The Japanese Footbridge - Claude Monet

One of the most wonderful "art experiences" I have ever had was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. (I really shouldn't "one of" because I went several times.) In one room they have 3 of Monet's Waterlilies - all wall size. You can sit on a bench and be surrounded by these beautiful paintings. I hope they still have it that way. I haven't been back to New York in several years.
Claude Monet was born November 14, 1840 in Paris and died at Giverny on December 5, 1926. He is the epitome of Impressionist painting. In fact he is considered the founder of Impressionism.The term Impressionism is derived from one of his paintings - Impression, Sunrise (It was part of the first Impressionist exhibit and an art critic used the term to disparge the artists. But the artists liked the term and decided to use it to describe their work).
Monet always knew that he wanted to be an artist. He began studying art at age 11 at the Le Havre Secondary School of the Arts. Around 1857 he met fellow artist Eugene Boudin who became a mentor to Monet. He taught how to paint with oils and, perhaps most importantly, how to paint "en plein air" - the outdoors.
Occasionally Claude would travel back to Paris to the Louvre Museum. He met several other painters including Edouard Manet, whose works bridge realism and impressionism.
In 1870 he went to London and became inspired by the landscapes of John Constable and Joseph Turner. These two artist would also have a profound effect on Monet.
In May 1883 Monet and his family moved to Giverny. He would remain there the rest of his life. He would find some of his greatest inspirations there, especially in his gardens. He began working on series of paintings. For instance his "haystacks" paintings. He would paint them at different times of day,different points of view, and different weather conditions, in order to see how the sunlight changed the shadows and colors.
As he became more successful he was able to spend more on his gardens. He planned them out, making precise designs for planting, everyday giving instructions to his gardeners. Today, the gardens are still there and opened to the public. Monet said of himself, "I'm good for nothing except painting and gardening."
There is a wonderful book called Linnea in Monet's Garden - also a DVD. It is a fantastic introduction to Monet for children - and adults can enjoy it as well.
The Japanese Bridge Over the Lily Pond was first painted in 1899. By the way this is not one of the paintings at the Museum of Modern Art. The picture at the right is bridge as it looks today, probably not much different than it did in Monet's day. The bridge appears in at least 40 of Monet's paintings
The painting at the right is also the bridge. It was painted in 1926 after Monet had developed cataracts. His eyes were operated on in 1923, but it is possible that he was now able to see certain ultrawave violet that the normal eye usually can't see. If you squint your eyes you barely make out the bridge. The other paintings are referred to as Waterlily Pond, Symphony in Rose (above, far right), Water Lily Pond (below right), and Water Lily Pond,Symphony in Green (below left)

"Pentecost" by El Greco

El Greco (1541-1614) was a painter,sculptor, and architect. His name was actually Doménikos Theotokópoulos (for those of you interested in Greek, here is his name in the Greek alphabet - Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος) and he was born in Crete, which was part of the Republic of Venice at that time. After he settled in Spain people began referring to him as "El Greco"- the Greek.
After leaving Crete in 1568, where he painted mostly Byzantine icons, of which almost nothing has survived, he went to Italy. He spent time in Venice and Rome. He then went to Spain, where he spent the rest of his life, occasionally making a return visit to Italy.
El Greco had a distinct style - his elongated figures, his intense colors, often his figures looking upward. Mannerism had developed by artists such as Michelangelo. In Mannerism, painting took on more subjective view of the physical world. Often space was compressed, figures elongated and entwined, colors were out of the ordinary. It emphasized the artist's stylishness. It appeal to the artist's intellect and that was something that appealed to El Greco.
After failing to find much success in Italy, El Greco moved to Spain.In 1577 he moved to Toledo, Spain and remained there the rest of his life.
The Counter-Reformation was in full force and in Spain there was a great demand for religious art. The majority of his paintings are religious works, painted with zeal and passion.
After his death, El Greco fell out of favor in the art world. In fact he was down right disdained by the Baroque artists of the 16th century. It wasn't until the late 18th century that he was rediscovered. The Romantics embraced him. In 1890s he became an inspiration to Spanish painters living in Paris. Gradually the rest of the world began to "discover" him. His influence on other artists is varied but is most evident in Paul Cezanne, a forerunner of Cubism, as well as Picasso.
The Pentecost ,which hangs in the Prado in Madrid, Spain, was painted around 1600. It is an oil painting on canvas. It is a good example of El Greco's work - the colors, the exaggerated figures, the intensity and pareligious fervor.
View of Toledo, one of El Greco's most famous works

