‘The Third Class Carriage’, one of a series of three oil paintings curated by French realist painter Honoré Daumier between 1863 to 1855. The incomplete painting is now featured in the National Gallery of Canada. Honoré Daumier born in Marseille, France in 1808 and at the young age of fourteen began as an apprentice to artist and archaeologist Alexander Lenoir. The techniques he acquired “ led to his admission into the Académie Suisse, a respected Paris art school”. Although, Daumier was known for his caricature work he produced several famous sculptures and paintings like The Third Class Carriage. The series was initially commissioned by William Thomas Walters, an American businessman and an avid art collector. He invested in the wholesale …show more content…
The depiction the affluent population is extremely heterogeneous, as the majority of them are men clothed in black and two of which bear top hats. Amongst the elite is a woman that is presumably accompanied by a male figure, as it was a requirement due to the restriction in Pairs during the nineteenth century. Opposed to upper-middle class sits the lower class, which emphasizes the isolation from the remaining society. Within the proletariat Daumier illustrates four generations, that include infantry, youth, middle age, and old age. Together they form a triangle formation reinforcing the social hierarchy during Paris in the 1800s. The lower class are drawn in a larger composition to give them a commanding presence and establish distance however, this contradicts the roofs purpose of creating a cavernous space. The casting of light from the windows onto the less affluent exemplifies the prospect of opportunities while emphasizing them. The details of hardships and struggle is captured through their clothing, exhaustive posture and facile expression. The effect is also carried though the colours used, Daumier incorporates a variety of yellow, green, blue, and red hues. The use of dark values at a low saturation increases a dark somber tone, that is contrasted with the light be
The most emphasized part of this image is the man lying on top of the child and leaning against the bed, part of the body being directly in the center and seems to take up the most space, this is where the eye tends to linger. The negative space is made interesting by including a turned over chair, and rumpled sheets on a bed and other homely objects, which indicates that this is set in a home. The contrast that is shown in this artwork is through the use of value since Daumier used implied light, the brighter and darker areas create a contrast against each other. While this piece is not symmetrically balanced, it is balanced asymmetrically. It is asymmetrically balanced through a man and most of a bed being placed in the center, on the right is a small child, the upper torso of an older looking man, a chair next to him, and the rest of the bed; on the left of the man is most of what seems to be a woman, and other less detailed furniture. There is a sense of repetition through the positive shapes of the people lying on the floor, this is also shown through the use of line that creates the entire lithograph. This provides a sense of cohesiveness and unity throughout the
In Dusk on Lower Broadway, Lie depicts the average life of a New Yorker bustling down lower Broadway on a winter’s afternoon. The painting was created so that the observer is looking at the tall buildings in the background of the painting; which, from the viewer’s perspective are towering above all of the other figures in the painting. 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
The work depicts a family in plain clothing enclosed in a simple solitary room with a fading fire amidst the dark shadows of the background and another light source that extends from beyond the scope of the canvas. At first glance the influences of Caravaggio and Rembrandt are apparent. Their faces are neither, sad, sullen, angry, or joyful, but rather their emotional expression is plain and uncomplicated, adding a sense of timelessness to the painting. As in the description (20-34) of the piece which states; “It reflects 17th Century social theory, which celebrated the natural virtue of those that worked the soil”, (p. 609). The idea of portraying a classic simple lifestyle is a refreshing one and a concept which will reoccur in other works of the Baroque period.
...re because it is a sad picture. An elderly woman is peeling the potatoes and she is sitting on the floor and a young woman reading a romantic story. This painting also shows the dominant power of rich over poor. The lightings are good in that floor. The bulbs are turned to the area were the picture is exhibited so that the viewers can see the picture more clearly and better. The exhibition space is navigable by the visitors.
With this in mind, some perspective on the society of that time is vital. During this time the industrial revolution is taking place, a massive movement away from small farms, businesses operated out of homes, small shops on the corner, and so on. Instead, machines are mass-producing products in giant factories, with underpaid workers. No longer do people need to have individual skills. Now, it is only necessary that they can keep the machines going, and do small, repetitive work. The lower working class can no longer live a normal life following their own pursuits, but are lowered to working inhumane hours in these factories. This widens the gap between the upper and lower class-called bourgeois and proletariat-until they are essentially two different worlds. The bourgeois, a tiny portion of the population, has the majority of the wealth while the proletariat, t...
From the piece of artwork “Rain at the Auvers”. I can see roofs of houses that are tucked into a valley, trees hiding the town, black birds, clouds upon the horizon, hills, vegetation, a dark stormy sky and rain.
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...
