Introduction to Art
Professor Nancy Shahani
Essay
Elender Bryant
The Barnes foundation was established
in 1922 by Albert Barnes, and it was founded to promote the advancement of
education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture. The art that
is collected has quality and depth in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, the
foundation is enhanced by Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiques. The foundation
also holds Chinese paintings, African sculptures, Native American works and American
decorative arts. The Barnes foundation holds more than 2500 items, including
800 paintings estimating over more than $2 billion dollars. This establishment
has paintings from famous painters such as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse,
Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet
and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
As the foundation being based on the quality and depth of
Impressionism, a lot the painters that are in the Barnes use Impressionism in
their paintings. In 1874 a group who had denied the right to show in the Salon
of 1873 (Frank 2004), and the artists academic doctrines and their Romantic
ideals turned to the portrayal of contemporary life. The artists sought to paint impressions, what
the eye actually sees rather than what the mind knows. Impressionists learned
that we see light as a complex of reflections received by the eye and
reassembled by the mind during the process of perception (Frank 2004). Impression was strong between the 1870’s and
the 1880’s with Claude Monet he continued for more than forty years of press
forward Impressionism’s original principle. Claude Monet also returned to the
same subjects over and over again in order to capture the moods and the quality
of light in each of his pictures. Both Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s
paintings both reveal similarities and differences between the styles. Renoir
had begun to move away the lighter colors and in the 1870s he moves towards
more solid forms and more structure designs.
Renoir painting is most
notable for the vibrant light and saturated colors, but most often he focused
on people in cherished and candid compositions. Renoir primary subject was the
female nude and with his Impressionism style, he suggested the details of a
scene through freely brushed touches of color. His original paintings showed
influences of colorism of Eugene Delacroix. Renoir also admired the realism of
Edouard Manet and some of his early work resembles their work with his use of
black as a color. In the 1860’s through the practice of painting light and
water, he and his friend Claude Monet had discovered that color of shadow is
neither brown nor black, but the color of which reflected off the objects
surrounding them. A number of paintings exist where Renoir and Monet worked
side-by-side, portraying the same scene. The work of his early maturity in art
was typically his Impressionist snapshots of everyday life, which was full of
sparkling color and light. By the mid 1800’s, on the other hand Renoir had
broken with the movement to apply more of a disciplined, formal technique to
his portraits and figure paintings, especially of women, then when he took a
trip to Italy in 1881, there is where he saw works of Raphael and other
Renaissances artists, and that convicted his to go back to classicism.
After the 1980’s he changes
his direction once again and began to use thinly brushed color which dissolved
into outlines as in his earlier work. From that period on he just concentrated
especially on nudes and domestic scenes. The warm sensuality of Renoir's style
made his paintings some of the most well-known and frequently-reproduced works
in the history of art. Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s best known Impressionist piece
was in 1876 and it was called Dance at Le Moulin de la Galettes. (Le Bal au Moulin de la Galette), 1876, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
The pictures that were
chosen were After the Bath, 1888 and Bathers, 1887 when viewing the paintings
there are many similarities and differences that stood out. With Renoir being
a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine
sensuality, he believed and capturing a women’s inter beautiful. Even though in
these time people paid to see women of a larger standard be painting in paints.
It’s not like in the current day in age where every woman that is put into a photograph
or magazine has to be thin. Back then wasn’t in like it is now. When early
painters and sculpture wanted to paint or sculpt and women nude, they had to
pose men and just pertain as if they were women and put breasts on them and
perceive them as women. In the time it was unheard of for women to pose nude
and be painted.
Renoir started to paint woman in nude that
were of a rather larger structure and he would use Impressionism in these
paintings to let you see what the eyes actually see and not what the mind
knows. He also wanting to capture the woman in everyday life and the colors
that Renoir put in the environment to give the persons that is looking at the
painting an imagining of being there. Renoir’s disregards for true linear
perspective as seen in the lines of the body, and reflects the past its best
interest in naturalistic illusions of depth. It’s more obvious his interest in
portraying the solidity of the figures in a memorable composition. Meanwhile
both the painting are of nude female taking a baths, just like most of the
painting that he has painted and each of his painting refers to a message which
is just simply that he likes to capture the site of a person or people and what
they do in everyday life. Renoir gives you emphasis on anything that he paints;
you will never look at any painting and have to wonder what going on in the
painting.
The painting called The
Bathers which was painting in 1918 was and iconography of women bathing and him
being an Impressionist, he gives his viewers the impression of a reality in
which it was also implied motion. The Bathers marked Renoir’s return to a more
traditional subject-mother of official Salon art, and after the mid-eighties
the nude was to be of primary concern. Renoir was attempting in this technique
and subject to lend his art to a classical and universal flavor.
Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party not only conveys the
light-hearted leisurely mood of the Maison Fournaise (The Phillips Collection, 1996.) Renoir Luncheon of the Boating Party illustrate
a popular Impressionism theme: middle-class people enjoying free time along the
river that flows through 
itself it showing you that this restaurant or club excepts everyone. From and understand of reading Renoir was in
the painting himself and along with another famous painter. In this painting he
uses many gestures and expression, Renoir painted an youthful, yet ideal
portrait of his friends and close colleagues who went to this restaurant called
the Maison Fournaise. He also pinpoints out the different persons in the
painting by numbers and simple explain what each character or persons is
symbolizing in the painting.
Most of the viewers of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, the
artist’s process at first seem naturalness and fresh because of the colors that
he chose to use. Consistent with the image of Impressionism as an art of
observation, the painting captures the effect of the light and color. Renoir
was so successful in bringing together a large group of figures into a
singular, believable image of a charmed moment in time that it requires careful
visual examination of the painting's composition
to fully understand his artistic achievement (The Phillips Collection, 1996).
The details that are observed in the painting reveals high level of skill in
the technique of oil painting that Renoir started to develop by that point in
his art career. The character of his brushwork varies for the people in the
painting with bright colored, thickly applied paint in the still life, from the
brushstrokes of the landscape in the background. Renoir has used firm outlines
and subtle gradations of light and dark to clearly define the three-dimensional
character of the human body, and the specific details of the facial features
(The Phillips Collection, 1996)All of the paintings are great works of art and
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a great painter in his time. Believing in
Impressionism and getting the viewers to see what the eyes are actually seeing
and not have your mind know is a great idea for any painter. Renoir gave a life like approach when he
paints; he puts the viewers in so they can feel like that were a part of the
painting. All the colors and texture that he uses in his painting have that
authentic feel about them. Art was never something that I really admired by
seeing his work gave a new perspective of how I view art now. His art warms the
soul and gives you life when viewing any of his work, even his work with the
dark colors in the environment.
Work Cited
Frank , P (2004). Prebles; Artforms:an introduction to the visual
arts Eight Edition.
Written by Donna McKee and Suzanne Wright. © The Education Office, The Phillips Collection, 1996.
Photos
Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-1881, The Phillips Collection Washington, DC
|
After The |
Bathers, 1918, Barnes Foundation, Merion Pennsylvania