Paul Cezanne's Road Before the Mountains, Sainte-Victoire (below)

A Sunday on La grande Jatte by Georges Seurat

Georges Seurat (1859-1891) was a French, Post-Impressionist (or Neo-Impressionist) artist who invented a technique known as pointillism. He was from a wealthy family and attended L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. After a year of military service, he returned to Paris and devoted 2 years to just doing black and white drawings. He wanted to master drawing before moving on to painting. In 1883, he produced his first major painting The Bathers. This painting was rejected by the Salon. Subsequently, he and a few other artists formed the Société des Artistes Indépendants. An ironic note. The established school of painting at this time was the Impressionists (Monet, Renoir) which several years before was the anti-establishment school of painting. In 1884 he began work on his masterpiece A Sunday on La Grande-Jatte.
A Sunday on La Grande-Jatte took two years to finish. Obviously a very patient man, Seurat placed small precise brush strokes of different colors next to each other. These dots of color would blend together when looked at from a distance.He had study the new sciences of color theory and opticals and wanted to put them to the test in his paintings. Seurat believed that an artist could use color to create emotion and harmony in art the same way a musician uses counterpoint to create harmony in music. He believed that scientific use of color was just like any other natural law and he was obsessed with proving his point. He says in a letter to Maurice Beaubourg, "Art is Harmony. Harmony is the analogy of the contrary and of similar elements of tone, of color and of line, considered according to their dominance and under the influence of light, in gay, calm or sad combinations"
Seurat's theories can be summarized as follows: The emotion of gaiety can be achieved by the domination of luminous hues, by the predominance of warm colors, and by the use of lines directed upward. Calm is achieved through an equivalence/balance of the use of the light and the dark, by the balance of warm and cold colors, and by lines that are horizontal. Sadness is achieved by using dark and cold colors and by lines pointing downward.*
A Sunday on La Grande-Jatte is his greatest work. It shows people of different walks of life and social classes enjoying various activities in the park, Le Grande Jatte, which is an island in the River Seine. He spent two years on this painting, visiting Le Grande Jatte and making more than 30 oil sketches in preparation for the final painting. The painting is 10 feet long. It hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.
As with most major paintings (and other art forms, literature, etc) scholars have different theories about the painting. Some think it represents hostility between the social classes. They all congregate there but no one looks or speaks to each other. For others it shows the growing middle class at leisure. I tend towards the latter because Seurat's purpose centered around his theories of color. don't think he would have bothered making any kind of political statement.
An interesting aside - in 1984 a new Stephen Sondheim musical opened based on this painting. "Sunday in the Park with George" starred Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. I never got to see it in person but I did see the televised version (I also have the original cast album). It was glorious. It fictionalized Seurat's life, of course but I believe it caught his spirit.
Below is a link to youtube - the final number of the first half ,when the painting is finished.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVO9rN5Bk1A

Georges Seurat was only 31 when he died,most probably of diptheria. He produced 7 major paintings and 60 smaller ones.

*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Seurat near bottom of article.

Other seurat works:(top) The Bridge at Courbevoie (1886-87); (bottom) La Parade de Cirque (1887-89) also called Invitation to a Sideshow

