Formal Analysis Paper
Claude Oscar Monet (1840-1926) was a French painter known for his use of bold color and unusual subject matter. In the 1860’s, Monet joined like-minded artists such as Edgar Degas; to create the movement that became known as Impressionism. Edgar Degas (1834–1917) was also French but born to a wealthy family. He benefitted from traditional training and was not comfortable with the label “Impressionist” due to this training. This paper intends to analyze Claude Monet’s "The Walk, Woman with a Parasol"(fig. 1), and Edgar Degas’ “The Little Fourteen–Year–Old Dancer” (fig. 2), through a consideration of composition, use of color, perspective, and brush strokes.
Capturing the natural play of light and shadow was a signature theme in all of Monet’s work. In this painting, he positions the light to the right of the woman and boy which leads the viewer’s eye up. He then uses shadows in the parasol, the woman’s face and on the ground to lead the viewer’s eye back down the painting. The deliberate placement of the light and shade is an effective tool that he uses with a lighter touch in the boys clothing, the clouds and notably the grass. This piece showcases Monet’s use of color, which was another one of his signature themes. He uses cool colors to give the painting a tranquil feeling and to help emphasize his subjects, the woman and boy. He stays with the cool color pallet with use of blue in; the sky, the woman’s clothes, the grass and the boy’s clothes. He then incorporates warm colors into the piece with the use of white in the clouds, and in the models’ clothes, the parasol, and even in the grass. Monet used the highlights of yellow and white to serve as focal points as well as natural highlights...
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...al cloth. While the corset appears to be tailored loosely, the tutu seems to fit but it lies limp against the figure’s legs. Despite the use of mixed media, the dancers tights are actually sculpted, not fabric. The ballet slippers are actual shoes coated with wax; the same wax covers the entire sculpture, preserving her and the fragile elements.
In Monet’s painting, "The Walk, Woman with a Parasol", the viewer is led through a journey of expressive brushstrokes, color, and the playfulness of light and shadows. He successfully uses his impressionistic brushwork to grasp the viewer’s attention and keeps their interest with his balancing of warm light and the shadowing cool colors. Degas uses his knowledge and study of the human figure to grab the viewer’s attention; he then follows up with his unconventional use of bronze and mixed media to keep their intrest.
Additionally, Lie placed tall trees in the foreground of the painting to give a sense of the scale between the observer’s perspective and surrounding objects. Furthermore, Lie used dark, cold colors, such as purple, blue and black, to depict the feeling of a winter’s afternoon. Lie also used snow on the ground as an obvious indicator of the time frame in which the painting is occurring. However, in contrast to the dark cold colors used, Lie also used subtle hints of orange, yellow and red to show that there is some presence of light in the piece. The background of the painting is a sheen of yellow, suggesting the presence of light and the forming sunset.
I visited Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California for the first time hoping to learn more about the European artworks this place has to offer. Norton Simon Museum holds the remarkable amounts of artwork by world-renowned artists: Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijin, Caravaggio, Raphael, and Pablo Picasso just to name a few. I observed many European paintings in the 18th to 19th century; I chose to discuss the artwork by the incredible Claude-Oscar Monet. Claude-Oscar Monet’s Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur, 1865 is an oil painting of a seascape on a canvas. The Parisian artist is considered one of the most influential artists in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century.
Pablo Picasso is one of the most famous and well-documented artists of the twentieth century. Picasso, unlike most painters, is even more special because he did not confine himself to canvas, but also produced sculpture, poetry, and ceramics in profusion. Although much is known about this genius, there is still a lust after more knowledge concerning Picasso, his life and the creative forces that motivated him. This information can be obtained only through a careful study of the events that played out during his lifetime and the ways in which they manifested themselves in his creations (Penrose).
Edgar Degas’ mind was unique and creative, producing some of the most famous works of the Impressionist period. Although his works were incredibly beautiful and had what could have been positive subject matter, his works often appear eerie and mysterious. This is due to Degas’ inner thoughts and feelings. Beginning with his mother’s death at age 13, Degas never became attached to a woman during his lifetime. This caused him to not only feel aggressive toward women, but also that he could look down upon them and his inferiors. Conflicting thoughts of aggression and admiration filled the mind of Degas, and is seen throughout his body of works. His work appears the way it does to the viewer due to Degas’ inner thoughts, which were not always positive. This allows his works to differ from other artists of the period.
Degas’ passion for depicting ballerinas as they were performing perfectly captures the tone of Impressionism. The impressionist painters were enchanted by modern life and capturing the movement of life in Paris. Both Degas’ Ballerinas and Renoir’s Moulin de la Galette captures the essential qualities of Impressionism. Because Degas’ Ballerinas reflect much of the Impressionist movement, we can use the work be compare to other works of the same time and location, such as the one of Renoir.
