I chose to critically analyse these 3
artists as I enjoy their use of classical composition, colour,
lighting and overall aesthetics of their works. Two of the artists I
have chosen, Gerome and Edwin Lord weeks were artists who depicted
many paintings which art historians call Orientalism. This is a type
of artwork which depicted Asian and middle eastern cultures of the
time period between the mid 1800s and early 1900s. The term is often
cited as being stereotypical of the Victorian views of period. It was
also one of the specialisms of academic art in this period.
I have always liked works like this as
they provide an aesthetic quality which I deem the pinnacle of talent
and skills that a realist artist can strive for, and therefore have
always found it to have been a useful area of study and benchmark of
quality that contribute to the continued improvement of my own
artwork.
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean Leon Gerome art style is known as
Academicism which is a style of art highly influenced by teachings of
European academies. The artists of these academies primarily worked
under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Geromes work
therefore contains elements of both of these movements. Whilst like
other artists of his time he painted historical and mythological
paintings he was most well known for his Asian and middle eastern
themed paintings.
Gerome also taught many of his skills
his students were in many cases as influential as he was, which leads
me to the second artist I have chosen to analyse.
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| Louis xiv and Moliere by Gerome, taken from the art renewal centre. |
Description, Interpretation, and
Analysis
This oil painting by Jean Leon Gerome
is entitled Louis xiv and Moliere, the painting was completed in
1862. I believe Louis the 14th is the character in blue
and Moliere is in black. This is a representational painting in the
style known as Academicism. This particular painting has been
restored by the Art Renewal Centre online site.
The painting is a depiction of a
meeting between the the king of France and the famous playwright
Moliere. In the painting these characters are depicted in contrasting
value and colour in order to draw focus onto the primary focal point
of the painting Louis xiv whilst Moliere is depicted as a the
secondary focus of the painting.
At this point it is worth mentioning
that this scene like many of Geromes works are done from life, most
likely all of the participants posed for hours whilst the artist
sketched them out and then would take the painting to a finish at his
studio. Paintings of this type were done on a commission, their
purpose varied, mostly they were a symbol of austerity, equivalent to
owning a sports car at the time.
Louis XIV is depicted with his famously
flamboyantly dressed entourage, depicted in complementary hues of
red, orange and blue whilst the playwright Moliere is depicted in a
relatively simple cloak in contrast. This is likely to serve two
purposes one to show that Moliere is of a lower standing than that of
the king. And two to provide a black cloak to contrast as well as
compliment the whites and gold of the surrounding furniture.
The overall colour palette, as typical
of the era of the painting is very limited. Most likely an under
painting of burnt umber was used to create the strong orange glow
throughout the painting, whilst the reds and blues were used
throughout the painting to compliment the under paintings tone. There
are clear hints of yellow and reds in the whites, and overall the
colour scheme is very complimentary to each other. Typical of
Academical art the painting has clearly been constructed in a very
logical and structural way.
Furthermore the central figures are
placed slightly off the centre axis, this is so that the horizontal
composition does not create a split on the page. All of the focal
points of the illustration clearly lay on the golden ratio grid,
which was a typical way of laying out a painting in a Academical art.
The whites of the shirts and lace
sleeves are placed at points of interest. They are contrasting to the
tones for the surrounding painting, the value of the white are
slightly varying in order to place a hierarchical order to how the
viewers eye traverses the painting.
The strong verticals of the background
architecture is there to contrast with the horizontal of the bottom
half of the painting where the majority of the action in the painting
is occurring. There is a circular shape in the middle of the painting
which is created with each of the figures eyes focusing on a
different area of the painting. This causes the viewer to follow the
course the eyes naturally create, therefore moving the viewer
throughout what would be an overly complicated and busy scene if it
wasn’t for these added nuances bringing an order to the painting.
There is a lot of variety in shapes and
tone in the painting in order to create interest. In terms of shapes
there are rectangles in the form of the paintings and table negative
space, as well as the aforementioned implied circular forms. Moreover
the black negative space of the shadows creates strong triangular
shapes, lastly if the viewer were to line the figure on the left of
the painting bending over to the figure on the right of the painting
with the scabbard sword a triangle is created.
As highlighted previously in the
analysis there is a strong contrast between light and dark, the most
prominent being the darker right hand of the painting with the much
more lit area to the left where the king and his entourage is placed.
