Sylvia Sleigh presents a view to a river

Set along the east banks of the Hudson River, painter Sylvia Sleigh’s “Invitation to a Voyage: The Hudson River at Fishkill” gives a panoramic view of friends and famous names in the art and literary worlds all gathered together for the afternoon.

Friends are picnicking, walking in a wooded area, or sitting near the train tracks deep in conversation.

A new showing of Sleigh’s work at the Hudson River Museum offers new insight into one of her most famous pieces. The key chart showing who’s who in the 14 panels that make up the work feature more detailed information on Sleigh’s paintings. The accompanying photographs reveal what she painted based on those images, and which parts were inspired by her imagination.

“Our visitors love it,” Laura Vookles, the museum’s curatorial department chair, said. “We love to show it because it is so pertinent to our collection. It was also her (Sleigh’s) desire. She wanted to think that from time to time that we would show the whole thing.”

Sleigh donated the collection to the museum in 2006. She died in 2010.

Additionally, the museum currently has the space the show “Invitation to a Voyage” in its full size. Each of the 14 panels measures 8-by-5 feet. When viewed in its entirety, it becomes a 70-foot panoramic view, which provides a wide-angle perspective.

“Invitation to a Voyage,” which took Sleigh 20 years to complete, is divided into two parts. One set of panels, “Riverside,” show the Hudson River background while the “Woodside” ones show people against the backdrop of a tree-filled area.

One of the panels depict Sleigh and her husband, art critic Lawrence Alloway, who appears to give her his hand to help her stand up as the two stood near the river bank. Their cat Zelda is off to the side.

However, the photograph in the key chart reveals a different story. In real life, Alloway used a walker, which Sleigh decided not to paint. Zelda also was not part of their outing to the river.

“She really wanted to include her cat,” Vookles said. “So, you learn little things like that. She really wanted the cat for part of the pose with she and her husband.”

Although the panorama view hints that Sleigh’s group of friends all knew each other, in reality that was not the case. Through research and discussions with food writer Jeff Weinstein, who attended Sleigh’s outing, Vookles said Sleigh assembled them so they could pose for pictures. Some of them met the first time that afternoon.

Between the full viewing of all the panels, and additional background information on Sleigh, Vookles said the information gave her a new perspective on Sleigh’s work and how she now views the panels.

British-born Sleigh and Alloway, who perhaps is best known for creating the term “pop art,” moved to the United States in 1961. Sleigh became part of the feminist art movement of the 1970s. Her signature style was her use of large-scale portraits of nude men in feminine poses. Her work was in the spirit of artists like Ingres, Velásquez and Titian, Vookles said.

The inspiration for “Invitation to a Voyage” came from a 1961 train trip Sleigh took to Albany, Vookles said. Sleigh enjoyed the view of the Hudson River and Bannerman’s Castle on Pollepel Island, an abandoned military surplus warehouse. Sleigh modeled the work on 18th-century painter Jean-Antoine Watteau’s scenes of pastoral gathering.

“It’s always interesting to see how long the Hudson River has inspired people,” Vookles said. “Just the idea that a contemporary woman artist would get taken with this subject, and she wasn’t even from the United States.”

“We can put it up and you come stand in the middle of it and enjoy the view and think about all of those things,” Vookles said.