We can see a clear representation of the impressionist that tended to completely avoid historical or allegorical subjects. In this painting, Monet’s painted very rapidly and used bold brushwork in order to capture the light and the color; include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes. An insistence on what Monet called “a spontaneous work rather than a calculated one” – this in particular accounts for the sketchy and seemingly unfinished quality of the Impressionist paintings. In the texture, he played with the shadow and light and created variation in tone, he employs patches of depth and surface. The light in the painting come from back to the windmill, it is a light shines softly behind the houses and the windmill. He was shown each brushstroke in the painting. Balance is achieved through an asymmetrical placement of the houses and the most important the
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...
This painting by Vincent Van Gogh is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago Museum, in the Impressionism exhibit. There are many things going on in this painting that catch the viewer’s eye. The first is the piece’s vibrant colors, light blues and browns, bright greens, and more. The brush strokes that are very visible and can easily be identified as very thick some might even say bold. The furniture, the objects, and the setting are easy to identify and are proportioned to each other. There is so much to see in this piece to attempt to explain in only a few simple sentences.
In this essay, I shall try to examine how great a role colour played in the evolution of Impressionism. Impressionism in itself can be seen as a linkage in a long chain of procedures, which led the art to the point it is today. In order to do so, colour in Impressionism needs to be placed within an art-historical context for us to see more clearly the role it has played in the evolution of modern painting. In the late eighteenth century, for example, ancient Greek and Roman examples provided the classical sources in art. At the same time, there was a revolt against the formalism of Neo-Classicism. The accepted style was characterised by appeal to reason and intellect, with a demand for a well-disciplined order and restraint in the work. The decisive Romantic movement emphasized the individual’s right in self-expression, in which imagination and emotion were given free reign and stressed colour rather than line; colour can be seen as the expression for emotion, whereas line is the expression of rationality. Their style was painterly rather than linear; colour offered a freedom that line denied. Among the Romanticists who had a strong influence on Impressionism were Joseph Mallord William Turner and Eugéne Delacroix. In Turner’s works, colour took precedence over the realistic portrayal of form; Delacroix led the way for the Impressionists to use unmixed hues. The transition between Romanticism and Impressionism was provided by a small group of artists who lived and worked at the village of Barbizon. Their naturalistic style was based entirely on their observation and painting of nature in the open air. In their natural landscape subjects, they paid careful attention to the colourful expression of light and atmosphere. For them, colour was as important as composition, and this visual approach, with its appeal to emotion, gradually displaced the more studied and forma, with its appeal to reason.
The composition concentrates mainly on the foreground .It has three main points of interest, the small rowing boats, the artificial island and the floating barge .It also has a stretch of trees and foliage in the background painted in a much lighter fashion. Monet?s painting has a very different composition from Renoir?s painting of Grenouillere, which was done at the same time; Renoir?s painting is focussed much more on the artificial island and the people on it. Monet uses a combination of thick bold brushstrokes and small short soft brushstrokes; this creates a nice varied look and helps give a good impression of perspective. The tone is also very varied as it is Very light in some areas, but it is also quite dark in others, such as the shades on the barge. The use of dark shades in the foreground makes the boat look so realistic and quite 3D. Although the middle ground is flatter this helps add to the perspective. The water ho...
Alice Hoschede and Claude Monet got married in 1892. They raised six children in Giverny. Alice was very jealous of Monet’s love for Camille. So, Alice required Monet to destroy any reminder of Camille including photographs, letters and mementos. She has once existed in some of the painting such as Claude Monet, Breakfast under the Tent, Giverny 1888 and John Singer Sargent, Mme Hoschedé and Her Son in Monet's Garden, Giverny. Over these year, Monet traveled all around the world and seldom stayed at home. Alice was left and took care the six children they have owned. In the novel, Alice is the representation of sorrow and mournfulness. Her interactions with other people in the novel has revealed her personality and her feeling towards her family and the marriage with Claude Monet.
Color is used to draw attention to important characters and objects in the painting. The red of Mary’s shirt emphasizes her place as the main figure. A bright, yellow cloud floating above the room symbolizes the joy of the angelic figures. De Zurbaran uses warm colors in the foreground. The room, used as the background for the scene, is painted in dark colors utilizing different hues of gray and brown.
From first impressions of this painting, I was captivated by his ability of using lights and darks. Photographs of this work...
...f the shadows is sprinkled with the orange of the ground, and the blue-violet of the mountains is both mixed with and adjacent to the yellow of the sky. The brushstrokes that carry this out are inspired by the Impressionists, but are more abundant and blunter than those an Impressionist would use.