The portrait. A single person immortalized forever on canvas. At first glance, you only see the subject. With a more analytical eye, though, you not only see the image but you begin to hear the voice of the painter and of his time. This is what I hope to do, to feel and understand the mind of the painter Ingres when he painted Louis-Francois Bertin and Reynolds when he painted General John Burgoyne.
In the portrait of Bertin, Ingres has captured on canvas a man who has never been pampered in his life. You feel by looking at him that this is a man who has worked for everything that he has ever received in his life. Why do you feel this, though? Let’s begin with the colors chosen for this piece.
The colors revolve around brown, giving you the impression of something very down to earth. The background of the painting is basically one solid brown. Bertin occupies the whole bottom section of the painting, with nothing of his body going above three-fourths of the canvas. He is the ground, below even the earth tones of the background.
He has on a black suit, brown vest, and white shirt, as well. These colors working together allow you to make certain assumptions about him. He looks like a working man, which he was. “Louis-Francois Bertin (1766-1841), was one of the great leaders of the French upper middle class, a businessman and a journalist” (Rosenblum, 134). This would explain the one striking color in the piece, the red.
Bertin is sitting on a red cushion, red being a color classically associated with royalty. This could be a commentary on Bertin’s life on a whole. His journal, the Journal des Debats was a strong supporter of liberal journalism in a time when France, the monarchs from the self proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte to King Charles X, wanted the return of an absolute monarch in France. The people were not happy with this and Bertin’s newspaper spread this displeasure. Bertin was even exiled for a period of time by Napoleon Bonaparte for his royalist views. He wanted a constitutional monarch set up. But, after the fall of Bonaparte, Bertin returned and continued his life, prospering. Monet even called this portrait “the Buddha of bourgeoisie” (Rosenblum, 134). This portrait should be looked upon as the pinnacle image of the bourgeoisie of the time.
Upon returning to his studio Storrier picks a photograph that can be associated in a variety of ways. He makes works similar in subject matter, but which give different overall impressions. 'I never work from photographic documents. The little polaroids are just mental records. I paint pictures about, not from, photographs.' He explores the concept, and makes preliminary sketches and small studies of his ideas to decide the colour and tone. He chooses the size to make his artwork oncer he has his idea.
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...
One of the major factors that can help for analyzing the meaning of this sculpture is the artist himself. However, more important than the artist himself, are his experiences, which greatly shaped the intended meaning of the piece. Rodin’s life consisted of several impactful events such as being rejected from colleges, visiting Italy to study the art of Michelangelo, being diagnosed with poor eyesight at a young age, and experiencing World War I (Auguste Rodin Biography). All of these early life-impacting events caused Rodin to search for an inspiration, or a getaway from the war scenery and his past failures. This getaway trip was found wh...
In the Enseigne, art is also shown to serve a function that it has always fulfilled in every society founded on class differences. As a luxury commodity it is an index of social status. It marks the distinction between those who have the leisure and wealth to know about art and posses it, and those who do not. In Gersaint’s signboard, art is presented in a context where its social function is openly and self-consciously declared. In summary, Watteau reveals art to be a product of society, nevertheless he refashions past artistic traditions. Other than other contemporary painters however, his relationship to the past is not presented as a revolt, but rather like the appreciative, attentive commentary of a conversational partner.
Spending time looking at art is a way of trying to get into an artists’ mind and understand what he is trying to tell you through his work. The feeling is rewarding in two distinctive ways; one notices the differences in the style of painting and the common features that dominate the art world. When comparing the two paintings, The Kneeling Woman by Fernand Leger and Two Women on a Wharf by Willem de Kooning, one can see the similarities and differences in the subjects of the paintings, the use of colors, and the layout
This painting of the industrial revolution is very thought provoking, and causes a person to think about of what was happening during the industrial revolution. He shows the horrors of the factories and the serenity of the nature. He makes someone want to go back in time where things were peaceful, and there was just nature. Everything was in it’s own natural state and peaceful. This painting gave viewers a small glimpse into the past of the United States and the industrial revolution. Even though this picture showed a small glimpse of the past, a picture (or painting) is truly worth a thousand
This painting of the industrial revolution is very thought provoking, and causes a person to think about of what was happening during the industrial revolution. He shows the horrors of the factories and the serenity of the nature. He makes someone want to go back in time where things were peaceful, and there was just nature. Everything was in it’s own natural state and peaceful.
..., the broader feel of the scene. He wants us to take in the entirety of the painting but have a moment to catch the individual scenes within it, like the couple dancing, the man in the corner rolling his cigar, or the women in the front talking to the man. We do get places where our eyes can rest, but in general your eye takes in the swirl of modern life and pleasure.
"The citizenesses in the gallery", is used in the second paragraph to describe the women that the upper-class men would seek to win approval of. In the final paragraph, "the sans-culotte always has his sword with the edge sharpened, ready to cut off the ears of all opponents of the Revolution", is symbolic for uprising and anger of the pro-revolutionary "sans-culottes".
...epth perception, and clear lines make Sebastians Still Life with Glasses seem real. Brushstrokes, unclear lines on the table, and distance not visible to the viewer but symbolic, make Jeans’ Still Life with Kitchen Utensils more of a work of art, than a depiction of what is real.Jean portrays a table in a house of a commoner and Sebastian, a table in the house of the wealthy. The viewer of both of these paintings, is himself of nobility. On the one hand he sees this lush kitchen table of Sebastians’ and relishes in his own wealth, but on the other, he seems separated from the poverty of Jeans table. The wealthy man has the grapes, but not the onions, not the wisdom of the poor that leads them to seek virtuous things rather than material objects.He is inevitably separated from both the pain of poverty, and the wisdom of the righteous not self seeking but humble man.
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
According to Shearer West, a portrait is “a work of art that represents a unique individual”. West elaborates on the implications of this definition of a portrait, introducing the dilemma of the painter, who may strive to illustrate either or both the ideal figure, or a likeness of the sitter. Jean Germain Drouais’ resolution to such a dilemma can be observed in the painting, Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame, as he struggles to portray both the femininity of the ideal woman in the 1760s, while conveying the more present, aged and unique characteristics of the lady that captured King Louis XV’s heart.
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.
images in this painting, all of which have the power to symbolize to us, the viewer, of the painter’s
Rembrandt van Rijn, a prolific painter and etcher, is noted as the greatest Dutch artist of the Golden Age. Pasadena’s Norton Simon museum is home to some of his achievements, including one of his many self portraits titled Self Portrait painted in 1636-1638. Throughout his lifetime, Rembrandt documented his life in paintings. This autobiography of self portraits was very uncommon for the seventeenth century and helped establish his reputation as an artist. These portraits created a timeline of Rembrandt’s life, as well as document the evolution of his artistic style and expression. He was an exceptional inspiration to the following generation of artists.