Romantic Era Blog
The two impressionist works I am looking at for this entry are Child’s Bath, 1893(1st), by Mary Cassatt, and The Artist's Garden at Giverny, 1900(2nd) by Claude Monet. As is indicative of impressionist work, Cassatt seems to capture a moment in time; the mother washing her baby's feet in the bath. In Monet's work you can see the wide brush strokes and blending of colors, which create looser more blurry images and fusions of color.
Cassatt uses changes in color to create depth. In the painting, the lip of the bowl seems to protrude towards us, and you can see the mother's front knee dip into the other knee. Additionally the brush strokes are small in order to clearly distinguish objects and give them detail. Cassatt also used color to create light in several areas in the room.
I prefer Monet's style. The wide brushstrokes blurs the picture. The paint that Monet used, provides texture. The use of color allows for shadows creating the impression that there are clouds moving over the sun. Cassatt provokes a maternal sense in the reader while Monet likely strives for a reaction to the beauty of the garden.
I will also compare post-impressionism paintings Four Breton Girls by Paul Gauguin(1st) and Corridor in the Asylum by Vincent van Gogh(2nd). One of the themes in post-impressionist work is the symbolic personal themes present in paintings. In van Gogh's painting he is painting the asylum hallway he was in, days before he committed suicide. It was also characteristic of van Gogh to object the observed world to connect with the viewer, this is evident by his whimsical and childlike state of the hallway. van Gogh also uses line work to create the depth of the hallway. You can see the order and structure in Gauguin's work with the girls out in the field. The line work also keeps them as three separate figures. Gauguin also used color to create light from the sun and shadows in this painting.
The Artist’s Garden at Giverny, 1900 by Claude Monet. The artist’s garden at Giverny, 1900 by Claude Monet. (n.d.). https://www.claude-monet.com/the-artists-garden-at-giverny.jsp#prettyPhoto
Dutch, V. van G. (1889, September 1). Vincent van Gogh: Corridor in the asylum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336327
Ltd, W. F. M. (n.d.). Child’s bath. An Introduction to Nineteenth Century Art. https://www.19thcenturyart-facos.com/artwork/child%E2%80%99s-bath
Paul Gauguin paintings, Bio, ideas. The Art Story. (n.d.). https://www.theartstory.org/artist/gauguin-paul/
I wonder how people choose which scene to draw, the child's bath one just seems so random to me. I can see what you mean by the perspective in that one, it feels three-dimensional. Judging by this selection of works, I think the post-impressionism may be my favorite simply because of the inclusion of the asylum corridor painting. I like the color and perspective in that one. I wonder how one could connect the two styles in a painting that depicts both the every day as well as symbolism. I suppose you could find symbolism in anything, but I do like the ones that mean something as well as looking good.
ReplyDelete