The Daughters of Catulle Mendes by Pierre Auguste Renoir - Essay Example

Pierre August Renoir - "Daughters of Catulle Mendes" The reason to choose the "Metropolitan Museum of Art" is it is the world's largest museum and it is one of the most important art museum. The Museum is shortly referred to as "The Met". The Met maintains a collection of about 2 millions or more from all around the world. The museum is the oldest, which contains antique paintings and also features medieval art. It also has the collection of musical instruments from all over the world. It has the treasure of sculptures from European masters. It hosts the paintings of Egyptian, African, Middle Eastern, Byzantine, Islamic Art and Oceanic. So for a student who does research on art the Museum is the best choice to select paintings for the work of thesis. The Museum has devoted a separate branch especially for the art and architecture of medieval Europe. It has the collection of both the domestic architectural elements and religious architectural elements that range from a period of 12th century to about 15 centuries back. This building with the cloistered gardens is located at the Fort Tryon Park in the upper Manhattan. The mostly highlighted things in the Cloisters are the treasures of sculptures, tapestries, ivories, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, goldsmith's and silversmith's work and enamels. There are many features and works of art that could be mentioned after paying a visit to the museum of which a few are Cezannes Astonishing Apples - this is a painting painted by a French artist in which a few apples on a tablecloth and a flower vase with flowers could be seen. The astonishing fact here is when the painting is seen from a distance apples look alike but when seen through a magnifying glass no two apples are same. Each and every apple is different from other one. Sphinx of Senwosret III - This belongs to the period of 18This belongs to the period of early eighteenth century to late eighteen century of Before Christ period. It is possessed by the twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Egyptian Kingdom. A Terracotta Calyx - This belongs to five hundred and fifteen century of Before Christ. A potter who made it for the mixing of wine signed this Calyx krater as Euxitheos and a painter too signed as Euphronios after doing the painting work. The Italy government gave this piece. Human headed winged lion and winged bull - It belonged to the period of 883-859 B.C about three thousand years ago this was possessed by the King of Ashurnasirpal II, of Assyrian empire for which Nimud was made capital which is now called as Iraq . This image was considered as the guardian and was placed before the palace. The people entering the palace passed from between the legs of the lion which has five legs. Renoir born on 1845 February 25 and died on December 3 1919 was a French artist who contributed greatly to the movement of Impressionism. The movement is about the artists were not allowed to conduct exhibitions privately. They have to give their paintings to the official salon. Renoir gave some of his paintings to the salon and also at he same time dared to conduct exhibitions privately. He was very innovative and always experimented with his work and brought out new methods of paintings with which the work looked exclusively special. The paintings of Renoir give an impression that the figure in the image is coming out of the image, as though the sunrays are falling on the hats or window, as though there is so much delight in the life of a women or the one portrayed, as though some thing special is hidden in them. The freshness and the openness make us feel divine for a moment and we feel are we in the heaven where there is nothing but joy. One must have an artistic heart to understand the art. Renoir's paintings when viewed, I learned that he frequently painted the landscapes along with other artists of impressionism. He imitated other artists like Cezanne, with small parallel strokes of brush. It is also observed that he was fairly capable enough of painting landscapes but failed experimenting with them. I have chosen the work of Pierre Auguste Renoir because they are not only great but also pretty and whose work seems always to have been done in paradisiacal temperatures. There might be probably no artist to compare with Renoir whose work is with attractive sentiments of charming people. The images look so lively as though she is alive there with living skin. Not only fresh but the way they look can't be explained. Renoir paintings show joy even in the modern days with some chocolate box qualities. People considered his paintings as just pretty and superficial but infact they are profound and done away with intellectuality of the posers and sitters. From the artist the technique to show the bright sun light, the shaded areas, the strokes of brush and the apt color compositions to the nature are the things to learn. Renoir made a self-conscious attempt to make the grand painting through which he conquered the high society and the painting salon or the exhibition as informality of eighteenth century. The painting showed his novel combination of fluid impressionist technique. Here one must remember Vigee-Lebrun. Catulle Mendes was a celebrated poet, publicist, and impresario. He survived with his wife Augusta Holmes, a legendary beauty and a talented musician and his five children. The golden tresses of her were inherited in her daughters also. Renoir's painting "Madame Charpentier and Her Children" fetched much fame and to recall that fame and success he requested his friend Mendes for his consent to paint his three beautiful daughters. His friend Mendes was a publisher of Symbolist poetry and a well-known writer. Mendes wife and his companion Augusta Holmes, an expert pianist and a composer, was the mother of these girls whose names are Claudine, Huguette, and Helyonne. Renoir appealed to his friend like "I beg you to tell me immediately if you want portraits done of your beautiful children. I shall exhibit them [at the Impressionist exhibition] in May, so you can see why I am in a hurry. I shall do the drawings at your house and the portrait at mine". In the painting the eldest girl is seated at the piano and turns to her sister to give the note, which she finds it on her violin. The youngest, being in a tender age just leans against piano and listens, as any one would do at that tender age. Renoir