art 107 ch 3
Rodin, The Burghers of Calais, 1884-86
-commissioned by the French city of Calais to create a sculpture that commemorated the heroism of Eustache de Saint-Pierre, a prominent citizen of Calais, during the dreadful Hundred Years' War between England and France -six men covered only in simple layers of tattered sackcloth; their bodies appearing thin and malnourished with bones and joints clearly visible. Each man is a burgher, or city councilmen, of Calais, and each has their own stance and identifiable features. -They are drawn together not through physical or verbal contact, but by their slumped shoulders, bare feet, and an expression of utter anguish. -King Edward III made a deal with the citizens of Calais: if they wished to save their lives and their beloved city, then not only must they surrender the keys to the city, but six prominent members of the city council must volunteer to give up their lives.; their lives would eventually be spared -By bringing these men down to 'street level,' Rodin allowed the viewer to easily look up into the men's faces mere inches from his/her own; enhancing the personal connection between the viewer and the six men. -he created a second version, one lacking a pedestal, to be placed at the Musée Rodin at the Hôtel Biron in Paris. Rodin's goal was to bring the audience into his sculpture of The Burghers of Calais, and he accomplished this by not only positioning each figure in a different stance with the men's heads facing separate directions, but he lowered them down to street level so a viewer could easily walk around the sculpture and see each man and each facial expression and feel as if they were a part of the group, personally experiencing the tragic event.
Rousseau, The Dream, 1910
-displayed at salon -name is yadwhiga, she's dreaming -she directs view to animals and singer -repetition of eyes staring at us and defined foliage -artist used to collect tolls for produce entering paris -resigned after 20 years of collecting tolls to focus on art -yadwhiga is strong, oddly tubular fingers and toes, not like traditional art -artist was self taught -had multiple jungle paintings -world fair allowed him to study more animals, as well as using photography -disregards linear perspective, various light sources
Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, 1888
-jacob wrestling with angel -japanese print influence bc of flatness and diagonal tree trunk that divides canvas -red is angry and powerful -peasants praying in foreground, but painting isn't religious; about people having a religious experience tree separates physical realm from spiritual realm -bringing religious imagery into modern world
Cézanne, The Large Bathers, 1906
-unfinished and flat figures -forms and faces are barely sketched in -classicism> compare to Titian's painting of bathers > classicizing renaissance subject manner -figures are not sensual, they're elongated -modern france: man walking to church with horse in the back -building on impressionism
Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884-86
1886 was the year of the last Impressionist exhibition and the movement spurred a wide range in approaches to art. over 6 feet tall and 10 feet long; over 1 year of labor, over 50 preparatory sketches; exhibited at the last Impressionist exhibition - was stunning and controversial; divisionism: broke down color into primary and secondary groups; Seurat would put yellow and blue dots next to each other letting the viewers eye mix the two to make green; luminous representation of light.
Claudel, The Age of Maturity, 1907
: lthree naked figures, a young woman on her knees whose outstretched hands appear to have just released from their grip the hand of an older man, who is held in the arms of another, older woman, who appears to be compelling the man forward and away from the young woman. The title points to an allegory of aging, in which the man, the protagonist of the piece, is leaving his youth and moving towards old age and death. The Age of Maturity has been read in more autobiographical terms, telling the tale of Claudel's turbulent relationship with Rodin, a man twenty-four years her senior. The Age of Maturity has been read in more autobiographical terms: love triangle; rodin left claudel to return to his mistress and son the way the man's groin is covered by drapery suggests a decision made less for the sake of modesty than to suggest the fact that Rodin's rejection of passionate love in favor of security and domestic equilibrium has effectively emasculated him.
Rodin, Thought (Camille Claudel), 1886
A marble work, based on clay and plaster originals, the carving was done by an assistant; liked the contrast between the smooth quality of the actual sculpture and the roughness of the uncarved block
Symbolism
A popular, yet radical movement in art and literature; a descendant of Romanticism and against materialism in life; about the inner feelings and spirituality of an individual artist; inspiration for future artists.