"Relativity" by M.C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. His father was a civil engineer. He is considered one of best and probably the most famous of graphic artists. Over his lifetime, Escher made 448 lithographs and over 2000 drawings and sketches. He illustrated books and also designed tapestries, postage stamps, and murals.
Although Escher did some realistic works,(his early works were of the Italian countryside) his primary works involved optical illustions, explorations of infinity, and impossible structures. He became fascinated with the Regular Division of the Plane when he visited the Alhambra, a 14th century Moorish castle in Grenada Spain (see photo below).
Escher did not have mathematical training but mathematics play a huge role in his work. This influence emerged in his work around 1936 after he began studying George Pólya's academic paper on plane symmetry groups
"This paper inspired him to learn the concept of the 17 wallpaper groups (plane symmetry groups). Utilizing this concept, Escher created periodic tilings with 43 colored drawings of different types of symmetry. From this point on he developed a mathematical approach to expressions of symmetry in his art works. Starting in 1937, he created woodcuts using the concept of the 17 plane symmetry groups."*In 1941, Escher wrote his first paper, now publicly recognized, called Regular Division of the Plane with Asymmetric Congruent Polygons, which detailed his mathematical approach to artwork creation. George Pólya's
Relativity is a 1953 lithograph depicts a kind of serene world where the laws of gravity do not seem to apply. It's a sort "world of the future" type of scene with everyone dressed alike in lycra-like attire. Everyone is going about their day-to-day existence. These types of figures are found in other Escher works.
But there are actually three sources of gravity. They are perpendicular to each other. Each inhabitant lives in one of these gravity wells. Each staircase services 2 of the gravity wells.What makes the picture confusing is that all gravity sources are depicted in one space. Each park is in one gravity well but of the doors save one seem to be leading to basements below the parks.
This is one of Escher's most popular works. I am sure many of you have seen it used on other items - gift wrap, jigsaw puzzles, etc. In fact I did a puzzle with this picture on it.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher
Some other of M.C. Escher's works (upper left) Still Life with Street (his first "impossible" work)
(upper right) Drawing Hands. (bottom left) Regular division of the Plane III (bottom right) The Alhambra

The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck

Jan (also known as Johannes) Van Eyck was a 15th century painter from the Netherlands who is considered one of the best Northern European artists of the 15th century. He came from a family of painters but none achieved the success of Jan. Van Eyck has been called the "Father of Oil Painting" because of the misinformation perpetuated by Giorgio Vasari, the 16th century painter and biographer of the Renaissance artists. He credited Van Eyck with inventing oil painting. But his masterful techniques brought to light qualities of the oil paints never before realized. He would build up layers of transparent glazes which would then give him a surface on which he could capture the smallest detail. This would also preserve the colors.
Van Eyck spent several years as a court painter, first for John of Bavaria and then for Philip the Good of Burgandy.He was with the Burgandy Court, living in Bruges, from about 1425 until his death in 1441.
Van Eyck, unlike most of his contemporaries, was paid a very substantial salary and did not have to rely on commissions to make ends meet (although he did take on private clients) . Also unusual for his time was the fact that he signed and dated his works, on the frame of the painting. The frame was considered an important part of the painting and often the frame and the painting were painted together.
The Arnolfini Portrait was painted in 1434 and hangs in the National Gallery in London. It is one of the most analyzed paintings by art historians. For a long time it was thought to represent an announcement of an engagement or marriage (thus its alternative title, The Betrothal of Arnolfini, among several others). And the woman is probably not pregnant. The lifting of the skirt is often found in 15th century paintings of virgin saints.
Instead of signing the frame of this picture, Van Eyck signed the painting in an ornate script over the mirror. The inscription says "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic 1434" (Jan Van Eyck was here, 1434) There are 2 figures reflected in the mirror, as if they were just coming in. The man is lifting his hand as if he is greeting him. It is speculated that one of these figures is Van Eyck himself. (see detail of picture above).
The picture is supposedly of Giovanni di Arrigo Arnolfini and his bride, Giovanna Cenami, but it has been established that they did not marry until 13 years after this painting was done. It is now believed to be Arnofini's cousin, Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini.
The details in this painting are extraordinary and unusual for the time. The clothing, ornaments, room decor all show that these were people of wealth. Even the oranges under the window were symbolic of wealth as they were very expensive in Bruges.