The king is almost under a subtle
spotlight, which helps draw focus on the character. There is also
some subtle darkening at the corners of the painting which helps to
keep the viewer away from the edges due to the contrast being
created.
The background of the painting is
painted in a very loose manner, this is so that the much more
detailed figures and furniture in the mid ground of the painting
stands out an the background is not detracting with unnecessary
details. This method is also used in the foreground, except there
are no details or real points of interest, helping all of the focus
to be on the centre of the painting.
Judgement
I believe the artwork is an example of
a masterpiece, a painting which is at a point which can not be
improved. It is the goal of every artist to reach the point where
they can get to this standard of expertise, few reach this point and
as such I believe paintings like this can constantly be learned from.
Edwin Lord Weeks
Edwin Lord Weeks was a distinguished
painter whom often depicted Oriental scenes. Whilst he wasnt actually
a student of Geromes he did learn under an artist called Leon Bonnat
a close friend of Geromes whom also was a realist painter. He is
often mistakenly cited as a student of Geromes despite never studying
at the atelier under Gerome, and he often citied himself as a student
of Bonnet. I mentioned this however as I initially found Edwin Lord
Weeks work after looking up students of Gerome.
Edwin Lord weeks was a well travelled
man as can be seen from the sheer body of the artwork he produced,
much of his artwork was done on location. A lot of the information
known about the artist is from his own detailed travel journals.
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| ' The Departure Of A Caravan From The Gate Of Shelah Morocco' This painting was taken from edwinlordweeks.org |
Description and interpretation
The
oil painting above created by Edwin Lord Weeks in 1880 is entitled
'The Departure Of A Caravan From The Gate Of Shelah Morocco'
as can be surmised by the title it was painted from life. This
painting is another example of Academicism, as mentioned previous
Weeks work is very similar to that of Gerome. The painting itself is
quite faded due to its age, but most of the painting appears to be
intact.
The painting above is a very loose
which further implies it was done quickly from life rather than
painted later in a studio setting. A limited colour palette of reds,
oranges, and blues has been used. The blues appear to have been added
sparingly to compliment the surrounding dominant orange and warm
tones. An example being the blue The painting is a depiction of the
self explanatory title' The departure of a caravan from the gate of
Shelah Morocco'.
Similar to the previous painting by the
Gerome much of the action is happening in the centre of the painting.
The painting is much more chaotic than the previous Gerome painting,
I believe this is partly due to being for life rather than staged.
Analysis
The crowd is slightly off to the left
of the centre axis of the painting, with the gate being slightly off
to the right of the axis, this stops the painting becoming boring
compositionally. The painting is very simplistic in terms of tonal
values, there is a clear foreground, mid-ground and background with
no in betweens.
In general the painting can be
described as minimalistic, almost verging on impressionism. The main
point of interest in the painting, the caravan, is being framed by
the verticals created by the gate and the arch. Moreover the lighter
tones of the caravan figures contrast with the darker tones of the
walled gate.
The composition is a simple rule of
thirds, the main points of interest all falling on the grid. There is
a red canvas on the left of the caravan which directs the eye along
the caravan over to the verticals of the gate, and across the wall to
the diagonal hills. This keeps the viewers eye constantly moving
around the painting.
Judgement
The figures and objects closer the
foreground and to the intersections of the rule of the thirds appear
to have slightly more detail that the surrounding looser figures. It
appears that the painting is more representational than posed, as
such the composition elements aren’t as strong as they could be.
For instance the placement of the whites in the robe could have been
placed similar to the previous painting by Gerome in order to move
the viewer through the piece.
The colours are also dirtier, although
this could be due to the age of the painting. I believe the painting
is a bit too saturated as well, and could of done with a bit of
toning down so that the picture is more naturalistic and pleasing to
the eye.
There are a few tangents in the
painting that could be removed in order to improve the painting. The
top of the tree on the right hand side of the scene is lined with the
top of the wall, and the heads of the camel on the centre of the page
are in line. Simply overlapping these two tangent shapes would fix
these errors and create a more interesting composition and some
depth.
The centre of the painting where the
figures are all around the caravan is very loose, almost to the point
of being unrecognisable as figures. I feel a bit more detail could
have improved this, it seems likely that a lot of detail was left out
on purpose in order to save time in the painting.
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