Rodin, Gates of Hell, 1880-1917
A portal for the proposed Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris; based on Dante's Inferno and the Florence Baptistry doors called the Gates of Paradise; 18' x 12' supposed to be the Sistine Ceiling of sculpture, but was never carried beyond the stage of preliminary studies and a few completed figures; the doors were assembled posthumously; many of his free standing sculptures are included in the composition including The Thinker -finished it but then continued working on it -shows figures that dante finds in. hell
Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril, 1899.
Another 4-color lithographic poster designed by Toulouse-Lautrec; this poster advertises the wildly popular entertainer Jane Avril
Toulouse-Lautrec, Bruant at the Ambassadeurs, ca. 1890s
Another advertisement for an entertainer/ singer.
Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, 1897-98
Art as religion, this painting is 4 1/2 feet by 12 feet and was done after the news of his favorite daughter's death; feel of despair; attempted suicide by drinking arsenic; he recovered and was productive until his death in 1903; his painting continued to portray the dream rather than the reality of his life in Tahiti; his influence is profound on other artists in the 20th century; when he died, the natives mourned him in a traditional manner as they saw him as one of their own. Recently, scholarship has opened up the discussion of Gauguin's behavior while in Tahiti.
Paul Cézanne, Battle of Love, ca. 1880
At this point in his art, the subject represents for Cezanne not his essential theme, but an isolated idea, which he is able to carry out, however, with a remarkable ease, as if it were a habitual subject. The brushwork is rarely more fluid and sure. The two trees at the left are a fascinating invention of opposed forked shapes - metaphors of the standing and inverted figures - joined by a branch. This painting from imagination shows the power of Cezanne's compositional fantasy, his ability to find the expressive shapes when nature is not before him to stimulate and guide him.
Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, 1879-1889
Auguste Rodin was the greatest sculptor of the 19th century and who can stand with the array of painters of the century; was an admired and respected public figure; he rejected sentimental idealistic notions and was also rejected from the official Salons like many of his contemporaries; studied Michelangelo's sculpture and felt liberated by the experience. This work is his most famous, but it wasn't conceived of as a solo sculpture. It's actually a part of a larger work called The Gates of Hell. shows dante
Bonnard, Dining Room on the Garden, 1934-35
Bonnard's later work is more inspired by Cézanne and his use of color to create shadow and structure.
Camille Claudel, Auguste Rodin, c. 1885
Camille Claudel was student of Rodin's, she became his lover and she fell prey to the trap of being under a male artist's wing. After having a mental breakdown she was institutionalized by her family and this hospitalization was controlled by her brother. Things were so bad that her mother never visited her in the mental institution and referred to her in the past tense. The doctors said she could be released, but because her family didn't approve of her career, they left her to live the rest of her life in the hospital.
Paul Cezanne
Cezanne's painting is of a struggle, the violence of love, even rape. Four men attack four women; a leaping dog adds another note of animality. These are not pagan idyllic nudes from Greek mythology, but a modern fantasy like Cezanne's solemn picnic of clothed and nude figures. Cézanne stated, "The backgrounds are so painted in that they are suffused with the same passion that motivates the characters, and thus are more in harmony with the actors and less detached from the whole. They seem as it were to be alive and to participate in the sufferings of the living characters."
Cézanne, Still Life with Basket of Apples, ca. 1893
Color creates structure; affirms the surface of the canvas and the visual language used to create the image; seems to absorb light; geometry is off and there is no perspective; warm colors to make forms appear close; cool colors to make forms recede; shared Manet's observation that objects painted in flat, but bright colors seem to achieve fullness of form without shading
George Seurat
George Seurat was affected by scientific theories and tried to apply them to his art: his artistic objective was to control the spectators response in a scientifically predictable way; the dot: a mathematical point of color - supports the perfectly controlled structure of his painting
Odilon Redon, The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts towards Infinity, 1882
He became a celebrated figure in fin-de-siècle Paris, greatly admired by artists and writers of the Symbolist movement with whom he shared an enthusiasm for the fantastic, mystical, and sublime forces found beneath the surface of everyday life. Using nature as his starting point, Redon imagined new worlds through his enigmatic creations, such as The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity.
