Hello starmorwen,
I’m pleased to be able to tackle another of your interesting questions
and hope my answer will please you.
A number of the paintings in this list are in the style of
Neoclassicism.
Poussin was a precursor of Neoclassicism: “Highest aim of painting to
represent noble and serious actions-not as they really happened but as
they would have happened if nature were perfect. Poussin spent a good
deal of his life working in Rome, viewing the remains of classical art
and architecture. The artist, Poussin believed, should strive for the
general and typical, appealling to the mind not the senses. The Rape
of the Sabine Women (1636-37) is characteristic of these intentions,
with a scene of extreme emotion rendered into a "frozen" moment.
Poussin brought these intentions to landscape as well in Landscape
with the Burial of Phocin (1648). Phocin was a Greek hero who died for
refusing to conceal the truth. Poussin's landscape is precise and
orderly and permeated with a rational calm.” From an outline of an
essay on Neoclassicism http://maine.maine.edu/~zubrick/neoclas.html
(Oath of the Horatii and Death of Marat are given as examples of
Neoclassicism in these notes)
You will find a more extensive essay on Neoclassicism at
http://lilt.ilstu.edu/jhreid/neoclassicism.htm
Here are some extracts that mention a number of the paintings and
painters in your list:
“Neoclassicism was a widespread and influential movement in painting
and the other visual arts that began in the 1760s, reached its height
in the 1780s and '90s, and lasted until the 1840s and '50s. In
painting it generally took the form of an emphasis on austere linear
design in the depiction of classical themes and subject matter, using
archaeologically correct settings and costumes.”
“Neoclassicism as manifested in painting was initially not
stylistically distinct from the French Rococo and other styles that
had preceded it. This was partly because, whereas it was possible for
architecture and sculpture to be modeled on prototypes in these media
that had actually survived from classical antiquity, those few
classical paintings that had survived were minor or merely ornamental
works--until, that is, the discoveries made at Herculaneum and
Pompeii. The earliest Neoclassical painters were Joseph-Marie Vien,
Anton Raphael Mengs, Pompeo Batoni, Angelica Kauffmann, and Gavin
Hamilton”
“Many of the early paintings of the Neoclassical artist Benjamin West
derive their compositions from works by Nicolas Poussin, and
Kauffmann's sentimental subjects dressed in antique garb are basically
Rococo in their softened, decorative prettiness.”
“A more rigorously Neoclassical painting style arose in France in the
1780s under the leadership of Jacques-Louis David… [these painters]
adopted stirring moral subject matter from Roman history and
celebrated the values of simplicity, austerity, heroism, and stoic
virtue that were traditionally
associated with the Roman Republic, thus drawing parallels between
that time and the contemporary struggle for liberty in France.” [ie
the French Revolution]
“David's history paintings of the "Oath of the Horatii"… display a
gravity and decorum deriving from classical tragedy, a certain
rhetorical quality of gesture, and patterns of drapery influenced by
ancient sculpture. To some extent these elements were anticipated by
British and American artists such as Hamilton and West, but in David's
works the dramatic confrontations of the figures are
starker and in clearer profile on the same plane, the setting is more
monumental, and the diagonal compositional movements, large groupings
of figures, and turbulent draperies of the Baroque have been almost
entirely repudiated… This style was ruthlessly austere and
uncompromising, and it is not surprising that it came to be associated
with the French Revolution (in which David actively participated).”
1. "Landscape with the ashes of Phocion" Nicolas Poussin, 1648, France
This painting is one of a pair, the other being the Funeral of
Phocion.
”Painted as a pair, both pictures are constructed exactly like a stage
set. Perhaps it was because this way of creating a landscape was very
theoretical that such compositions were imitated so widely; they were
seen as the proper way to paint landscape - by construction rather
than by observation. The scenes are of great tragedy: in one the good
General Phocion has been wrongly accused by the citizens of Athens and
sentenced to death, and in the other his grieving widow collects his
ashes. The deep melancholy of these two pictures again indicates
Poussin's determination to make the mind exercise thought rather than
imagination.”
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/p/poussin/3/34phoci1.html (Web Gallery
of Art)
This painting is discussed in an article “Poussin and the Heroic
Landscape” by Joseph Phelan available on Artcyclopedia
(http://www.artcyclopedia.com/feature-2000-08.html )
Here is a summary with some extracts:
The author refers to a previous article (link available) on the rise
of landscape painting in Venice, in which he concentrated mainly on
the work of Bellini, and Titian and Giorgone, Bellini’s students.
Poussin is seen as following on from this tradition, but nearly a
century later. Poussin lived in Rome most of his adult life, and
initially found it hard to get commissions, but later did find patrons
among clerical intellectuals “who taught him about the "glory that was
Greece, the grandeur that was Rome." Surrounded by the ruins of this
ancient splendor as well as its Renaissance revival, Poussin began one
of the greatest artistic encounters of modern times. He studied the
canvases of Titian and the compositions of Raphael, originating a
painting style of his own capable of expressing the noble themes of
epic and dramatic poetry found in Homer, Virgil and Plutarch.”
An early painting that takes these themes is “The Death of Germanicus”
“This painting marks the beginning of Poussin's alternative to the
dominant trend of the 17th century, the Baroque style. The Baroque
style in painting is a vivid, dynamic, powerful one but in the hands
of second-rank painters it tends to degenerate into absurd excess for
its own sake. In contrast to this, Poussin offered clarity, order,
decorum, rest and reasonable limits”
“… no painter of historical, biblical and mythological subjects, can
eschew emotion. In fact, Poussin painted scenes of tremendous
emotional significance, but always composed them so that we are
distanced from the emotional turmoil. Moreover, Poussin was a lover of
the landscape around Rome, which he frequently walked through with his
neighbor, the other great 17th-century French painter Claude Lorrain.
To paint a landscape does not require the bag of tricks used by the
Baroque artists. What it does require are joy in the perception, an
imaginative sense of the force and mystery of nature, and a feeling
for the unifying element of light.”