They might not be very prominent, but they exist the painting and serve as the base for creation. For starters, the window pane contains lines that highlight its simple design. Simplicity remains as the core of this work. Moreover, sill is roughly represented by a thick brown line underneath the window as a boundary in a quietly brilliant fashion. The work has a wonderful color allocation to express the mood. The color is limited within the muted palette color range. Grey—the intermediate color of black and white, is the dominate color for both exterior view and the interior part, as a matter of fact, the observer notices that nearly all colors are mixed instead of natural this work. The cloudy sky corresponds to the grey color of the wall, yet the brightness is not influenced. However, this consistency has successfully created a cold, grave and silent environment for a crowded place such as New York. The whole environment of this painting seems to be surrounded by the negative and depressive
The lower status contradicts, the slaves to the wealthy and royalty, all delineate the role of the people present in the society and their everyday life. In the images, the poor and the slaves are depicted with little to no possessions, looking tired and over-worked. Through their everyday labor, they must survive as a less fortunate person. In contrast to the images of the poor, the wealthy display their prosperity and possessions, which they own which ranges from animals such as horses, to ornaments of precious treasures of gold, jewels, and even exquisite dresses, garments, robes and gowns.... ...
The modern bourgeois society […] has established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in the place of old ones. Our epoch has simplified the class antagonisms: Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, two great camps facing each other: Bourgeois and Proletariat (Cohen and Fermon, 448-449).
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.
Inside the nicely decorated room with taupe walls just the perfect hint of beige, lie colorful accessories with incredible stories waiting to be told. A spotless, uninteresting window hangs at the end of the room. Like a silent watchman observing all the mysterious characteristics of the area. The sheer white curtains cascade silently in the dim lethargic room. In the presence of this commotion, a sleepy, dormant, charming room sits waiting to be discovered. Just beyond the slightly pollen and dust laden screens, the sun struggles to peak around the edges of the darkness to cast a bright, enthusiastic beam of light into the world that lies beyond the spotless double panes of glass. Daylight casts a dazzling light on the various trees and flowers in the woods. The leaves of fall, showcasing colors of orange, red, and mustard radiate from the gold inviting sunshine on a cool fall day. A wonderful world comes to life outside the porthole. Colossal colors littered with, abundant number of birds preparing themselves for the long awaited venture south, and an old toad in search of the perfect log to fall asleep in for the winter.
Georg Simmel explores the impact societal differentiation played on the 20th century, in the article Fashion, published in 1957 in The American Journal of Sociology, Volume LXII, Number 6. In this text he defines his theory stating “The elite initiate a fashion and, when the mass imitates it in an effort to obliterate the external distinction of class, abandons it for a newer mode- a process that quickens with the increase of wealth” (Fashion, p.541). Fashion connects those of a higher social class and segregates them from others. Simmel believes that fashion evolves from class differentiation, as members of the elite class seek to set themselves apart from other classes, and in turn a revolving cycle begins (Blumer, p.277). Members from other lower classes copy the elite’s fashion and with this the elite must change...
All those things, of which another women of her rank would never have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry” (Maupassant, 505). Marxism was portrayed here because she is conscious that all these things are worrying her and it is all pessimistic. The fact that she is in the lower-class makes matters worse because all the things she wants, she can never have. She is trapped in a class that would not help mitigate the fact that she does not have what the upper-class have. Another concept of proletariat is shown because “She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing.” (Maupassant, 505). Maupassant displayed Proletariat to this problem because she cannot go to these fancy events made for the upper-class. Mathilde felt that in order to fulfill the expectation of the wealthier, she needed to buy a new dress. The stereotype is shown here that the upper-class people wear nicer, better and more expensive clothes because they are
The implied sunlight is natural that has an illusion of coming through the clouds, the reality of the sunlight seems to dry out the land. Yet, it symbolizes the overcoming of the end of a drought on the rural crop lands. The colors of neutral tones are used predominately throughout the landscape. The brown neutral-toned houses are surrounded by wisps of yellow, overgrown, grass which seem to represent the destruction that mankind has caused, in turn, is suppressing nature and holding back the potential beauty it could unleash. The dull grass and trees lack vivid colors and present a lackluster mood. Yet, the yellow grass draws you to the horizon of the painting. This seems to resemble the hopefulness of a new crop in the dry crop land. The yellow grass shows the harsh results of a drought that has been sprinkled with blue horizontal streaks. The blue horizontal streaks demonstrate puddles of water as if it has recently rained. The blue color emits a feeling of calmness as if the uneasiness of the drought season has been lifted. The colors lack blending and create a blunt contrast appearance. The dark shadow in the bottom right corner mysteriousness and an ominous feeling of an omniscient presence. The form the artist chose to work with demonstrated an organic form with a combination of a geometric form because of the three structures at the focal point of the painting (DeWitte, et al., 2015). The artist made this choice to show the results of a drought caused by the