Impressionism VS Realism: Romantic Era

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889. Oil on canvas.

History

Vincent Van Gogh is a renowned artist from the 19th century. When he was alive, his works were not as celebrated. He sold a handful of his art in his entire artistic career before Vicent spent the last years of his life in an asylum. Van Gogh painted the starry night from the inspiration of his bedside window while living in the asylum. They had a strict policy about him not painting in his room, so he had to paint through memory. Though Van Gogh is well known for his works, he was only an artist for a decade. He died at the age of 37 from committing suicide. After his death, his brother Theo wanted to promote his work, but he sadly died six months after Van Gogh. Theo's wife inherited the art and loaned Gogh's art to museums making his works more widespread. 

Color

Every stroke is connected with bold colors. Dark blue makes up most of the painting, and it can make you feel sad or depressed. In today's day in age, the color blue represents freedom. When you look up at the blue starry sky, you feel free to let your mind wander. There are quite a few yellow patches in the mix that are stars. Yellow gives you a sunshine feeling of hope. Yellow mean happiness and positivity. Putting the two colors together creates a sense of joy in freedom. Such as the feeling of one's self when one break free of troublesome life problems. They feel the rush of happiness and hope in their newfound freedom. Something was bothering Van Gogh, and painting seemed like a way of putting his emotions onto canvas. His troubles were too much that even art couldn't prevent his tragic death. I interpret all these feelings from the colors of this painting. 

Form & Lines

Lines form shapes, and lines can create forms. Stars before dawn are not as bright because the sun is coming up, yet he decides to blow up the star's brightness to make them the center of attention in his painting. He applied paint to the canvas directly from the tubes to create thick lines. "The result was the dream-like image, which features wavy cypress trees in the foreground and glowing stars, a bright crescent moon, a swirling sky, rolling hills, and a village in the background." Goph used one long bold line across the painting to outline the mountains from the sky. The wavy lines of the sky were forming the brightness of the starlight. Since there were no brush strokes, the lines were not buffered out or blended to make a more realistic view of the sky. The lines made it more unique. 

Van Gogh's goal was to capture the emotion and feel at that moment. He wanted to express his emotion and paint it from his perspective of how he saw the night sky. He didn't try to make the picture look more realistic but was more impressed with his feelings about the artwork. 

John Modesitt, The Water Lily Pond, 1899 Oil on Canvas

History

John Modesitt rented a house where it was perfect for his family in Giverny, France. Over time they improved the land after his success as an artist. John Modesitt wanted to build a garden pleasing to the eye and for him to paint. They were then able to buy the land to achieve their dream garden. He was finally able to begin to build in 1893. After the garden was finished, he painted 12 views of the garden.

"His famous home and garden with its waterlily pond were bequeathed by his heirs to the French Academy of Fine Arts (part of the Institut de France) in 1966. Through the Fondation Claude Monet, the home and gardens were opened for visit in 1980, following refurbishment. In addition to souvenirs of Monet and other objects of his life, the home contains his collection of Japanese woodcut prints. The home is one of the two main attractions of Giverny, which hosts tourists from all over the world."

Line & Form

This piece of art is impressionism because it is not a clear picture of something you can see. It's not the exact picture. Many colors intertwine in a network forming a hazy view of the water lily pond. The form of this painting is free, and the artist just put their feelings on canvas. It's the artist's way of mushing their emotion together and placing them on the canvas.

Texture

The texture of the painting has many dabs of paint individually placed to make up the picture. It's like a 2-dimensional picture of blown-up pixels on the TV that are easy to make out. You can see the individual pixels but also the image Monet painted. You can see lilies in the water, but if you look closely, you wouldn't know they are lilies without the hints of the whole painting. The texture is rough, but the smoothest part of the piece is the Japanese bridge overlooking the pond.

The Old Musician, 1862 by Edouard Manet

History

Edouard Manet painted heroism in the modern life of that time. Most of the characters were real people. In this painting, there is a musician, a gypsy girl, an infant, an acrobat, an urchin, a drunkard, and a ragpicker. These were probably people he might have seen from his studio. The musician was Jean Lagrène, leader of a local gypsy band. He stationed his studio in the slums of Paris. He was around many ordinary folks considered low in ranks, but that did not bother him. The man in the top hat’s name was Colardet; he was the rag picker, a person who collects rags and then sells them. 

Color

His style of painting was more modern at the time. Instead of blending pigments, he placed those pigments next to each other. It makes the painting more direct with solid pigments. The painting was like the artist turned up the contrast on a picture. You can see individual colors not blended out as you would see in other paintings. Most of the pigments are very solid and very life-like. The skin of the people is ashen. Manet’s style was all about not blending colors, so, understandably, that is why they are so pale. 

Texture

Since there were no blended pigments in the painting, most of the texture is not visible. Most areas of the painting have smoothed out slippery looking. Something more textured then is the spikey and curly hair of the musician. The clouds are soft because the color is buffered to make the illusion of fluffy clouds over a blue sky. The skirt of the gypsy girl is smooth and almost silky despite its worn cloth feel. The leaves of the tree are very crisp. The painting does not have much texture only if you study the painting. 

The Stone Breakers, Gustave Courbet

History

Courbet, the maker of this piece, painted two peasants breaking stones that will be used to build a road. The event is something that people did during that time. They built roads with human resources because they did not yet invent the modern power tool era. Courbet was expressing the exhaustion they faced from their hard work to earn enough money for food and a way of life. As beautiful as the painting is, it didn't survive the bombing of Dresden in 1945. For Courbet, it was just a memory he painted. 

"It is not often that one encounters so complete an expression of poverty and so, right then and there, I got the idea for a painting. I told them to come to my studio the next morning."- Gustave Courbet.

Color

The color of this painting puzzles me. I don't know why Courbet put a black background but left the face of the cliff in the top right corner. It looked like a shadow covered the scene to pay more attention to the two road makers. All the colors in the painting are found in everyday things at that point in time. Clothes were simple back then, yet people of lower social status wore plain clothes, so they couldn't afford lavish, colorful clothes. The dirt in the clothing you can make out gives the more emotion of sweat and blood they put into their work. 

Texture

Every inch of the painting is very detailed. The clothing is textured as if the workers are wearing actual pants. I can see the very fibers of every stitch and thread in their painting. The grass of the desert is very brittle. You can see every small blade of grass. The rocks are jaggy and edged because they were smashed open with hammers. The basket has every fiber woven in an elegant pattern to form a basket.

Impressionism Vs. Realism

As the four examples of the two styles that I have chosen, I will now compare the two. My favorite of the two styles is realism. I enjoy looking at something detailed and texture of real life. It amazes me how real they seem when it's just a painting an artist may have painted out of memory. Impressionism, on the other hand, is not a clear picture of something you can see. It is not the exact picture. It's the artist's way of mushing their emotion together and placing them on the canvas. I see their sentiment, but I don't enjoy seeing them often because it reminds me of my messy emotions. Sometimes I'm all emotional and not thinking clearly. Impressionism has too many feelings to show that trigger my deep thoughts. I know some people may enjoy that, but I don't so much. I enjoy seeing a piece that looks like the artist took a long time perfecting the little detailed things like the single blades of grass I saw in The Stone Breakers by Gustave Courbet.