Art History 101

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Art History 101

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Portraits, from Romanticism to Impressionism

La Salle College Major Movements in Arts 502-­‐CH3-­‐AS By Maria M Ramirez

Insane Woman by Gericault Page 3

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Table of

Contents Self Portrait

by Courbet Page 4

Intro to Impressionism Page 6

Marie Therese Durand Ruel sewing by Renoir Page 7

The Artist’s Gardener

By Carolus-­‐Duran Page 8

Self-­‐Portrait

by Monet page 9 Impressionism

in a nutshell

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page 10

Bibliography page 11

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They are all the same, right?

Editor’s note:

At first when looking through a museum like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Musée des beaux-­‐arts de Montréal, Musée du Louvre, etc., the viewer will encounter many portraits and self portraits. At first all this paintings might look he same a person normally posing portrayed in a canvas.

What many persons walking in front of this canvases every day don’t realize is that the artist, when doing a portrait, tries to capture more than just the pretty face of a girl, the artist tries to capture the personality, the ambient mood, the society and so much more in just that picture of a girl. Every little detail was an artist decision even if the viewer does not realize it. The way the model poses, how the hair falls, the cloths and the environment can tell the viewer so much information about the period where the painting was made, if you know how to decode it.

In this edition of “Art History 101” we are going to explore different portraits for the Romantic Era to the Impressionism and try to unlock the meaning behind the details and the artist choices in each portrait.

The selection was made carefully picking some of the most influential artist of each period like Renoir for the Impressionist, Courbet for the Realist and Gericault for the Romanticist. This issue and the next one will work as a “Decoding Portraits for Dummies” series where we will study portraits to help all of our readers to enjoy museum more vastly.

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“Insane Woman” Théodore Gericault 1822 Oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-­‐Arts de Lyon, Lyon

Romanticism

The revolt against rationality

The Romantic Era was the time period between 1800 and 1840. Just after the Enlighten period, the French Revolution and in the midst of the Industrial revolution. This period was surrounded by a big number of important changes in the world. The artists were revolting against the Neoclassicism, and focused of the feeling and emotions rather than the reality in front of their eyes. The romantic era is all about how the artist feels and his perception of the events. This period both the visual arts and literature exhibited an amazing development. In literature the horror genre was created (Edgar Allan Poe). In general this period was truly remarkable in art and it helped develop a number of recognized artists and techniques.

This painting represents the revolt against the Neoclassicism perfection. In this painting you see an old, wrinkled lady with repulsive features, staring into the distance. She is dressed with simple wrinkled and dirty clothes that probably mean she is a peasant. This also is reinforced by the colors of the piece that are brown, earth tones and yellows that make the lady look old and dirty.

Besides the texture in this painting enforces the idea, wrinkled clothes and face, messy hair, etc. the texture allows the mood to come across, given the fact that this is a romantic painting the mood is one of the most important aspects, in this particular painting because of the colors and

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texture it has a grimy mood uncomfortable to look at feeling, because of the unpolished look of the painting. The composition is the basic “Rule Of Thirds” where the face is located in the center of the picture and the headpiece that frames the head in the focus points. This makes the eyes go from the headpiece to the black, blood shot, eyes down the nose and to the clothes. The picture is balanced the nose being at the middle of the painting, which makes it balance and steady in contrast with the literally crazy subject matter.

This painting doesn’t have a lot of contrast it uses mostly dark colors except for the yellow face and white headpiece.

The artist takes up most of the space so the viewer feels close to the insane woman and trapped and scared to this woman.

This picture represents the insanity and oldness of the woman and does not mask it, transmitting a lot of emotion, what the Romantic era is all about. At first glance the viewer can realize that this woman has a psychological disorder and the repulsion of the artist and the society against her. This picture through the colors and the lines makes the viewer stare at the w oman’s face and deconstruct it every flaw and detail. Also suffering the struggles of the lady. For me is a really emotional, ground-­‐shaking piece where the viewer gets engaged with this insane lady and her emotions.