Of the two Phocion paintings, the author says: “Two of the greatest
paintings of Poussin combine his love of antique virtue and his love
of landscape. By placing tragic figures in richly interesting and
complexly constructed landscapes, Poussin produced two of the most
intellectually demanding and satisfying landscape paintings in the
Western tradition. Poussin was drawn to the theme of the perils of
virtue and the injustice of power, for reasons which are not hard to
understand given his self-imposed exile and his hard won contempt for
the prevailing style of art in both France and Italy.”
Poussin got the story of Phocion from Plutarch. Phocion was a virtuous
ruler of Athens who was accused by his enemies of treason, executed
and denied burial within the boundaries of Athens.
His comments about the Ashes painting: “we see Phocion's widow in the
center foreground, gathering his ashes in a similar classical
landscape. But we may notice the dark shadows which cloak the wife and
her maidservant from view as they go about their devotions. Notice the
tension Poussin introduces with this brooding shadow as well as the
man spying on them on the right. The sky itself seems to grow dark and
ominous with the anger of the gods.”
“The solemn grandeur of the subject is conveyed by the rigid
structure, geometrical organisation and perfect calm of the landscape
and townscape. The classical, even heroic setting for the event is
dominated by the central temple and hill and by the dark massed trees
on either side. Poussin turned to landscape in middle age and this was
one of the first of a group that virtually created a new tradition of
classical landscape.”
http://www.nmgm.org.uk/walker/seventeenth/poussin.html
(National Museums and Galleries of Merseyside)
Poussin was an exponent of the “heroic landscape”. One of his
followers, Pierre-Henri Valenciennes, explained the way these
paintings were created: “He urged landscape painters to first read the
classics, absorbing and meditating upon the words of the great poets
before then closing their eyes and imagining an ideal scene of natural
beauty. Then they should observe nature and be disappointed by its
haphazard, randomness, its imperfections, its limitations, its
meanness, and ugliness. Whereupon they should return to their studios
and paint upon their canvases the inner beauty of their visions,
freeing themselves from the minute truths they may have observed in
favor of greater, universal truths evolving from nature.”
http://users.1st.net/jimlane/2001arch/5-21-01.html
A web page that is now only available in the Google cache gives some
brief notes about Poussin
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:vaSt4RB46X8C:academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/art/koslow/french/poussin.htm+Poussin+Ashes+Phocion&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Anthony Blunt in his “Art and Architecture” is attributed as having
the opinion “Poussin belongs to Roman school. key to whole later
evolution of French art, in the sense that artists took him as their
ideal while an almost equal number reacted against him” (Nb this is a
quotation from the author of the web page, not from Blunt). As his
style develops, he moves away from the style of Titian to “Roman
sculpture and late Rapahel and Giulio Romano. He is now thinking in
terms of the plastic; sharp edges in drapery, more Poussin, less
Titian. Figural actions are indicated by gestures and expression. more
local color, less broken. He is eaning towards the pyschological
interpretation of themes.” From 1645 he began to turn his attention
to landscape. The Ashes of Phocion shows “application of mathematical
order; treats animate and inanimate nature similarly”
A quick aside, a comment on a web page about Cezanne makes the comment
that he borrows from Poussin, and that there is a close comparison
between the Ashes of Phocion and Cezanne’s “Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen
from Bellevue” (painted in 1882)
http://www.grosvenorfineart.co.nz/oldmasterscezanne.asp
Also, much more recently, “Golden Age” in Robert Beckmann's Vegas
Vanitas series is modelled on the Ashes of Phocion
http://www.lvlife.com/oct2001/robert_beckman.html
2. "Napolean at the Pest House In Jaffa" Antoine-Jean Gros, 1804
This painting is an example of French Romanticism.
Gros was a pupil of J-L David. During the French Revolution, Gros was
accused of being a sympathiser of the Royalists. In 1793 fled to
Italy, with J-L David’s help, where he lived in Florence and Genoa,
but returned to France in 1799. He met Napoleon in 1796 in Milan and
Napoleon became the subject of some of his most famous paintings. “The
painter had only one sitting from the general himself, and that was
too short and too sudden. Gros had to paint mostly from his own
imagination, in the best tradition of Romanticism… Between 1804 and
1810 he executed three heroic paintings featuring Napoleon - Bonaparte
Visiting the Plague-Stricken at Jaffa, Napoleon on the Battlefield at
Eylau and the Battle at the Pyramids. They caused a sensation, and
Gros became France's most honored painter. The bright palette and
vivid compositions of the works is the result of the influence of
Rubens rather than of his teacher. The Romantics, especially Eugene
Delacroix, were impressed by the freshness and dynamism of his
canvases. But David urged his beloved pupil to reject Romanticism and
follow the traditions of the Classical school… Gros tried to work in a
more consciously Neoclassical style, but his lifeless composition on
mythological subjects arose much criticism from the younger generation
of painters. He never again approached the quality of his Napoleonic
pictures. Depressed by his failures he committed suicide by drowning
himself in the Seine on 26 June 1835.”
http://www.abcgallery.com/D/david/grosbio.html (Olga’s Gallery)
This painting “a precursor of Romanticism, was commissioned by
Napoleon in an attempt to quash rumours that he had poisoned French
troops suffering from the plague during the Syrian campaign. Painted
and exhibited in 1804, coinciding exactly with the creation of the
Empire, this propaganda work takes on another dimension. By touching
the plague victims with complete disregard for the disease, Bonaparte
sets himself alongside the kings who wrought miracles, whose touch
could heal scrofula, who interceded between god and mankind. This
evocation of divine power in a scene in the Holy Land perfectly
expresses the dynasty's desires for legitimacy.”
http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/key_painting/premier_empire.asp
(From a web site dedicated to Napoleon)
“Gros’ innovative Plague House at Jaffa (1804), a painting that
greatly influenced Géricault, is interesting in this respect because
it does not depict a battle – the commonest contemporary subject in
history painting – but a makeshift hospital in Jaffa during Napoleon’s
unsuccessful campaign in the Middle East. But standing amid the
vividly painted bodies of the dead and dying is a Christ-like
Napoleon, his hand raised as if in healing. His presence transforms
the scene.” http://www.fitzroydearborn.com/london/romantic_sample_workofart.htm
(Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era)
“The novelty of the theme -a contemporary rather than classical hero-
is matched by Gros's development of a style which from 1804 contained
all the elements of Romantic painting. We see this here in the
strikingly naturalistic bodies, the sense of colour, and in the
cultural fascination with the Orient.”
