground; it shows that there is a lot of space. When looking at the image as a whole, the woman is taking up about two thirds of the picture. That lets the viewer to believe that she is the main set of the painting because it derives the focus. Along with the fact that the woman takes up much of the space, she is very well lit. The viewer is able to see all of the details of the woman and the full body shot, even though the blanket is covering her, we get a general idea of what the woman looked like. The lighting in the foreground is much more clear and bright so it is drawing the reader's eyes to the woman who is lying down. The body language of the woman in the painting tells the viewer everything that is needed to know about her, she has no say or input. It is hard to tell if she is dead or alive. When looking at her, it looks like she is not just laying down to sleep. She does not look like she is comfortably sleeping in her bed. Her head is tilted back and her arms are flopped, as if she is passed out or fallen. Her body posture is off, and it is difficult to see what she feels or thinks because there are no signs of life. Sleeping Beauty is not the only image the viewer sees in the painting, there is also the man.

Unlike the foreground, the background is not so bright and full of space. The man that is in the background is darker, and it is almost as if he is hidden by the dark. He is obscured. Besides the man's upper half, the arms and above, there is not much to see in the man. His face is clear but the rest of his body is dimmed out by the shadows. The man also takes up little space. It is much harder to send focus to the spot that is small compared to the woman. The man is looking at Sleeping Beauty with a possessive face. He stands over her, as if hovering. The painting shows that the man has a blunted facial affect. He stares blankly at Sleeping Beauty. Although his face is hard to read, it seems like he is looking at her with a creepy facial expression. It is not that he is just patiently waiting for her, but he is just watching her. He is not talking to her or making contact, he is doing nothing which is creepy because he he has nothing to say, he is just watching which is not something that is normal. His arms linger over her with no sense of love or welcome. It is not the excited and joyful way that a lover looks at their beloved. His face lacks compassion. The man's arms in the painting are not inviting, which shows the man thinks of Sleeping Beauty not as a real person, but as a possession to show off.

The way the lighting and space is working, is that the better lit, a lot of space something is the more focus and attention the viewer has, and vice versa whereas the darker and less space it is, the less focus the viewer has. The lighting allows the viewer to see how the foreground, Sleeping Beauty, to be lighted just like display in an exhibit. Sleeping Beauty is objectified, and the man in the background sees her as such. The man in the background is dark, but it is possible to read possession in the man's facial expression. It is mind boggling in what this man wants from Sleepy Beauty. As stated earlier there is not much to see about him since he is fading into the background. He is face is pointed down towards her, and it is not focused on anything but this woman, or as we later see a prize. In images, it is possible to be able to see what a character, figure will accomplish, or what its motives are. Sleeping Beauty looks graceful and just there. Which is very ironic that the main set of this painting is sitting there as if on a display. The woman has no expression, but she is so important in the work because she is the focus of painting. She is what there is to look at, resting or dead, for all to see. This brings back to the thought of the man viewing her as a possession, because she is just lying there, waiting to be viewed. The way the woman lies on the pillow with the blanket over her, she looks as a doll or object in a display case. It is as if the man put his possession, which in this case is the woman, on the pillow and set her up not to be touched or interacted with, but to be observed by others. 

Sleeping Beauty, the woman in the picture, is shown as an exhibit. The lighting focuses on her because she is largest object in the painting. In a display, case the light points on the featured object, based on its value of importance. The lighting helps the viewer see, because the man is standing in the dark, and is smaller, that the woman is to be looked at and analyzed rather than a human being to be interacted with. The lack of affection in man's facial and his arms proves that he does not love the woman; she is only an object to be looked at, not touched. He has no gifts or invitations of greeting, showing that he thinks of her as a possession. The woman does herself no justice that she is laying there without any look of happiness or that she is laying with her head tilted back with flowers draped over her, as if she is a showcase that is being ready to be shown to the world. Looking at the composition, the man, and the woman, we can see that the man does not care if the woman is dead or alive; this is important because it shows that the man views the woman as a possession or as if she is on display.