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Realism Truth can be discovered through the senses During the Realist era (c.1840-­‐1880) the artists once again went again the previous style. In the realism all the imagination and the emotions of the romantics and only painted the reality as seen. This for French was a “Rollercoaster Period”; the nation went through different political upheavals during this period. Actually most of Europe was going through revolutions c 1848. With all these chaos the artist started representation their reality mostly close to home. Using mostly direct observation and real objects, not their imagination as a lot of romanticist artist did.

contrast between the wrinkles in both the hands and the sleeves gives this painting different intricate texture (hair, wrinkles, skin, etc.). The composition of this artwork is triangular having the apex above the forehead near where the hands meet, this make the eye of the viewer to stay in that zone mostly. Following the line created along the face, left arm, apron and left arm back to the face given the eyes a chance to go through out all the painting. The detailing in the hands creates movement as if Courbet is scratching his head or moving his fingers across his hair, specially the left hand.

This painting has a perfect balance and it looks almost symmetrical if a line is drawn right down the middle, even This is one of the earliest paintings by the master of the facial hair is almost symmetrical in both sides. the Realism, Gustave Courbet. This is a self-­‐portrait known as “The Desperate Man”, the painting contains a young men This painting represents the realism movement looking into the viewer while holding his hair in its hands. because it looks as if someone found Courbet in his studio What is most striking of this painting is the mood; because of worrying about something and took a photo. Every detail of the realism in the artwork the viewer feels as it is in the art his face looks real; at first sight the viewer could mistake it studio with Courbet when he was feeling desperate as he for photography. Thanks to the little details as the paint in describes it. Thanks to the way the eyes are represented the apron the messy hair, the bear that could use a shaving, open and with the pupil dilated, and also the way the hands the open nostrils because of the emotion, the holes in the grab his hair look as is he is so desperate and stressed that wrists, etc. You realize that the artist, in this painting, was a he just wants to ripe his hair out . The colors used and the young probably struggling artist for the atmosphere of contrast between them, a lot of different tints and shades of desperation and of course the tittle. whites, beiges, and blues help this mood develop. The

The Desperate Man (Self-­‐Portrait) Gustave Courbet 1843-­‐1845 Oil on Canvas Private Collection

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Claude Monet. Self-

Impressionism

“The subject matter, my dear good fellow, is the light”

Claude Monet

Impressionism first started being known to the public in 1863. It started after the work of Manet was rejected by the academy and could not participate in the “Salon of Paris”.

Napoleon III decided that the public must see this artwork and did a mock salon called “Salon des Refusés”, where the artwork was exhibited. Mostly people wanting to laugh and mock the artwork attended this salon. But at the end it attracted more viewer than the regular salon and the public now was aware of the new style.

The impressionist era was surrounded by technological and cultural changes. Thomas Edison had invented the electrical light bulb. Japan started commercializing to the world.

The cameras started being improved from the Camera Obscura. All this changes influenced the Impressionist current, specially the cameras, painting were not used to remember, photos replaced them.

Portrait. 1886. Oil on canvas. Private collection, Paris, France

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Claude Monet. Selate e

The Artist Gardener

Carolus-­‐Duran 1893 Oil on canvas

Sterling & Fancine Art institute, USA

This portrait represents an unpolished man, probably lower class, with a jacket that looks as if the artist gave to him and he took it with some doubts. The man is looking just slightly off the viewer. The composition is remarkable it has a triangular composition and also the eyes align to the “Rule of Thirds”, That makes the eyes stay in the face of the man and really focus also in the body language it shows. The lines follow the men from the eyes to his left arm, the hand, blue shirt and finally the face again, that cycle helps the viewer really discover the details of the painting. This portrait colors are interesting because of the lack of an extensive color palette, mostly browns and ochre. This creates a dark, mysterious mood helped with the way the eyes are depicted. Also the lack of contrast gives the painting a uniform look. Also the treatment of the texture is quite rare the hair and the jacket are filled with it only if the viewer stands further away. This texture creates the illusion as is the model is trying too hard to stand still without changing his pose, helped by the position of the hands. Therefore creating a stillness and it does not . The picture is balanced towards the right were most of the foreground appears causing the men to appear slanted toward that side.