anticipated a sum of five hundred francs as just for the namesake. The painting was totally ignored in the exhibition of 1888, which proved to be a serious financial disaster and after that from 1890 rendezvous it has emerged out to be one of the most impressive works of Renoir. Using his masterful skill he idealized the gestures, expressions of his friend's family. The coloring style was supposed to be new and described as aggressive with the fluidity of the brushwork and in the dealing the theme he paid homage to painters of eighteenth-century and mostly Fragonard. In some of the Renoir's paintings, the color compositions indicate that he used oil paint as watercolor which now proves to be a contemporary art that has no place in this 21 century. He questioned and remarked that "Why shouldn't art be pretty There are enough unpleasant things in the world". Renoir's paintings give a fleeting look of spontaneity and freshness in the developing the art. The image relies upon the art of impressionism when observed directly the work confines the ephemeral effects of light and color. The techniques developed by Renoir in the oil painting are highly skilled could only be noticed when the paint surface is closely examined and noticed. The nature of his brushwork differs from thickly applied paint, brightly colored still life on the table, to the landscapes showing a feathered brushstrokes in the backgrounds. To define the three-dimensional character of the human body and specify the details of facial features he delicately shaded the degrees of light and dark colors using a firm outlines. Even for such a complex work the artist's method is they first begin with sketches on the paper or study small paintings and then get prepared to make complex paintings. But it is revealed that the any of the collection of Renoir has drawings, oil studies or any preparatory workouts existed. Renoir's process is embedded in layers of paint on the canvas that was studied precisely. By the help of the latest techniques of studying painting such as x-radiography and infrared reflectography it is discovered that as he worked on the painting he made numerous changes to the canvas within the period it was made. A letter written by the artist says that he worked out on single images coz the availability of models and then struggled to make the group paintings, the table settings and the landscape. He made changes to his paintings such as finely adjusting the individual figures, adding colors such as red and white to give the effect of sunshade or under a roof like shelter of the canvas or under a window or a deck, canopy etc at the upper left. Such awning changes could only detected by the naked eye. When the image is seen before awning and after awning the value of the change could be envisaged. It is difficult to bring the three dimensional effect to the distant landscape images and the effect can only be achieved by enclosing a top edge, by the balcony projecting slightly in he space and of all sitters are better illustrated as unified group to paint. More over painting outdoors was defined as plen air painting. Although there is no documentation it is known that the lengthy process of changing the work of art and reworking on the masterpiece is carried out in the studio. His painting would give the same fresh look after all the modifications made it looked exquisitely crafted piece of art. His paintings were famous for vibrant light and saturated color, which focused on intimate people with candid compositions. Renoir suggested the characteristic details of a scene in an impressionist style through a freely brushed touch of color, so that his images would gently fuse with one another and their surroundings His paintings has the influence of special coloring system used by Eugene Delacroix, in which brushstrokes are very expressively used and optical effects of Hicolor are studied and applied to make the work look like that of an impressionist. The paintings has the luminosity of the Camille Corot which resembles simultaneosly the neo-classical tradition and the anticipation of the plen air innovations The characteristics of Impressionist paintings consist of open compositions, visible brush strokes, emphasis on light in its changing qualities, unusual visual angles, ordinary subject matter. It was also known that Renoir also used a picture roll or a moving canvas that enabled him to make large works. Impressionism is an Art Movement of the nineteenth century which united many artists and made them conduct the art exhibitions publicly before this movement the art was only to be exhibited at official Salon and only upper class enjoyed the privilege of veiwing the art. The work of Oscar Claude Monet "Impression" gave its name to the movement. Oscar Claude Monet was a French artist who was born in Paris in 1840. From Paris the family moved to Le Havre where Monet was educated in a public school LeHavre. Here he started learning painting . He displayed his first painting in the LeHavre muncipal exhibition. Monet further learnt painting by attending "Academia Suisse" where artists practice their art by seeing live models with out any teaching . He then returned to Paris to learn Art from the Charles Gleyre where Renoir, Sisiley and Bazille were his fellow friends who learned Art. Renoir and Claude Monet both shared the studio and have done paintings. Claude Monet's painting . Both painters are impressionist painters and their paintings have the following qualities To quiclkly capture essence of the subject rather than its details, short, thick strokes of paint are used. To create a vibrant surface, colors are mixed very lightly and aplied side-by-side. By mixing complimentary colors grays an dark tones are produced. The use of black paint is avoided mostly. To produce an intermingling color with soft edges wet paint is placed into wet paint without allowing succesive applications to dry. The impressionist painting doesn't have the glazing effect, they are having opaque surface. Natural light plays important role. Colors reflect from object to object. The paintings made in open air under the sky or plen-air as they are referred to are used sky blue color to paitn shadows boldly that reflected on the surfaces that give a sense of freshness which cannot be traced in the earlier paintings. . . . Donna McKee and Suzanne Wright. The Education Office, The Phillips Collection, 1996. http://www.phillipscollection.org/html/lbp.html#top Read More