Henri Rousseau, The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897
Henri Rousseau was a tax collector who retired at 42 and devoted himself to creating art; he was self-taught, but attempted to imitate the fine detail of Academic painting and photography, yet his work retains an innocence not found in other artists' works. This painting has the luminous clarity of a dream; has the aspect of child's art, but done through the experience of an adult living in contemporary Paris.
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec reflected and influenced Art Nouveau with his expressive and descriptive use of line; was a transitional figure between 19th century avant-garde and 20th century artists like Munch, Picasso, and Matisse; interested in Goya and Ingres, but was a disciple of Degas in the way he composed his works and in how he was a detached observer; disfigured by weak bones, he was only 4 1/2 feet tall; from an aristocratic family who did not want him to become an artist; best known for his color lithographs, but was a painter in the decade prior to poster making; his posters inspired other graphic designers throughout the West.
Suzanne Valadon, Woman at her Toilet, 1904-10
Her female nudes fuse observation with a knowledge of the female body based on her experience as a model; she emphasizes context, specific moment, and physical action; she emphasizes the awkward gestures of figures apparently in control of their own movements; this is specific to the act of bathing also; domestic settings and community are a departure from her male contemporaries
Van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889
His most famous painting was done during a lucid period and the swirling stars and colors reflect an ecstatic feeling. -expressionism: curving, swirling lines of hills, mountains, and sky, the brilliantly contrasting blues and yellows, the large, flame-like cypress trees, and the thickly layered brushstrokes -It presented a few technical challenges he wished to confront—namely the use of contrasting color and the complications of painting en plein air (outdoors) at night—and he referenced it repeatedly in letters to family and friends as a promising if problematic theme -evidence suggests that his second Starry Night was created largely if not exclusively in the studio. -Van Gogh was ultimately hospitalized at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, an asylum and clinic for the mentally ill near the village of Saint-Rémy. During his convalescence there, Van Gogh was encouraged to paint, though he rarely ventured more than a few hundred yards from the asylum's walls. painted from a studio in his private room. -After leaving Paris for more rural areas in southern France, Van Gogh was able to spend hours contemplating the stars without interference from gas or electric city street lights, which were increasingly in use by the late nineteenth century -use of simplified forms, thick impasto, and boldly contrasting colors
Cézanne, The Bay of Marseilles, seen from L'Estaque, ca. 1885
In a letter to his friend and teacher Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne compared the view of the sea from L'Estaque to a playing card, with its simple shapes and colors. The landscape's configuration and color fascinated him. This painting is one of more than a dozen such vistas created by the artist during the 1880s. Cézanne divided the canvas into four zones—architecture, water, mountain, and sky. Cézanne was interested in the underlying structure and composition of the views he painted. Filling the canvas with shapes defined by strong, contrasting colors and a complex grid of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines, he created a highly compact, dynamic pattern of water, sky, land, and village that at once refers back to traditionally structured landscape paintings and looks forward to the innovations of Cubism. Using blocklike brushstrokes to build the space, Cézanne created a composition that seems both two- and threedimensional. Not locked tightly in place, his forms appear to touch and shift continually, creating a sense of volume and space that strengthens the composition and brings it to life.
Gauguin, Self-Portrait, 1889
In his self-portrait, he is a man divided within himself - symbolized by apples, a halo, and a snake referring to the temptation of Adam and Eve; mischievous and arrogant expression; flat shapes that make up his torso are yellow and the background is red; has a feeling of a playing card which symbolizes risk taking: a central aspect of his character.
Van Gogh, The Night Café, 1888
It was this bar and brothel that pushed Van Gogh to the edge. After seizures, mood swings, and a confession of love to a prostitute, Van Gogh cut off his ear. It was at this point that Van Gogh committed himself to the St. Remy institution for some help in 1889.
Van Gogh, Crows over Wheatfield, 1890
Left St. Remy after little improvement and was under the care of Dr. Paul Gachet; to no avail, van Gogh's condition worsened and he killed himself by shooting himself in the stomach in July of 1890 - he didn't die immediately, but days after - an agonizing death. This is the painting he was working on when he shot himself. An alternative theory is that he was shot by a couple of boys playing with a gun, but it's one that is not widely accepted.