http://www.louvre.fr/anglais/collec/peint/inv5064/peint_f.htm (Louvre
web site)
However, the painting is not based on fact:
In “Le Huitieme Croisade”, Alexandre Dumas mentions this painting: “
"We have in the Museum of the Louvre a magnificent picture by Gros
representing Bonaparte touching his plague-stricken soldiers in this
hospital at Jaffa. Though it represents a fact that never existed, the
picture is none the less fine." Dumas goes on to say that not only
did Napoleon not visit or touch any plague-stricken soldiers, he
ordered them killed, since he was being forced to retreat and he
didn't want them left to be tortured by the advancing Turks.”
http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/work.asp?key=681
Gros had met Napoleon through Josephine. His first painting of
Napoleon at Arcola moved Napoleon to give him “the post of "inspecteur
aux revues," which enabled him to follow the army, and in 1797
nominated him on the commission charged to select the spoils which
should enrich the Louvre”
Jaffa was followed by the Battle of Aboukir 1806 and the Battle of
Eylau, 1808.
“These three subjects - the popular leader facing the pestilence
unmoved, challenging the splendid instant of victory, heart-sick with
the bitter cost of a hard-won field - gave to Gros his chief title to
fame. As long as the military element remained bound up with French
national life, Gros received from it a fresh and energetic inspiration
which carried him to the very heart of the events which he depicted;
but as the army,and its general separated from the people, Gros,
called on to illustrate episodes representative only of the fulfilment
of personal ambition, ceased to find the nourishment necessary to his
genius, and the defect of his artistic position became evident.
Trained in the sect of the Classicists, he was shackled by their
rules, even when - by his naturalistic treatment of types, and appeal
to picturesque effect in colour and tone - he seemed to run counter to
them.”
From a biography of Gros, adapted from the 1911 Encyclopedia
Britannica: http://www.malaspina.com/site/person_591.asp
3. "Oath of the Horatii" Jacques-Louis David, 1784
This is a Neoclassicist painting.
“The Oath of the Horatii is a piece of didactic painting from the eve
of the French revolution.” The story dates from pre-Republican Rome.
The armies of Rome and Alba were about to fight, but their commanders
decided that instead of a huge battle, they would have two groups of
three men fighting eacg other. The three Horatius brothers have to
fight for Rome and their opponents will be from the Curatius family.
Camilla, a sister of the Horatii is engaged to one of the Curatius
fighters. The Horatii are shown taking an oath to fight to the death.
Their women are shown being terribly upset, especially Camilla, who
will lose either her fiance or her brothers.
“The subject of the painting is a conflict between civic virtue and
emotional attachment. David presents that Horatii as exemplars of
civic virtue which he thinks should take precedence over emotional
attachment. The painting uses contrasting forms to emphasize the two
elements in the conflict: the arms and legs of the three brothers are
straight and rigid, their muscles stand out taught and poised for
action. Straight lines: parallel legs and near-parallel arms, lend the
left half of the painting a geometric air suggesting the triumph of
reason over passion. The women on the right side of the painting are
represented in rounded slumping forms: passive and inert.”
From Google’s cache of a web page:
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:LJOTdnnGFMAC:www.philosophy.ubc.ca/faculty/cutler/339/lecture1/node12.htm+Oath+Horatii+David&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
You can find a whole term paper on this painting at
http://www.collegetermpapers.com/TermPapers/Art/Analysis_of_Davids_Oath_of_the_Horatii.shtml
Some of the points made:
“This painting was hailed as the manifesto of a new school based on
the fervent study of the antique and a return to classical techniques
in the late 18th century… The painting created a sensation when first
exhibited in Rome of 1885, and was seen as an allegorical cry for a
Revolution in France… every element has been stripped to a type of
minimalism... a stoical masculinity. There is a main compositional
element of a triangle with the brothers to the left, the women to the
right, and Horatius in the center with the up-raised swords forming
the apex. The exaggerated posture of Horatius and that of the brothers
holding a spear create another triangle; this one slightly left of
center and inverted. The eye is immediately drawn… yet it also
notices the contradicting horizontal lines of the marble floor in the
foreground, and the strong vertical lines of the Doric columns and
curvilinear archways of the background. David’s choice of colors are
few, but well balanced… red, blue, brown, white, black, and flesh
tones. The vivid red of the cloak of Horatius draws the viewer to the
center. The [patriotic] brothers wear clothing of red, white, and blue
[Nb colours of France!]… the women, in their sullen, downcast mood,
are huddled together in earth tones. The scene is closed off from the
rest of the world by the deep shadowy recesses among the columns. The
use of shadow—partial and full—helps to add depth to the basic colors
and give variations of hue throughout the composition.”
4. “Death of Marat”, Jacques-Louis David, 1793
“The frivolity of mid-18th Century rococco art gave way to the stern
classicism of the late 18th Century represented most famously by
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). Though he had received numerous
commissions from the pre-Revolution aristocracy, the Revolution
allowed David to reveal himself as a harsh fanatic devotee of its
worst excesses. Besides being the more or less official artist of
Revolutionary France, he was himself an important official. One of his
more famous paintings shows the Revolutionary hero Marat dead in his
bath”
http://www.donkates.com/serment.html (commentary by Don B Kates, who
is not a fan of Gros!)
An opposing viewpoint: “His three paintings of `martyrs of the
Revolution', though conceived as portraits, raised portraiture into
the domain of universal tragedy. They were: The Death of Lepeletier
(now known only from an engraving), The Death of Marat (Musées Royaux,
Brussels, 1793), and The Death of Bara (Musée Calvet, Avignon,
unfinished).” http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/david/ (Web Museum,
Paris)
Marat was stabbed to death by a young Royalist woman called Charlotte
Corday. David had visited Marat the day before.
