In 1841 An American Artist John Rand Invented Collapsible Metal... part 2 Essay - 5,229 words

... this particular painting, the focal point of the golden mean is the sun on the horizon, and characteristically he uses the sun to give the painting depth. In around 1635 forgeries of Claudes work began to appear, so he began recording the pictures he sold in his Liber veritatis, which contains sepia drawings and etchings of almost all his paintings, creating a record of his most beautiful draftsmanship. Claude did not construct these sketches as finished items. He always thought ahead, their usage would become part of the finished composition. Claude not only drew the distant scenes in his works from nature, but he painted them too.


In this book, he made skilful drawings of the compositions and noted their buyer on the back of each one. He documented some two hundred pictures over almost fifty years. In the second phase, which began after 1640, his paintings became more tranquil, bathed in a warm even light. Their subject matter is drawn from classical or biblical information, as shown in the painting below. The Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah (The Mill) is a generalised Arcadian scene. In this landscape, the emphasis is on the late afternoon light and it is the softness and richness in the color that influence the complete picture.


There are colors, browns and greens in the foreground, trees either side of the painting, which incidentally, he used to frame the action, peasant people enjoying themselves, groups of families either resting, dancing or playing. There is a modern working mill house on the left-hand side suggesting working life at that time. Also in the picture is a city mainly silhouetted in the background showing the remaining ancient ruins the Romans left behind. Two thirds of the way up the painting there is the riverside. The painting has a biblical title and all of these attributes combined are stereotypical of his work, giving the composition an overall balance. During the 1660s, the third phase commenced, Claude continued to work in his prior mode, although some of his works showed a tendency leaning towards a more visionary, symbolic style, with a color range of cool, silvery tones and a renewed use of dramatic lighting. Claudes earlier work reflected the late mannerist style of Tassi, dividing the foreground, middle ground and background, but in his later landscapes he unleashed unlimited vistas, introducing lyrical differences of light and atmosphere. Also in his later works light became the primary subject.


On the account of the fact that Claudes love for nature and his dedication to his work, he has very impressively achieved his classical ideals of beauty, his paintings are picturesque, and not sublime, because he has accurately combined a hormonal sensitivity with the acute observation of nature. He was one of the few seventeenth century artists who painted in this innovative manner and his consummate technique has then contributed to the acceptance of pure landscape as a serious form of art. He was also praised highly by the English aristocracy who visited France and Italy on their grand tours in the eighteen century. Claudes paintings also became related to picturesque travel. When people traveled, they noticed real landscapes, this reminded them of Claudes paintings. They thought landscapes to be as pretty as Claudes and to compliment the scenery, they used Claude glasses.


These were mirrors stained with golden varnish and framed, used to reflect the scene as an image. Claudes contributions were the romanticized poetic landscapes, the rendering of light and the serene moment that is very significant in his paintings. He was also particularly influential, not only during his lifetime, but especially in England from the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. He died in 1682, but he will never be forgotten. He was a superb artist and has influenced so many great artists in past and present times. One of Thomas Gainsboroughs greatest pieces of work The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire (which is one half of a pair) was worked in Claudes style.


Another, John Constable, whether in Suffolk, on the Dorset coast, at Salisbury or on Hampstead Heath, actually studied Claudes work and he too learnt how to reconstruct nature. Constable admired Claudes painting, Landscape with Hagar and the Angel, 1646-47, which was also a favourite of Sir George Beaumont, so much so, that when he gave his collection to the National Gallery, he asked to keep this painting until his death. Richard Wilson, inspired by Claudes work decided to visit Rome and painted various Italian landscapes. He achieved a pure classicism, which depended on the austere beauty of the design and enlightens it with the glow of the light mainly displayed by Claude. Another disciple was Joseph Mallord William Turner who also visited Rome and like Richard Wilson, painted landscapes. Turners bequest at his death was that two of Claudes paintings be hung in the National Gallery, London, beside two of his own works.


This was a fine example of the esteem held for this master. It is clearly evident that Turners painting Rocky Bay with Figures, was influenced by Claude and furthermore, he learnt how to master the light through Claudes absolute genius. Breaking new ground in landscape painting has placed Claude as a benchmark in art history. Georges Seurat used the pointillism approach and the use of color to make his painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, be as lifelike as possible. Seurat worked two years on this painting, preparing it worth at least twenty drawings and forty color sketched. In these preliminary drawings he analyzed, in detail every color relationship and every aspect of pictorial space.


La Grande Jatte was like an experiment that involved perspective depth, the broad landscape planes of color and light, and the way shadows were used. Everything tends to come back to the surface of the picture, to emphasize and reiterate the two dimensional plane of which it was painted on. Also important worth mentioning is the way Seurat used and created the figures in the painting. The famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was painted between 1885-1886. The subject is an island newly adopted by the Parisian middle class as a place for quiet Sunday gatherings. The painting looks very realistic.


The figures and the way they are dressed look lifelike as does the beautiful landscape in the background. The colors and the painting style, pointillism, make this painting very realistic. The question is, how does Seurat go about making the painting look so lifelike? Pointillism was a major reason in why Seurats painting looks so lifelike. During the painting of La Grande Jatte, Seurat simplified his brushwork to such an extent that his painting seems to be composed of nothing but tiny, more or less circular dots. Seurats experiments with color led him to paint in small dots of color which are arranged in such combinations that they seem to vibrate. Individual colors tend to interact with those around them and fuse in the eye of the viewer.


This approach is not unlike the dots or pixels in a computer image. If you magnify any computer image sufficently, you will see individual colors that, when set together, produce an image. Seurat was interested in the way colors came about. With the enhancement of the luminosity of colors made possible by the investigation of scientific optics, he saw positive merit in a method in which the movement of the brush no longer demanded the slightest skill: Here the hand is, in effect, useless, deceit impossible; no room for bravura items; let the hand be awkward, but let the eye be agile, perspective and skilled. Seurat used earth colors in many of his previous works, ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

Continue READING the FULL Essay by clicking HERE

Essay Tags: painting, landscape, seurat, claude, drawing

This is an Essay sample / Research paper, you can use it for your research of: In 1841 An American Artist John Rand Invented Collapsible Metal part 2