Art History 6C Paper- Prompt 2- Delacroix Vs. Vigée-Lebrun
– This paper will be structured as a dialogue between Sam, the collector and Sanket, the advisor. –
Sam: Sanket, should I acquire the self portrait of Eugéne Delacroix or Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun? Frankly, I don’t have enough money to purchase both of them.
Sanket: Sam, I know of you as a man of taste. You are a man that would want a portrait to represent the personality of the artist. I am confident that you would prefer the Delacroix over the Vigée-Lebrun, because Delacroix represented his emotions and nature into his artwork.
Sanket: It is clear from the use of lines that Delacroix wanted to show his confident and firm nature. The rigid lines from the furrow of his eyebrow to the lines on his lips form a very rigid outline of his face. This outline shows his strong nature through the bold lines on his face. In contrast, Vigée-Lebrun uses very circular, thin, and definite lines. The use of lines in this way creates a very soft image; however, this may not have to do with the artist’s nature. In neoclassical paintings, women were depicted with thin curving lines that showed off the fragility of femininity. Vigée-Lebrun probably used lines in a similar way limiting her own personal style in her portrait. On the other hand, Delacroix uses lines to show his nature and style of art.
Sam: Arriving at a conclusion based solely on the lines an artist uses is not very reassuring.
Sanket: It’s more than just the lines! Artists can use space to bring into focus objects in their artwork. Delacroix uses space to focus on his body in the portrait by removing all objects from the background of the image. Viewers are forced to move their eyes away from the mundane background and to ...
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...y actually be a choice that the artist has taken to better fit the theme of the artwork. Delacroix most likely used the broad brushstrokes used in the background and the clothing to show that the painting was not lifelike. He wanted to show that the painting was his creation that followed his style and personality. On the contrary, Vigée-Lebrun followed the rules set by neoclassical art. Her brushwork was not visible, she shown as fragile, and all parts of the painting seemed ideal. While Vigée-Lebrun probably spent more time on hiding her brushstrokes, Delacroix is the more skilled artist because he was able to capture his personality into his artwork.
Sam: I am convinced. Delacroix used his skills to create a piece of art that conveyed his personality, while Vigée-Lebrun used her skills to a create a piece of art that followed a strict set of apathetic guidelines.
The face of the portrait is detailed, and more naturally painted than the rest of the composition. However, the left iris exceeds her eye and extends past the normal outline. The viewer can see every single brush stroke resulting in a unique approach to the capturing human emotion. The streaky texture combines with the smoothness flow of the artist’s hand creating contrast between the hair and the face. The woman’s hair is painted with thick and chunky globs of paint. The viewer can physically see the paint rising from the canvas and flowing into the movement of the waves of hair. Throughout the hair as well as the rest of the portrait Neel abandons basic painting studies and doesn’t clean her brush before applying the next color. Because of the deliberate choice to entangle the colors on the brush it creates a new muddy palate skewed throughout the canvas. Moving from the thick waves of hair, Neel abandons the thick painting style of the physical portrait and moves to a looser more abstract technique to paint the background. Despite the lack of linear perspective, Neel uses a dry brush technique for the colorful streaks in the background creating a messy illusion of a wall and a sense of space. The painting is not clean, precise, or complete; there are intentional empty spaces, allowing the canvas to pear through wide places in the portrait. Again, Neel abandons
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...
For my assignment, I will be comparing the two pieces of art titled Louis XIV painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud and Portrait of Marie Antoinette With Her Children by Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun. I will be analyzing and breaking down the different techniques used in both paintings and explaining the similarities between them as well. Though the paintings contain the same family throughout both, there is a clear imbalance in power and something very normal for this time period. I will be elaborating on the difference in social status between the two paintings, even though they are the same family.
Throughout the history of art, there has always been a plethora of portraiture, no matter the time period or the medium whether is be sculptures, paintings or even carvings. Humans have always been fascinated with themselves and the way others look. But it’s not always about vanity, it means so much more and can be conveyed in many different ways. In some cases, the artists moved beyond that of a simple likeness and can instill different emotions in the viewer. That being said, in this essay I will compare and contrast two portraits. The first is an oil painting titled Man in a Red Turban by Flemish painter Jan van Eyck from 1433. The second work of art is Louis XIV by Hyacinthe Rigaud, a French Baroque painter. The portrait is from 1701 and is an oil-on-canvas painting. These two works of art both demonstrate a likeness of each of their subjects but use different styles, elements and emotions to captivate the viewer. In this essay I will detail why I believe Man in a Red Turban is the better portrait and why it is so effective.