“he recalled the setting of the room vividlly, the tub, the sheet,
the green rug, the wooden packing case, and above all, the pen of the
journalist. He saw in Marat a model of antique "virtue."
The next day David was asked to organise the funeral and also to paint
the body.
“the decomposed state of the body made a true-to-life representation
of the victim impossible. This circumstance, coupled with David's own
emotional state, resulted in the creation of this idealized image…
“The scene inevitably calls to mind a rendering of the "Descent from
the Cross."… The face, the body, and the objects are suffused with a
clear light, which is softer as it falls on the victim's features and
harsher as it illuminates the assassin's petition. David leaves the
rest of his model in shadow. In this sober and subtle interplay of
elements can be seen, in perfect harmony with the drawing, the blend
of compassion and outrage David felt at the sight of the victim.”
The Romanticists hated this painting, but it was defended in 1846 by
the author Baudelaire, who wrote: "The drama is here, vivid in its
pitiful horror. This painting is David's masterpiece and one of the
great curiosities of modern art because, by a strange feat, it has
nothing trivial or vile. What is most surprising in this very unusual
visual poem is that it was painted very quickly. When one thinks of
the beauty of the lines, this quickness is bewildering. This is food
for the strong, the triumph of spiritualism. This painting is as cruel
as nature but it has the frgrance of ideals. Where is the ugliness
that hallowed Death erased so quickly with the tip of his wing? Now
Marat can challenge Apollo. He has been kissed by the loving lips of
Death and he rests in the peace of his metamorphosis. This work
contains something both poignant and tender; a soul is flying in the
cold air of this room, on these cold walls, aropund this cold funerary
tub."
Information and citations from
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/neocl_dav_marat.html
(Neo-Classicism and French Revolution)
“this portrait is a tribute to and testimony of the artist's grief
over a personal friend. The suggestions of martyrdom and spirituality
are achieved by the simplicity and austerity of the composition.
Lazarus-like, Marat rises from the long, narrow tub as if from a
coffin. Precursor to the tradition of remembrance photograph, the
goal is not to hide death, but acknowledge it gently, particularly
through the creation of lifelike appearances.”
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webart/david64-art-.html
(Art Annotations)
The painting is not true to life: “The appalling skin disease is not
apparent. Instead we are faced with an image of a young healthy man.
The old wooden crate, and the white sheet which covers his head
complete with a patch, they are all aimed at drawing attention to the
poverty and inglorious surroundings in which Marat lived. Furthermore
the painting’s background is dull; the walls are undecorated and scant
of any colour. In reality the walls of Marat’s “were decorated with
elegant wallpaper and decorations to beautify the interior… Marat is
portrayed in a similar pose to sculptor Michelangelo’s masterpiece
Pieta , which depicts Christ, arm outstretched as David depicted
Marat. The significance is the inference that Marat sacrificed himself
for the good of the people , just as Christ is said to have done.
Other religious elements are also prominent, the halo like turban
around Marats head, and the heavenly light shining upon Marats angelic
face. It was Marats aim to “construct images of a secular saint””
http://www.onlineessays.com/essaysearch/history/his078.htm
(French Revolution-Death of Marat (painting analysis, representations
of the past)
“Many art historians claim The Death of Marat as David’s greatest
work. It is certainly different from every other work he painted. It
has a deceptively modern look and feeling.”
http://campus.belmont.edu/students/walkerm/feature.html (On this page,
there is a discussion of some of the details shown in the painting,
and links to two other paintings of the same theme)
5. "Marie Antoinette and her Children" Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrun, 1787
“when she received the command to paint a large portrait of Marie
Antoinette with her children… she was confronted with the most
difficult task of her career. The Queen would pose only for the head,
and the children were not to be present while the composition was
worked out. The artist used models and borrowed the necessary props
and prepared her canvas in her studio, blocking in the figures and
leaving room for the heads. For the finished painting of the Queen's
face she took the picture to the Trianon… The artist has succeeded in
portraying the Queen as both regal and maternal. The different
textures of red velvet and red satin are depicted with extraordinary
skill.” http://www.batguano.com/VLBFpaintstxt.html (Vigèe-Le Brun And
The Women Of The French Court BY Ilse Bischoff, Reprinted from
ANTIQUES, November 1967, pp. 706-712)
Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrun was mainly self-taught, and was already a
professional portrait painter by the time she was 15. Marie-Antoinette
chose her as court painter in 1778.
This painting is “one of the most famous (or at least notorious) court
paintings of the 18th century. Vigee-LeBrun painted approximately 20
portraits of the Queen but this commission was her largest. The
painting was intended to portray the Queen as divine monarch and
loving mother in an attempt to revive the Queen's failing reputation.
It did not get the desired effect and criticism was rampant among the
people that funds to create the painting were, in part, cause of the
crippling deficit being experienced at that time. Marie Antoinette had
the painting put into storage.”
From a biography of the artist at
http://www.webgalleries.com/pm/colors/lebrun.html
“The influence of the Flemish painters always remained with her; the
rich colors of Rubens' and Van Dyck's palettes, the effect of light on
velvet and satin, were stored away in her subconscious. Except for
nature, the advice of friends, and the works of the great masters,
Louise Elisabeth Vigèe never had any teachers. Painting became her
passion as well as her profession, and she trained herself with great
earnestness, copying the portraits of Rubens, Van Dyck, and Rembrandt,
studying the delicate half tones in the work of her friend and
contemporary Jean Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805).
Elizabeth Vigee-LeBrun’s memoirs in a translation by Lionel Strachey
(1903) are available here http://www.batguano.com/vlblsmemoirs.html
Her account of painting this picture is at
http://www.batguano.com/vlblsmem2.html near the bottom of the page.
This also includes some information about her approach to painting
portraits:
“As I detested the female style of dress then in fashion, I bent all
my efforts upon rendering it a little more picturesque, and was
delighted when, after getting the confidence of my models, I was able
to drape them according to my fancy. Shawls were not yet worn, but I
made an arrangement with broad scarfs lightly intertwined round the
body and on the arms, which was an attempt to imitate the beautiful
drapings of Raphael and Domenichino… Besides, I could not endure
powder. I persuaded the handsome Duchess de Grammont-Caderousse to put
none on for her sittings… indeed, this mode of doing the hair soon
found imitators, and then gradually became general. This reminds me
that in 1786, when I was painting the Queen, I begged her to use no
powder, and to part her hair on the forehead. "I should be the last to
follow that fashion," said the Queen, laughing; "I do not want people
to say that I adopted it to hide my large forehead."