Van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1888
Moved to Arles in southern France; most productive part of van Gogh's career: over 200 paintings in 2 years; his work is the most vibrant from this time. Van Gogh invited Paul Gauguin to live in Arles with him, but their personalities clashed and van Gogh started having seizures in December of 1888. -structure and volume were built with color instead of chiaroscuro -painting exchange with gauguin -background color hasn't been used by any artist before -asian eyes bc of his love for east asian painting
Van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1887
Moved to Paris on his brother, Theo's invitation. Theo was an art dealer who financially supported Vincent. There Vincent learned about the avantgarde and Impressionism. Because of limited technology, images from the avant-garde had not left Paris - it was very insular.
Post-Impressionism
One of these rules was to use only the "pure" colors of the spectrum: violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. These colors could be mixed only with white or with a color adjacent on the color wheel (called "analogous colors"), for example to make lighter, yellower greens or darker, redder violets. Above all, the Neo-Impressionists would not mix colors opposite on the color wheel ("complementary colors"), because doing so results in muddy browns and dull grays. "optical mixture" rather than mixing paint on the palette.;Viewed from a distance these flecks blend together Neo-Impressionists also attempted to systematize the emotional qualities conveyed by their paintings. Seurat defined three main expressive tools at the painter's disposal: color (the hues of the spectrum, from warm to cool), tone (the value of those colors, from light to dark), and line (horizontal, vertical, ascending, or descending).
Paul Cézanne, Houses in Provance, c. 1880
Paul Cézanne was informal exhibiting member of Impressionist group in the 1870s and 1880s; broke with the Impressionists because he believed their art lacked structure (late 1880s); was financially independent - had an inheritance; became a recluse on his estate in the south of France; took impressionism apart and reconstructed it; his work became the basis for the avantgarde of the 20th century connection to Impressionism and his new style; familiar brushstrokes of Monet; parallel layers of color; strong sense of structural surface; color for Cézanne was perspective.
Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin didn't like other artists, including Monet and Seurat; from an affluent family; lived in Peru as a child, traveled around the world; was a successful stockbroker who supported six children very well. He exhibited with the Impressionists and even had a painting accepted into the Salon of 1876. Rejected his family and lifestyle in 1886 to settle in a town in rural Brittany with a group of painters who wanted to learn how to paint like children. Explored a style like van Gogh's; flat shapes, bold colors, heavy outlining; influence of Japanese prints; used symbolism to project the ideas that originate in the "mysterious centers of thought." vibrant, balmy color harmonies and radically decorative, flattened surfaces his representations of nude Tahitians reflect a sexual and racial fantasy forged from a position of patriarchal, colonialist power. Inspired by popular accounts of the savage and free-spirited ethos of the tropics, and seduced by the Tahiti exhibit at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris (where France was promoting its new colony to potential European settlers), Gauguin grew determined to set up a studio in the South Seas To start, the girls weren't naked; they were dressed in bulky high-necked gowns, courtesy of the church. Gauguin, as many art historians agree, created his fantasy himself, in both his canvases and writings. power and privilege of the white male artist to exploit and erase indigenous female identities in the name of art.
Paul Signac, Opus 217, 1890
Paul Signac was colleague and disciple of Seurat's, was a radical anarchist; believed that his art could bring about social change; wrote about the movement; he was inspired by Japanese prints; portrait of the critic Félix Fénéon, who coined the term "neo-Impressionism".
Odilon Redon,
Redon, an individualist who believed in the superiority of the imagination over observation of nature, rejected the Realism and Impressionism of his contemporaries in favor of a more personal artistic vision. After a discouraging experience studying academic painting in Paris, he returned to his hometown of Bordeaux, where he began making etchings in 1864. Later, returning to Paris, he was encouraged by a fellow artist to try lithography and was introduced to Lemercier, a renowned Parisian workshop. Also, through the possibility of editioning, he found a vehicle for broadly distributing the intimate imagery of his drawings.
