The Green Violinist
In this paper I will discuss the print called The Green Violinist. This painting was created by Marc Chagall in the years of 1923 and 1924. It is quite a large painting since it is 78” tall and 42 ¾” wide. It is an oil on canvas painting. The main figure in the painting is a strange looking man playing a violin. He has green skin and a black beard. His face is painted at an odd angle. His facial features are contorted at various angles. He is holding his violin and bow in his hands. One hand is ungloved while the other is wearing a white glove. He is wearing a long purple top coat that reaches to the middle of his calves. He has on a purple cap as well. His feet do not appear to be touching the ground. He looks like he is standing on two rooftops. He appears to be larger than life, almost like he might exist in a dream. In the foreground there is what looks like a large dog with his feet on one of the roofs the violinist is standing on. There is a church top in between the two houses he is standing on. In the middle ground, just behind the man, is another much smaller man who appears to be holding another violin up by the tuning section of the violin. In the background are two more houses with clouds above and behind them. Another man is reaching up into the sky between these two houses towards a being in a purple jumpsuit that looks like he is floating or flying in the sky as the violinist plays. There is a man sitting on the ground hunched over on the backside of one of the houses as a man on a horse and buggy drive by. Only the horse is looking back toward the violinist.
Bright colors are used sparingly in this painting. The violinist’s hat, coat, skin color, and the violin itself use ...
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...e who can successfully influence people without them knowing they are being influenced stands to gain the upper hand in shaping society. The work of art is successful in making the person viewing it think about its meaning. The distorted features and patchwork make-up of the fiddler himself is symbolic to me of the things in this world which we are vaguely aware of but affect us all nonetheless. The formal theory applies to this painting. It applies because he uses a secondary color scheme and he uses complimentary colors such as black and white on the shoes of the violinist. He also uses contrast with the dark green face of the man and the bright orange of the violin. The purple coat the man is wearing bounces off the bright back ground. The work is organized in a way which draws the eyes of the viewer first to the fiddler, then through the rest of the image.
Wayne, transforms this painting into a three dimensional abstract piece of art. The focal point of the painting are the figures that look like letters and numbers that are in the front of the piece of art. This is where your eyes expend more time, also sometimes forgiving the background. The way the artist is trying to present this piece is showing happiness, excitement, and dreams. Happiness because he transmits with the bright colours. After probably 15 minutes on front of the painting I can feel that the artist tries to show his happiness, but in serene calm. The excitement that he presents with the letters, numbers and figures is a signal that he feels anxious about what the future is going to bring. Also in the way that the colors in the background are present he is showing that no matter how dark our day can be always will be light to
Our attention is drawn down by the diagonal light ray coming down from the top center of the painting to first the young girl in the green dress and the rest of the musicians. Our gaze is further directed to these same musicians by the flute played by the shirtless angel-like man.
Contextual Theory: This painting depicts a portrait of life during the late 1800’s. The women’s clothing and hair style represent that era. Gorgeous landscape and a leisurely moment are captured by the artist in this work of
... 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.
The painting depicts two figures, the one of a woman and of a man. The dominating central figure is the one of the woman. We see her profile as she looks to the left. Her hands are crossed in a graceful manner. She has blonde hair and her figure is lit by what seems to be natur...
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
images in this painting, all of which have the power to symbolize to us, the viewer, of the painter’s
It appears to me that pictures have been over-valued; held up by a blind admiration as ideal things, and almost as standards by which nature is to be judged rather than the reverse; and this false estimate has been sanctioned by the extravagant epithets that have been applied to painters, and "the divine," "the inspired," and so forth. Yet in reality, what are the most sublime productions of the pencil but selections of some of the forms of nature, and copies of a few of her evanescent effects, and this is the result, not of inspiration, but of long and patient study, under the instruction of much good sense…
The composition of the painting takes place with the square of the canvas. The square is approximately 5' x 5'. A black frame surrounding the painting protrudes approximately 4" off the canvas. There is a 1" inlay between the canvas and frame. From this square, Reinhardt breaks the composition into six equal squares in three even rows. Texture is no where to be found in the painting. No visual indication of the artist's brush stroke is present. No varnished glare is given off by the piece. The entire work, including the frame, is completely matte. The squares take up the entire canvas in a checkerboard type arrangement. Each square is a slightly different shade of blue-black. It almost becomes impossible to see the difference between each square. The middle squares in the top and bottom rows shift more towards blue than the rest of the squares. The division of these middle squares become more obvious than the others. When the painting is looked at from a distance, it is almost impossible to see any of the squares at all. When looking from a far, all a viewer can see is a blackish blue canvas. As you stare longer into the painting, a halo begins to form around the corners of the canvas, creating a circle inside the square. Once you look away from the canvas, the circle is gone. With this observation in mind, we could say that the painting most definitely relies on the viewer. A viewer is required to look at the piece for its full affect. We could say that the squares in the painting are self-contained.
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...
We walked and walked looking at each art piece, which were all well displayed. Then as I looked at the back wall, a large oil canvas painting looked right back at me. I could feel its pain and so then, I decided to do my paper on this piece. The painting was The Ragpicker by Manet. (The Ragpicker. Edouard Manet.1865.Oil on canvas.) The painting was so enormous that it was hard to miss. Such a huge painting for one man, it almost looked life-like. The dimensions of this work is 76.75” x 51.25”. This scene seems to take place of a lower-class man late in his age, probably near his seventies, appears to be looking out of the corner of his eye. The ...
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 order to familiarise myself with the above topic, I have invested much time reading vast selection of the portraiture art themes with aim to get acquainted with the knowledge and the language used in this particular subject. It was very challenging and entertaining to read comprehensive range of various critiques and analysis of the world best paintings stretching from ancient classic to contemporary western image. Developing understanding of the diverse art expressions and social and political influences tha...
For this formal analysis paper I would like to talk about a painting done by the artist named Peter Paul Reubens. The piece itself is entitled, "The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de Medicis on May 14, 1610." The painting was completed in the year 1610, and today it is on display at the Louvre in Paris, France. This painting was one of many that I had to choose from when I was deciding on what to write about. Many internet sites across the world had so many pieces from which to look at, but when it really came down to it, I wanted to write a paper over a topic on which I have held great interest in, that which of course is the Baroque style of painting. Peter Paul Reubens (1577-1640) exemplifies the Baroque style in painting, as did another type of artist from that period who excelled in the art of sculpting. That artist which I speak of, is of course Bernini. Both men were very prolific workers, and according to the text, were the favorites of very powerful rulers. Yet aside from his artistic prowess, I find Reubens' usage of religious themes in his paintings to be very appealing, and I think that is why I liked his work entitled, "The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de Medicis on May 14, 1610," so much. In addition, I was amazed at his mastery of implying the elements and principles of art, which in essence made this work achievable. Therefore, f...
The short story, “Unlighted Lamps,” by author Sherwood Anderson is about a relationship between a father and his daughter. Their relationship is a stressful one because neither of them talk to each other, nor show their emotions. Throughout the story, you find out why their relationship is the way that it is, and why it is hard for her father to talk to her. The unlighted lamps in the story represent flashbacks of memories wherever light dances across something.