A use of drapery, although not scarves, is evident in the painting of
the queen with her children.
Her advice on portrait painting is here:
http://www.batguano.com/Vigeeadvice.html
It is a very detailed discussion of techniques and also of the general
approach and attitude a portrait painter should cultivate. (This and
some of the URLs above come from a web site dedicated to Vigee-LeBrun:
http://www.batguano.com/vigee.html ).
Vigee-LeBrun’s paintings are in Neoclassicist style. She had to flee
France during the Revolution, but was able to return in 1801 when 255
artists from various countries signed a petition to the French
government. “She continued painting prodigiously after her
repatriation, her work becoming an important influence for a new breed
of Neoclassical artist such as Jacques-Louis David and his student,
Jean-Auguste Ingres. David noted, when Vigee-Lebrun's work was
compared along side his own, that her portrait appeared to have been
done by a man, while his own looked like that of a woman. She took
this as the greatest of compliments. She died in 1842 at the age of
87, leaving behind an autobiography and a virtual "how to" treatise on
portrait painting. No less a portrait expert than Sir Joshua Reynolds
termed her "...the equal of any portrait artist living or dead,
including," he added with some emphasis, "Sir Anthony van Dyck," (the
Flemish portrait idol of the day).”
http://www.cyberpathway.com/art/lane/lebrun1.htm
6. "Watson and the Shark"John Singleton Copley, 1778
“Copley doesn't do so well with representing the shark -- but the
portrait of the African-American in the rescue boat is a rare and fine
representation. The sea looks like a dangerous and disordered place to
be roaming about -- it's better (the painting seems to say) to stay in
the calmed waters where science and the Europeanized culture have
things under control.”
http://www.honors.uiuc.edu/eng255/gallery/enlightenment/shark.html
A series of linked web pages about this picture begins at
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/watsonhome.html (National Gallery of
Art, Washington DC) and provides a wealth of detail.
Summaries and extracts of some of the contents follow, with URLs given
only where there is a specific illustration.
The painting is based on an incident in Havana, Cuba, in 1749. A
14-year-old orphan boy, Brook Watson, was attacked by a shark while
swimming alone. He was seen by other crew members from a ship on which
he was a sailor, and they rescued him. “Copley minimized the gore
associated with such an attack, but traces of blood are visible in the
water and on the shark's mouth. The composition is cropped to suggest
the right foot is missing.”
“The placid harbor scene serves as a compositional foil for the
furious action taking place in the foreground… [It has a] careful
placement of interlocking dynamic elements… Copley captures the
scene's turbulent action, successfully orchestrating disparate
elements to convey a powerful impression of impending impact.
Eighteenth-century viewers were awed by the scene's immediacy as well
as its violent theme.”
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/painting2.html (this page shows
visually the lines of movement in the painting)
Copley had probably never seen a shark, but might have been able to
look at a specimen of shark jaws. “Copley's shark has two kinds of
teeth and imaginary lips, quite unlike actual shark anatomy.” He also
had never visited Havana, but used contemporary prints to get an idea
of how to paint the background to the painting.
Copley went to the artists of the past for his inspiration:
Raphael: It is suggested Copley may have seen Raphael's Miraculous
Draught of Fishes in London, or at least an engraving based on the
painting. http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history7.html A parallel
is also pointed out between the figure of Watson and that of a boy in
the Transfiguration by Raphael
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history20.html
Rubens: “Copley owned a copy of Schelte à Bolswert's engraving after
Rubens' Miraculous Draught of Fishes, although it is not known when he
acquired it. His debt to Rubens can be seen in the overall visual
turbulence and the dynamic compositional arrangement of the grouped
figures.” http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history8.html Rubens’
painting of Jonah Thrown Into the Sea has a similar composition,
therefore it is suggested that Copley also used this as one of his
sources. “By association, Watson and the Shark thus becomes a modern
tale of salvation, whose importance is elevated by virtue of its
pictorial association with more traditional renditions of the theme”
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history9.html
LeBrun: The expressions on the faces of the sailors are thought to be
derived from engravings the French artist Charles LeBrun from the 17th
century. LeBrun published a book of expressions that was much used by
artists over the next 300 years.
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history13.html
A preliminary study for Watson
(http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history18.html ) resembles one of
the sons in the ancient Roman statue of Laocoon now in the Vatican.
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history17.html
It is also suggested that the man standing up with a boat hook
resembles traditional views of St George and the Dragon
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history10.html
The parallels in the painting with elements in classical paintings was
a common feature in Copley’s day “Through the use of such iconographic
allusions, he was able to elevate his horrific contemporary theme to
the level of grandiose history painting, a mode then regarded as the
highest form of art.”
Copley was also influenced by the “Death of General Wolfe”, painted by
his mentor Benjamin West. He “tried to achieve a similarly startling
sense of immediacy and a level heroic grandeur in his first
large-scale contemporary drama, Watson and the Shark.”
“Recognizing the picture's importance, Copley painted a full-sized
replica, now in The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a smaller, more
vertical composition, now in the Detroit Institute of Arts.”
“The National Gallery's Watson is believed to be the earliest of the
three pictures. Infrared reflectography reveals changes Copley made in
his preliminary design -- note, for example, the figure of a young man
that is revealed beneath that of the elderly boatswain of the finished
composition.” And this is shown here:
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/painting5.html
A preliminary drawing shows that the black sailor was originally going
to be a white man with long hair
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history11.html
The site also has general information about the artist:
“Copley's earliest paintings, from the mid-1750s, reveal the influence
of English mezzotint portraits as well as the work of local and
itinerant artists. He experimented with various media: oil on canvas,
miniatures on copper or ivory, pastel, and printmaking.”
“Benjamin West and Joshua Reynolds recognized his artistic promise,
but deemed his technique "hard." They advised him to study in Europe,
where he might develop a more painterly, fluid style.