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Therese “Marie Durand -­‐Ruel sewing”

In this portrait appears the daughter of Renoir’s art dealer (Paul Durand-­‐Ruel). She was a young wealthy high-­‐class girl sewing in the midst of a floral garden. The colors in the picture are really vibrant, saturated and pigmented a very large palette of different colors. Thanks to the colors, the mood of the painting is playful and joyful, also is calming because of how the girl is concentrated in sewing peacefully. Also because of the lack of contrast in colors, mostly light colors except for the background. The background has dark undertones with lots of vegetation, so it does not appear to have much free space; which makes the viewer feel trapped and immersed in the artwork. The picture is slightly balanced to the right where the girl is.

That makes the lines go from the red hat through the hair then to the hands and the flowers in the low left in a spiral form. The composition in addition to have the spiral is also triangular made by the hat, hair and hands. The texture as in the other painting is created, as the viewer looks the painting from farther away by the thin brushstrokes with a lot of different tints of the same color close to each other, in places like the flowers, the hair and the dress.

Pierre August Renoir “Marie Therese Durand -­‐Ruel sewing” 1882 Oil on canvas Sterling & Fancine Art institute, USA

Claude Monet. Selate e

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Claude Monet. Selate e

Self Portrait

This self-­‐portrait done by Monet was done in the later period of his life. After he moved to Giverny, where he painted most of his masterpieces. This is a simple shoulder lenght portrait that has a lot of contrast between the light blue background, that at first glance appears to be empty, and the figure being darkened by the dark brown beard and dark grey jacket. The colors used are mostly tints and shades of blue and grey mostly in the background and the clothe of the artist with the exception of the pink for the skin. Thanks to this the artwork looks almost monochromatic.

Thank to the mostly light colors and the perception of monochrome the painting has a light, calm, reflexive mood; also thanks to the expression of Monet, who appears to be meditating. This is accentuated by the lack of movement in the painting Monet appears to be still gazing into the infinity. The triangular composition and the free space, make the eyes to stay in the face, following the line from the eyes to the tie. The texture, as for m ost of the impressionist artworks, is subtle and is given by the light brush strokes and use of the different tones for the same color in a close space, in this artwork in particular the texture is light and extra subtle, not the first thing the viewer picks out when seeing the painting.

Latly as mentioned before, it can be really appreciated if the viewer stands further away.

Claude Monet.

“Self-­‐Portrait. “ 1886.

Oil on canvas Private collection, Paris, France

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Impressionism In a nutshell

In the Impressionist era the portraits were mostly depicted close persons to the artist. All of the persons illustrated above are close to the a[Street rtist; his Agddress] ardener, the daughter of his art dealer and himself. It was based on the direct observation and this can be noted when you

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study the treatment of the light by the artist and the facial expression the viewer could tell that they are close to the artist. F urthermore the p[Web ainting oesn’t seem posed, excepting the first one as a m ockery of high-­‐class portraits. Especially the Renoir where it seems that Adddress] he saw the girl sewing for a couple of minutes and started working right away to capture that impression.

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Bibliography •

http://www.writedesignonlin e.com/history-­‐ culture/impressionism.htm

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http://artyfactory.com/art_ap preciation/timelines/modern _art_timeline.htm

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http://www.artilim.com/artis t/renoir-­‐pierre-­‐auguste/

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http://www.enotes.com/reali sm/historical-­‐context

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http://www.wikipaintings.or g/en/gustave-­‐courbet/the-­‐ desperate-­‐man-­‐self-­‐portrait-­‐ 1845

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http://www.the-­‐art-­‐ world.com/history/realism2. htm#.ULdoZKVZX7I

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