Redon, Cyclops, 1898
Rooted in Romanticism, his work would inspire the Surrealists; like ambiguity; an excellent colorist, he also worked in black and white for about 20 years; close and scientific study of anatomy led to fantastical compositions. This work is based on the myth of Polyphemus and Galatea.
George Seurat, Une Baignade (A Bather), 1883-84
Spatially well organized, mathematically precise; exemplary of the nineteenth century optimism that every aspect of culture could be reformed and reinterpreted by science; even human emotional responses could be predicted mathematically. real parisian people (working class) bathing -figures are over life size -working class bc of their hats and we can just tell we're somewhere not very fancy -industrial background, not countryside -higher status people fully clothed in row boat in back
Gustave Moreau, The Apparition, ca. 1876
Spirit of end the century melancholy or soul sickness; morbid subject matter; this is depicting the biblical story of Salomé, a young princess who danced for her stepfather King Herod, demanding in return the execution of John the Baptist; his draftsmanship is exquisite; introduction of the femme fatale: a seductress, castrating female; she plays the central role in many writers' work and the work of many artists of this time period.
Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon became an artist's model in the early 1880s after working as a circus performer. She was part of the sexually free Bohemian life of early 20th century Paris. Her entrance into the art world was not through education (she was self-taught for the most part), but through her identification with a class of sexually available artists' models (she modeled for Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec). It allowed her to enter into the easy relationships with other artists and with her patrons; Her work is often described as "virile" by male critics.
Pierre Bonnard, Nu à contre jour (Nude against the Light), 1908.
The Nabis: Hebrew for "prophet"; affected by the previous generation of painters, especially Gauguin; flat colors, bounded by linear patterns (kind of like stained glass), denial of depth were influential upon the Nabis. Pierre Bonnard likes the intimate spaces of his lives: his studio, living room, and personal surroundings; influenced by Gauguin and Japanese prints (tilted spaces in the composition and linear rhythms); loved the texture of paint and fragmented brushstrokes; portrait of his wife; investigation of light and color
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Moulin Rouge-La Goulue, 1891
This 4-color lithographic poster is brightly colored and stylized. Everyone knew the artist at these dance halls. La goulue means greedy one and she is best known for her gymnastic and erotic interpretation of a dance called Chahut; the linear quality and silhouetted shapes are part of the Art Nouveau aesthetic.
Valadon, The Blue Room, 1923
This painting alludes to the tradition of the odalesque figures of the past, but her female is full figured, smokes and is in the pursuit of intellectual subjects. By a man's standard, she is hardly idealized, but by a female's standards, she is inspiring.
Vincent van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, 1885
This painting is an example of his sincerity and genuine love of humanity. He had a deep abiding concern for the poor. Van Gogh was self-taught and his figures are cartoon-like. -dark, unlike his other bright colorful paintings -very little lighting -they grew their own potatoes > close relationship between labor and food -perspective and anatomy arent quite right -first piece van gogh submitted to the salon
Van Gogh, The Bedroom in Arles, 1889
Van Gogh used color as a completely subjective device. He believed that color and line must be exaggerated or it's no better than a photograph. The room is what it meant to him, not what it actually looked like - outlined shapes, flat colors, and use of visible brushstrokes are featured in this work.
Van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1885-86
Vincent Van Gogh painted how he felt about the people he knew and his surroundings. Always communicative about his art and feelings, he wrote hundreds of letters to his brother, Theo. That's how we best know about van Gogh's thoughts and moods 3 periods: Holland 1880-86, Paris 1886-88, Arles 1888-90 He painted over 35 self-portraits that all detail his style at the time as well as his mood.
Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902-06
painted this mountain multiple times -places on canvas with no paint, half formed trees, buildings taking shape -curtain of paint: paint is so present that all of it rises to the surface and emphasizes its two dimensionality -elements of cubism -breaking contour shown in houses/roof red and purple -denies illusionism of realistic paintings that predeceased it -no atmospheric perspective, color separates fore, middle, and background instead