Both artists’ paintings have become successful throughout the years. Through their similar use of line, movement, space, and color, they have created paintings that has been and will be seen by countless viewers. However, it is their contrasting use of value, emphasis, balance, and shape that have made their artwork different from one another, yet beautiful in their own way. It delivers a message to be different instead of going with the flow so that one day you, too, could be as successful as these painters.
I chose to analyze the The Family, 1941 portray and The Family, 1975 portray, both from Romare Bearden, for this essay because they are very similar paintings but at the same time very different. To write a critical analyzes it was necessary to choose two different paintings that had similar characteristics. The text about critical comparison said that to compare things they have to be similar, yet different, and that’s what these paintings look to me. As I had already written an analysis of The Family, 1941 portray I chose to analyze and compare The Family, 1975 this time. Both works have a lot of color in it and through the people’s faces in the pictures we can feel the different emotions that the paintings are conveying.
... study for the overall concept they appear rather as abstract patterns. The shadows of the figures were very carefully modeled. The light- dark contrasts of the shadows make them seem actually real. The spatial quality is only established through the relations between the sizes of the objects. The painting is not based on a geometrical, box like space. The perspective centre is on the right, despite the fact that the composition is laid in rows parallel to the picture frame. At the same time a paradoxical foreshortening from right to left is evident. The girl fishing with the orange dress and her mother are on the same level, that is, actually at equal distance. In its spatial contruction, the painting is also a successful construction, the groups of people sitting in the shade, and who should really be seen from above, are all shown directly from the side. The ideal eye level would actually be on different horizontal lines; first at head height of the standing figures, then of those seated. Seurats methods of combing observations which he collected over two years, corresponds, in its self invented techniques, to a modern lifelike painting rather than an academic history painting.
Dix’s chose to use oil paints on canvas when approaching this piece, which allowed him to explore a variety of techniques particularly apparent in the expression, style, color pallet, contrast and textures manipulated throughout the painting of Dr. Heinrich Stadelman. In the portrait Dix depicts a rather miserable looking old man. Dix paints Dr. Heinrich Stadelman’s body language and facial expression in an interestingly distinct manner. He greatly manipulates the painting in many ways in order to get it to come across so captivatingly.
Unlike David, Delacroix used “imprecise, quick, sketchy, and emotionally charged lines” (Notes) in his painting. With these lines they give implied action and movement and also present a use of directional forces. Directional forces are “paths for the eye to follow provided by actual of implied lines” (Notes). In Delcroix painting you can start at the focal point which is Sardanapalus looking down, then you travel throughout the painting and actually ending up back at Sardanapalus. “The Death of Socrates” uses directional forces too but “The Death of Sardanapalus” use of lines create more movement in the
... though employing a familiar subject (the female form), shows the transformation from busy mosaics with gold embellishments to a brighter palate of colors and the use of stronger, bolder lines. The piece exemplifies his versatility as an artist.
The main influences perceptible in this painting are those of Millet, Delacroix, and the Impressio...
It differs greatly, in its portrayal of mothers, from Le Brun’s Self-portrait with her Daughter and Cassatt’s artworks. Behind Marie Antoinette, you see a jewelry cabinet, off to the right of the canvas. This illustrates that, although she is with her children, she finds treasure within her own materialistic objects. Furthermore, her expression lacks emotion as she holds the child loosely within her arms. The child looks off, barely acknowledging its mother, who is holding him. Next, the child, on the far right of the canvas, reveals an empty cradle, alluding to a child who has died. Again, Marie seems unfazed or simply chooses not to acknowledge the boy’s actions. Furthermore, the young girl, on the right of the canvas, clings on to her mother as she lovingly looks up to her mother. Marie holds a wry smile, appearing somewhat annoyed or displeased. The color scheme is dark, but Le Brun utilizes contrast to emphasize the royal family. However, it only works to further expose the detached relationship between a Marie and her children. According to the lecture, “To counter people’s hatred of the queen and their criticisms of her as a bad (even a degenerate) mother, Vigée Le Brun was commissioned to paint this portrait of Marie Antoinette and her children” (Gartrell). Sadly, the painting was
painting, to look at it from an artist’s perspective, one can see all of the little details that
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.
that draws the strongest contrast. When I see his painting, I see someone that is trying to express