Some other paintings by Jan Van Eyck (left) St. Jerome (right) Madonna and Child

"Thomas More" by Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497- 1547) was a German artist and printmaker. He is considered one of the greatest portrait painters of the 16th century, indeed of all time. His father - you guessed it - Hans Holbein the Elder, was an artist of the late Gothic period.
While still in Germany, Holbein mostly produced religious works - paintings, murals, and designing stained glass and prints. He occasionally painted portraits, making a name for himself with portraits of Desiderius Erasmus, the Dutch humanist.
Holbein traveled to England in 1526 in hopes of finding work. He had a recommendation from Erasmus and was able to get into the inner circle of Thomas More, statesman and humanist and part of the court of Henry VIII, where he added to his already excellent reputation. Holbein returned to Basel, Germany for 4 more years than returned to England where he was able to get into the good graces of Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell. By 1535 he was the King's Painter to Henry VIII. In this role he not only painted the royal portraits but designed jewelry, plate, and other precious objects.
Holbeins portraits went beyond just capturing the physical appearance. His portraits show details of clothing, jewelry, and other embellishments. He used objects in the paintings to allude to the sitter's position in society or to an event in the sitter's life.
His portrait of Sir (Saint) Thomas More is one of Holbein's most well- known portraits. It hangs in the Frick Museum in New York. I have had the privilige of seeing it a few times. It was painted in 1527 and measures 29 1/2 " by 23 3/4". It is oil paint on oak panel.
Thomas More was a diplomatic envoy and Privy Councillor in the Court of Henry VIII. He was elected Speaker for the House of Commons in 1523. In 1529 he became Lord Chancellor. He served in that office for three years. When the king wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon More resigned and refused to recognize the king's claim to be head of the Church in England (Act of Supremacy). More was arrested, convicted of high treason,and beheaded. He was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church in 1935.
This portrait of More shows someone of importance, which he was. The medillion he wears does not represent a specific office, just that he was in service of the King. The rendering of his clothing, to me, is remarkable. The velvet, the fur seem real; if you could touch the painting you would expect to feel those fabrics. There were a couple of other paintings of St. Thomas More but they have not survived. A drawing of More and his family - including father, children, and grandchildren - is in the Tate Gallery in London. As with many of Holbein's subjects, these portraits are they only pictures of Thomas More, the only way we know what he actually looked like.
Holbein died in 1543 during the plague in London.
For more information on St. Thomas More - www.luminarium.org/renlit/tmore.htm This is a very comprehensive site with a biography, his works, articles and essays about him, links, and a discussion forum.
Other portraits by Holbein top row - Henry VIII; Erasmus
Bottom row - Woman with Squirrel; Anne of Cleves

"Rain, Steam, and Speed" by Joseph Turner

Joseph Turner was born on April 23, 1775 in London. His father taught him to read and that was the extent of his education. He loved to draw and by age 13 was selling his drawings in his father's barber shop. At 15 he was asked to exhibited one of his paintings at the Royal Academy and by 18 he had his own studio. His reputation grew rapidly and success came to him at a young age. By 27 he was a full member of the Royal Academy.
He began to travel throughout Europe. Venice, Italy became of source of inspiration for him and many of his paintings are set there. He studied the effects of the sea and the sky in different types of weather. Eventually his paintings evolved into a sort of romantic interpretation of the landscape instead realistic interpretation. Indeed, although Turner was an inspiration to the Impressionists, he is considered part of the Romanticism movement that began in the latter half of the 18th century and grew during the Industrial Revolution.
The painting Rain, Steam, and Speed , the Great Western Railway is an example of Turner's later work, a good example of the style for which he is famous. It is a watercolor and was painted before 1844, which was the year it was exhibited. Most artists at this time disdained the Industrial Revolution and much of the work of this time is of a back to nature type. For example, Constable in art, William Wordsworth in poetry, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe in literature. They are all considered part of the Romanticism movement. But Joseph Turner differed with them on the industrial age. He admired what was going on and he successfully combined nature with industry in many of his paintings. He was an especially big fan of the railways and chose one of the most advanced engines for this painting,known as the "Friefly Class"; and the bridge it is crossing at Maidenhead was a masterpiece of engineering by the greatest bridge - builder of his time, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.*

*www.fulcrumgallery.com/JMW-Turner/Rain-Steam-and-Speed-The-Great-Western-Railway-before-1844_28298.htm
Other examples of Turner's work:The Grand Canal, Venice 1835 oil on canvas (left) and Warkworth Castle, Northumberland - Thunder Storm Approaching at Sun-Set 1799,watercolor on paper (right) .









Joseph Turner became more and more eccentric over the years and eventually isolated himself from everyone. One day he disappeared from his home and was missing for many months. He was found hiding in a house in Chelsea near death. He died the following day, Dec. 19,1851