In 1774 Copley finally was able to realize this ambition. He went
first to London, and then spent a year in Italy studying Renaissance
paintings and antique sculpture.”
As well as painting portraits he specialised in historical topics.
On his first trip to Italy “exposure to the Renaissance masters and
their glorification of ancient models reinforced Copley's youthful
ambition and opened a range of new subject matter… began experimenting
with complicated religious, mythological, or literary compositions,
abandoning the straightforward portraits… that had been a hallmark of
his early career.”
On his return to London, Copley came under the influence of Benjamin
West, who encouraged him to develop a Neoclassicist style.
.7 "Death of General Wolfe" Benjamin West, 1770
This painting is Neoclassicist
West “helped legitimize the artistic depiction of contemporary
action-drama. In this picture he was able to invest a modern-day
tragedy with a level of grandeur formerly attributed only to the
antique.”
http://www.nga.gov/feature/watson/history2a.html (from the
presentation on Watson and the Shark as cited above)
There is a commentary on the painting by Stephanie Doyle of McGill
University here: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/2523/west.html
Here is a summary and extracts of the most relevant statements:
“indicative of all the values sought after during this time, but what
makes this painting different is West's break from the conventions of
the 'true style' by adding elements of realism and drama to this work.
The realistic portrayal of The Death of General Wolfe helped West
maintain the important political and social relevance that art of his
day was expected to portray.”
“Benjamin West, however, went beyond the stylistic ideals of the true
style and focused mainly on the subject matter and it's truthful
rendition. The Death of General Wolfe shows us the classical hero, a
theme that preaches patriotism, heroic self-sacrifice and the love for
one's country.”
West supposedly said "Wolfe must not die like a common soldier under a
bush... To move the mind there should be a spectacle presented... and
all should be proportioned to the highest idea conceived of the hero."
“The compositional system best suited for such a depiction, according
to Grose Evans, is the "Raphaelesque." The Raphaelesque scheme has a
stage-like setting where the main action and figures are placed in the
centre, while the supporting elements are grouped on either side.
West's depiction of General Wolfe's death has this stage-like setting
that is deep, with the main action lit up at the centre.”
West differs from standard Neoclassical style by having his figures in
the clothing of his day, rather than in that of antique times. His
own comment on this decision was “The event to be commemorated took
place on the 13th of September 1759, in a region of the world unknown
to the Greeks and Romans, and at a period of time when no such
nations, nor heroes in their costumes, any loner existed... The same
truth that guides the historian should govern the pencil of the
artist. I consider myself as undertaking to tell this great event to
the eye of the world; but, if instead of the facts of the transaction,
I represent classical fictions, how shall I be understood by
posterity!”
Another difference is that he paints emotion on the faces of the men.
Most Neoclassicists preferred to show masculing stoicism, and painted
emotion only on the faces of the women.
“West's aim was to stir emotional responses in the spectator and he
achieves this through the figure of General Wolfe by alluding to the
Deposition of Christ. Wolfe is poised as Jesus would be in an actual
Deposition painting. The other figures clasp their hands as if they
are praying and the soldier standing to the left of the General
appears to be so overcome with emotion that he begins to fall back in
his grief over the General's victory and finally his death.”
The painting supports the philosophy of Neoclassicism: “the depiction
of history, the ancient hero, and modern patriotism and sacrifice for
one's country” and the fact it is painted in this style can also be
taken as a political statement because of the association between
Neoclassicism and philosophies of revolution.
“A possible drawing for the picture (Pierpoint Morgan Museum) has a
seated mourning woman at the right, who… became the Indian in the
painting. Interestingly, West's drawing, especially the woman, has
strong affinities with Poussin's famous Death of Germanicus then in
the Barberini collection at Rome, where West would have known it.
McNairn claims that that West's final composition was influenced by a
reversed copy after Van Dyck's Scaglia Lamentation (the source noted
long ago by Charles Mitchell). But the Vorsterman engraving reverses
the composition. Furthermore, West knew Van Dyck's Royal Collection
Cupid and Psyche which had already 'secularized' the theme.”
http://www.utpjournals.com/product/chr/802/hero5.html (from a review
of the book “Behold the Hero: General Wolfe and the Arts in the
Eighteenth Century” by Alan Mcnairn, Published in Canadian Historical
Review - Volume 80, Number 2, June 1999)
8 . "Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi" Angelica Kauffmann, 1785
The style is Neoclassicism
“combines the 18th century attributes of loving and attentive mother
with Roman classicizing elements. Kauffmann presents us with the
narrative subject of "exemplum virtutis" or example of virtue. Here a
wealthy women sits showing off her jewels. When she asks Cornelia to
present her jewels, Cornelia raises her hand to bring forth her sons,
Tiberus and Gaius, saying "These are my jewels". The subjects are
clothed in roman dress and set against a roman background. An
interesting comparison can be made to Jacques Louis David's "Oath of
the Horatii".”
http://www.webgalleries.com/pm/colors/kauffman.html (this page
includes a short biography)
“ “Pompey’s Wife Julia Hears the News of her Husband’s Reputed Death”.
This work and its companion piece “Cornelia, the Mother of the
Gracchi”… are regarded as her masterpieces and mark the peak of her
artistic achievement. They are also seen as signalling a breakthrough
in Classicist history painting… Kauffmann provides role models of
virtuous female behaviour, with Julia representing the faithful,
loving and devoted wife and Cornelia symbolising a mother’s selfless
love which triumphs over female vanity. Both paintings thus
illustrate, in the form of “exempla virtutis”, the salient feminine
virtues as they were seen towards the end of the 18th century.”
http://www.augentier.de/kusa/web/index.php/en/schloss/glanz/kaufmann.html
“From 1781 till 1807 she lived and worked in Rome… she painted
allegorical, mythological and historical subjects, as well as subjects
from literature and portraits. They are mostly treated in the
sentimental fashion of the 18th century. In the paintings of her early
Roman period drawing prevails over coloring, which shows her interest
in Mengs and aesthetic ideas of neoclassicism. In later works on
mythological subjects the archeological accuracy of details was
strengthened and theatrical effects appeared. Works of Kauffman were
widely known in Europe due to engravings by other artists. She was a
friend of the painter A. R. Mengs, great German poet and statesman W.
