Xiangqing Lin
CMOA Essay Assignment
HAA 0010
6 Mar 2014
Waterloo Bridge by Claude Monet
Claude Monet ‘s Waterloo Bridge conveys his central focus of light. Similar to the other masterpiece of his – “ Impression of a Setting Sun”, the use of warm and cool colors in contrast with each other and distinct reflections and shadows communicates this concentration. The lighting of this painting is what directs you to the focal points of this canvas. Light could also focus on shedding light on a situation of this historical period. Below the physical elements of the painting is a significant theme of light in relation to industrial success of the time.
The angle of focus in perspective to light in this painting corresponds to the direction that the bridge and background are facing. The light in this painting is stemming from the upper right of the canvas, and the Waterloo Bridge is presented at that exact angle that the light hits the entire side of the bridge as you can see from the yellows used to depict the bridge. The light also hits the cityscape in the background at this same angle. The darker portions of the painting are on the left side of the painting as what would be if an actually light source were hitting the scene. What makes this particularly interesting is that nothing but blue water and blue sky is depicted in this part of the painting. It is the unknown to this painting, in the darkness. The light of the painting spreads from the right to the left and the oil colors are blended and changing with this.
The use of oil paints to create this image allows Monet to use a blend of purples, blues, and greens with yellows and pinks. The mixing of these colors creates the contrast between light portions and dark portion...
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...n on society. The difference in view from close-up and far away could also be related to the issue of things seemingly clear-cut but a blur when looked at closer. This could be Monet’s way of telling people that from a distance and far removed view, this new means of life seems to be going perfectly well. As this is looked at more closely, the blending with other issues causes the person to reconsider whether this is a good thing or bad.
The impressionist technique of this painting by placing wet paint on wet paint creates this running of colors that evokes thoughts of incompleteness and blurring of lines literally and figuratively. Monet’s Waterloo Bridge evokes deeper thoughts about the blurring of images and running together of figures causing thoughts beneath the surface to rise above and give a significant and important meaning to this amazing work of art.
Since the painting focuses on depth, the picture is read near to far, starting with the obvious painstaking details in the foreground, and ending with the massive background.
Beneath the bridge there is a boat with two unidentified figures. Behind that there are trees and it looks as if there could be a tall building or two. The lighting was overhead and slightly dimmed. It appears slightly coarse in texture. Since it is impressionism, there are no actual defined or precise strokes, but more like everything blends into or flows into every...
At first glance, the cheerful bright blue sky on the upper portion of the painting caught the most attention. The second dominant feature is the small sailboat with seagulls on the background where Monet illustrated in brightest white. Examining closely in that particular area, it is noticeable that the artist intended to incorporate a sheer layer of white surrounding the sailboat to create the illusion of sheen light breaking through the clouds and reflecting into the ocean. Monet used a variation of values along with the combination of heavy and light individual brushstrokes to create uneven tones to show the movement of the water caused by the weather and the sun. Several layers of underpaint can also be seen as the artist’s intention for the waves to appear fuzzier. The fuzzy wave in the foreground to the right is slightly bulged from the canvas showing the finer brushstroke slightly dabbed on the surface. Dense cracking is present all over the painting possibly due to the painting being very
The two focal figures are illustrated with complementary colors, the woman 's dress being orange, and the man’s pants being blue. Benton uses these colors to bring life into the painting. The background is made up mostly of earthy colors like, greens, browns, and greys and a light blue for the sky. Benton seems to add white to every color he uses, which gives the painting an opaque look. The deepest hues found in this painting are the blue one the man’s pants and the orange on the woman’s dress, everything else around them looks washed out and Benton does this to emphasize his focal points
The colors in the figure’s face consist of warm colors of red, yellow, green while the rest of the body consist of primary colors of yellow, blue, red along with seafoam green, white, and pink. However, the colors are mixed from one to another to create depth. To illustrate this, a viewer would focus on the figure’s right leg because of the luminous yellow and then to the soft sea green foam, which makes the yellow closer to the viewer, whereas the sea foam green is in the back, creating depth. In addition, the simplified forms such as the red triangle on the bottom right also helps separate the yellow and the sea foam green, which reinforces that they split to show depth. In addition, the two red dots, the triangle, the red on the face, and red on the arm also reinforces the viewer to look at the whole piece. Overall, Brown use specific colors around the drawing to make sure the viewer look at it as a whole rather than just looking at one
Impressionist paintings can be considered documents of Paris capital of modernity to a great extent. This can be seen in their subjects, style of painting, and juxtaposition of the transitive and the eternal.
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
The colours used in the artwork are earthy tones with various browns, greens, yellows, blues and some violet. These colours create a sense of harmony on the...
The colors used in the painting are very vivid yet rich in depth. A combination of high chroma and low chroma gives the picture its dep...
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.
Monet and Degas' earlier works have notably different brush stroke styles. While Monet has tended to lean towards the short, choppy and yet delicate, Degas’ strokes blended virtuously unnoticeable. However, these seem to correspond with their earlier themes and objectives. Monet mastered the art of illustrating waves with his brush stroke style, Degas, the curve of a woman’s body or the sheer coat of a young colt. The colours chosen by either artist’s match the scenes they tend to choose to paint. Degas normally chose colours that would show deep contrast between the background and foreground. Monet chose colours the gently blended and showed vibrancy but that created a kind of stable balance in the greater part of his paintings. Degas’ brushstrokes a...
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...
In conclusion, Van Gogh used the elements above to create a man by himself in a field. He used color to represent feeling rather than represent realism of an event. The cool colors represent the field and happiness in his work. The warm colors represent the harshness of the day and could be a metaphor for life. He used scale and proportion to emphasis the overbearing sun. He also used proportion and scale to represent literally and figuratively how far away home was. The linear perspective was only evident to me after I really studied the used of lines. I followed the lines to the horizon and left side of the painting.
Impressionism is the name given to the art movement that changed art forever. Starting in France in the 1860's, Impressionism was considered a radical break from tradition.1 Through the work of artists including Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Edgar Degas impressionism was born. Impressionists painted outside and focused greatly on light and its reflection. They painted quickly on primed white canvas with short visible brushstrokes and placed separate colours side by side letting the viewer’s eyes mix them. (Techniques uncommon to art at this time) Regarding their subject they again broke with tradition and painted anything they wanted including the modernity of Paris and the everyday life of its citizens. This new found freedom regarding subject along with unconventional techniques greatly displeased the L’École des Beaux-Arts where academic artists would have worked on subjects such as history, royalty and mythology.2 In contrast to the impressionists their work had a smooth varnished finish, showing little to no evidence of the artist’s presence. Having introduced Impressionism, I aim to in this essay analyse why the city of Paris is at the heart of the impressionist movement. Firstly by looking at how Paris helped create the impressionist movement and secondly how Paris fuelled it.
...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.