Goethe, archeologist and art critic J. J. Winckelmann, and many other
outstanding people of her time.”
http://www.abcgallery.com/K/kaufman/kaufmanbio.html (Olga’s Gallery)
“She was influenced by Correggio and the Carracci and copied their
works in the galleries as part of her artistic training. Later her
style reflected a neoclassical flavor influenced by Benjamin West, Sr.
Joshua Reynolds and the classicizing elements at Herculaneum… produced
many portraits and decorative painting but preferred history painting
which was considered the highest artistic genre and reserved only for
her male colleagues. Despite her inability to secure a formal artistic
education or study the male nude, Kauffmann produced paintings which
depicted classical mythology, history and allegory… she was one of the
founding members of the British Royal Academy in 1768.”
http://www.mystudios.com/women/klmno/kauffmann.html (Women in Art)
“She moved to the city [London] when she was 25 years old and did some
of her most important work during the 15 years she lived there. She
became the protégé of Sir Joshua Reynolds who is not only considered
the most important English painter, but also credited with elevating
the artist to a position of respect in England. Reynolds was highly
complimentary of Angelica's work, and his professional sponsorship was
an invaluable career boost for a then-unknown Swiss painter.”
http://writetools.com/women/stories/kauffmann_angelica.html (Women’s
Stories)
9. “Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse" Joshua Reynolds, 1784
The style is Grand Manner
“Eighteenth-century British artists and patrons used the terms "Grand
Manner" or "Great Style" to describe paintings that utilized visual
metaphors. By extension, the Grand Manner came to include portraiture
-- especially at full length and in life size -- accompanied by
settings and accessories that conveyed the dignified status of the
sitters.” http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg59/gg59-main1.html
(National Gallery of Art, Washington DC)
“One of the greatest portraitists of the 18th century, he displayed a
facility for striking and characterful compositions in the Grand
Manner, a style based on classical and Renaissance art. He often
borrowed classical poses, for example Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse…
Reynolds was particularly influenced by classical antiquity and the
High Renaissance masters, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and Leonardo
da Vinci. In his Discourses on Art, based on lectures given at the
Royal Academy from 1769 to 1791, he argued that art should be of the
Grand Manner, presenting the ideal rather than the mundane and
realistic.” http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0011752.html
(Hutchinson Encyclopedia)
“Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of the famous English tragic actress
Sarah Siddons was hailed at the time of its first exhibition in 1784
as one of the greatest portraits of all time” A second version was
commissioned in 1789. “Analysis of the original work of 1784 reveals
a complex series of changes made to the painting by Reynolds,
particularly to the color of Siddons's dress, which was originally
blue but ultimately changed by Reynolds to the warm yellow-brown seen
today. Interestingly, in an earlier painting of famed actor David
Garrick depicted with the figures of Comedy and Tragedy, Reynolds
painted Tragedy in a blue dress in a pose similar to that of Siddons;
this similarity suggests that the artist used the earlier painting as
a model before being inspired to make these changes”
“The Huntington [1784] version was painted in oil and oil-resin
mixtures, often in many layers of paint (sometimes as many as 20). The
Dulwich [1789] version used a megilp-like substance -- a thick
resin-oil and, in this case, wax concoction -- chosen to enable the
later version to imitate the thick texture of the earlier picture.
http://www.getty.edu/conservation/resources/newsletter/14_1/gcinews01.html
(“Unraveling the secrets of Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse”
Conservation, The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter, Volume 14,
Number 1, Spring 1999)
“It was always a somber picture, but if the colors may not have
altered radically, there is at least one feature of Reynolds'
technical procedure in the painting that has had a serious effect on
its appearance. Reynolds… discovered that a beautiful warm, dark,
velvety tone could be produced by the use of bitumen. Bitumen or
asphaltum is a tar like substance. When used as under-painting in a
picture (as Reynolds has used it in the dark background areas of "The
Tragic Muse", it never really hardens but continues to flow slightly,
opening up broad, deep cracks ill the layers of paint. This collection
is very marked in the background areas”
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/bulletin/num17/ruggles1.html (A Reynolds
Revived by Mervyn Ruggles, 1971)
“Ms. Bennett's staff learned that Sir Joshua Reynolds' "Sarah Siddons
as the Tragic Muse" once featured a winged baby with a scroll lolling
at the feet of the renowned English actress.
The curator says some of Reynolds' peers considered this portrait,
finished around 1784, to be one of the greatest ever painted. But
would they have thought the same thing, Ms. Bennett wondered, with a
cherub soaring across the bottom, where there is now a black strip, or
if the fierce-faced Tragedy, one of the two dramatic figures flanking
Miss Siddons, had remained the weepy Pity, as Reynolds originally
proposed? "As he's working along, you can see that his concept
starts to crystallize," Ms. Bennett said. "What we have now is a more
intellectually coherent statement."”
http://www.s-t.com/daily/11-95/11-13-95/xrayart.htm (“What's wrong
with this picture? - X-rays show what the masters were thinking” from
South Coast Today)
Not every critic admires him:
“He could not draw the figure properly; nor could he as a rule compose
successfully on anything like a monumental scale. English painters in
his early days possessed a sound technique, and most of’Hogarth’s best
pictures are perfectly well preserved as well as beautifully painted
but Reynolds was not content with the tried methods Hudson could have
taught him. In the’ desire to compass that creaminess,, that juicy
opulence in colour and texture, of which he conceived, the idea before
the Italian journey, and which he found realized in the works of the
Venetians and Correggio, he embarked on all sorts of fantastic
experiments in pigments and media, so that Haydon exclaimed, “The
wonder is that the picture did not crack beneath the brush!” The
result was the speedy ruin of many of his own productions, and he
inaugurated an era of uncertainty in method which seriously
compromised the efforts of his successors in the English school.
http://33.1911encyclopedia.org/R/RE/REYNOLDS_SIR_JOSHUA.htm (from the
1911 Britannica)
“Stylistically, Michelangelo and the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens
influenced him. Calm dignity, classical allusions, rich colour, and
realistic portrayal of character distinguished Reynolds’s portraits.
However, Reynolds was held by the Pre-Raphaelites to epitomise all
that was bad about the Royal Academy, and they called him 'Sir Sloshua
Reynolds' because they felt that all good old Academicians covered
their work with a thick coating of brown varnish to hide mistakes and
give a general warm glow to their paintings.”
http://www.sirjoshuareynoldslodge.org.uk/sir_joshua_reynolds.htm
(article on Reynolds by Gilbert Stuart)
“Reynolds's rarefied, neoclassical image of the Muse of Tragedy may
have "won" in some sense, but it tends to reduce the cultural
complexity that one catches glimpses of”
http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/asleson.html (from a series of 3
reviews of books about Siddons by Kristina Straub)
"The painting is full of learned allusions to Aristotle, Michelangelo,
treatises on the passions and theories concerning "grand manner"
painting" http://www.artwallpapers.com/classicart-thehuntington.htm
“Reynolds is credited with more than 2000 portraits. Stylistically, he
was influenced by Michelangelo and the Flemish painter Peter Paul
Rubens. Reynolds's portraits were distinguished by calm dignity,
classical allusions, rich color, and realistic portrayal of character.
Unfortunately, his use of bitumen (or asphalt) and experimental
pigments made some of his colors fade prematurely.”
http://btr0xw.rz.uni-bayreuth.de/cjackson/reynolds/reynolds_bio.htm
(from a short biography)
“Dr Johnson wrote his name on the hem of her garment in the famous
picture of the actress as the Tragic Muse by Reynolds (now in the
Dulwich Gallery). “I would not lose,” he said, “the honour this
opportunity afforded to me for my name going down to posterity on the
hem of your garment.”
http://14.1911encyclopedia.org/S/SI/SIDEBOARD.htm (article on Siddons
from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica)
10. "Mrs. Sarah Siddons" Thomas Gainsborough, 1785
Gainsborough is included among the Romantic painters by Artcyclopedia
“Romanticism might best be described as anti-Classicism. A reaction
against Neoclassicism, it is a deeply-felt style which is
individualistic, beautiful, exotic, and emotionally wrought. Although
Romanticism and Neoclassicism were philosophically opposed, they were
the dominant European styles for generations, and many artists were
affected to a greater or lesser degree by both. Artists might work in
both styles at different times or even mix the styles, creating an
intellectually Romantic work using a Neoclassical visual style, for
example.” http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/romanticism.html
(Artcyclopedia)
However, here is another viewpoint: “His art can be described as a
mixture of neoclassical and romantic styles. He led English painting
into its great period. Calling himself, " a wild goose at best,"
Gainsborough did not conform to the tradition of his time. Although he
was one of the original member of the Royal Academy, he broke with
them dramatically in 1768 because they would not hang his pictures the
way he wanted.” http://www.gnomiz.it/nexus/arte00/gains.htm
“Gainsborough's natural facility for capturing a likeness brought
great success. Sarah Siddons was the most famous actress of the day,
endowed with a commanding presence and striking profile. With his
distinctive fluid brushwork, Gainsborough presents Mrs Siddons in a
composition of strong unity and sumptuous color.”
http://www.portraitsbyturner.com/archive2.htm
The article “At Tate Britain” by Peter Campbell (London Review of
Books, vol 24, November 2002)
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n23/print/camp01_.html has a detailed
discussion of Gainsborough’s techniques.
Some extracts:
“he said he could not 'without taking away the likeness' touch a
portrait 'unless from the life';”
“'his colours were very liquid and if he did not hold the palette
right would run over” (said by his daughter)
“A description of him working in London speaks of brushes mounted on
six-foot sticks - which put him at the same distance from subject and
canvas, set at right angles to each other. Reynolds commented that the
way the resulting 'odd scratches and marks' came together at a
distance to give form was, for the painter, a matter of pride:
Gainsborough wanted people to look close up and take pleasure in the
dance of marks as well as to admire the distant view.”
“Although, in their moderation, they are the antithesis of the models
offered by 17th-century academic manuals, which show how expressions
appropriate to grief, joy, envy or what have you are configured,
Gainsborough's near-smiles are also, in their own way, conventional.
The expression Mrs Siddons wears is untheatrical, as she might appear
in a drawing-room, while Reynolds's Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse
puts her on the stage in a more imperious mood, but both are struck
poses. Mrs Sheridan is sitting in a wild romantic landscape, but her
expression is politely arranged - you can imagine her looking at
herself this way in her own mirror.”
“He worked as an assistant to Hubert Gravelot… From him Gainsborough
learned something of the French Rococo idiom, which had a considerable
influence on the development of his style… About 1760 Peter Paul
Rubens supplanted the Dutch painters as Gainsborough's chief love… In
Bath, Gainsborough had to satisfy a more sophisticated clientele and
adopted a more formal and elegant portrait style based largely on a
study of Van Dyck at Wilton… In some of Gainsborough's later portraits
of women, he dispensed with precise finish, and, without sacrificing
the likeness, he concentrated on the general effect. Mrs. Sheridan
melts into the landscape, while Lady Bate Dudley, a symphony in blue
and green, is an insubstantial form, almost an abstract. Mrs. Siddons,
on the other hand, shows that Gainsborough could still paint a
splendid objective study.”
“Of all the 18th-century English painters, Thomas Gainsborough was the
most inventive and original, always prepared to experiment with new
ideas and techniques, and yet he complained of his contemporary Sir
Joshua Reynolds, Damn him, how various he is… Unlike Reynolds, he was
no great believer in an academic tradition and laughed at the fashion
for history painting; an instinctive painter, he delighted in the
poetry of paint. In his racy letters Gainsborough shows a warm-hearted
and generous character and an independent mind. His comments on his
own work and methods, as well as on some of the old masters, are very
revealing and throw considerable light on contemporary views of art.”
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/bio/g/gainsbor/biograph.html (Biography of
Gainsborough)
Search strategy: I searched on the name of the artist and key words
from the title. |
