Final Exam Draft

Peter Meli
Professor Brew
Art 101
8 May 2006
The two painting I have chosen are The Vintagers and The Voyage of Life: Manhood. The Vintagers is and Impressionist piece created by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1879. Renoir lived from 1841-1919 in France where he created a majority of his paintings. One of the most popular of the impressionists, Renoir is known for his extravagant use of light and color, especially red, and for frequent use of the impressionist technique of small brushstrokes (Answers.com). This painting was created during The Third Republic, after Napoleon III was defeated and than a republican constitution was adopted (Answers.com). The Voyage of Life: Manhood is a Romantic painting done by Thomas Cole in 1842. Thomas Cole was an English born American immigrant painter born in 1801 and later died in 1848. Thomas is said to be the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century and was concerned with the realistic and detailed portrayal of nature (Answers.com).
The painting The Vintagers by Pierre-Auguste Renoir has become a favorite of mine and I only noticed it a few days ago. I have always loved impressionist paintings and this one is a great. Impressionist painting seeks to re-create the artist's or viewer’s general impression of a scene. It is characterized by indistinct outlines and by small brushstrokes of different colors, which the eye blends at a distance. Soft, pastel colors appear frequently in impressionist paintings. I love looking at impressionist paintings up close and not being able to really decipher what I am looking at. It is only when you step back and look from a far do you see and entire scene unfold right in front of your eyes. I had no idea what a vintager was so I looked it up. A vintager is a producer or a harvester of wine grapes. The focal point of this piece is close to the bottom in the middle where the dark shading of the field. The deep green draws you in and directs you to the path the vintagers are on possibly on their way back from harvesting grapes. As ones eyes follow the vintagers and the path it leads into the town. Analogous harmonies are all over this piece. The yellow-green scheme of the fields is apparent of this. The color relationships are amazing. The blending of green and yellow throughout the piece really brings the painting together and adds a warm quality to it, one of comfort and relaxing. There are patches of brown within the field where possibly the pigments of yellow and green and brown were mixed making a deeper brown through a subtractive process. The pale almost pink hue of the roofs of the homes in this piece stand out against the fields very well. Near the top right corner hidden among the lightly colored brown trees is a large protruding structure, which may be a church. It is well shaded and almost is overlooked if not studied carefully. I chose Thomas Cole’s The Voyage of Life: Manhood because it looked very interesting to me as I looked at it more and more. As I examined the piece I discovered so many elements that made me love it. It is a dark piece that can almost be expressed as monochromatic with it’s over all dark red appearance to it. With exceptions of the angel, river, boat, a grey almost blue cloud, and the man’s clothes the hue is a very deep dark red. This red can be seen as symbolizing the evils or temptations of the world. This piece is overwhelmed with movement and line. There is a lot of use of diagonal: the upward jutting rocks, a downward sweeping river. Directional line moves from the man on the boat through these dangerous waters and into the narrow rock face. This symbolizes some of the trials and tribulations of middle age. After our eyes flow through the rock face we can see that the river runs into an ocean with a setting sun on the horizon. Here is the actual focal point of the painting. The horizon is the only horizontal line in the painting. This setting sun is a warm color which immediately grabs our attention away from the hectic scene around it. This ocean symbolizes the end of life. There is also a hint of atmospheric perspective with the mountains in the distance looking as if the were shadows they are so dim. There is a constant use of shading on the mountains as a result of the light from the angel as well as the approaching sun.
In The Vintagers there is an afternoon scene of a group of vintagers, a producer or harvester of wine grapes, arriving home while the sun begins to set off to the right where it can not be scene. The unity in this piece is of distinct color throughout the fields. The deep green and slight blue shading to the light green almost golden color that flows all around the village gives it unity with variety of color. The focal points are the villagers in the foreground on the path home. Their distinct color and shapes give them emphasis in contrast to the surrounding fields. They seem to be carrying something on their backs, which may be the grapes they have picked, giving them a rounded distinct shape with protruding legs. A lady has on a white hat that is set apart from the tan road and dark field. The houses and the church are subordinate objects in the background. Because the villagers are in the foreground they seem to be disproportional compared to the houses in the foreground, almost not to scale. Finally the colors of the fields along with the shading give this piece a rhythm that flows around the painting from the foreground to the back. Unified by a dark gloomy red, this scene in The Voyage of Life: Manhood, has a few objects that make it apparent from the rest on the piece. The man on the boat with his bright red clothes draws ones eyes to him and then down the dark blue river into the smoothly glowing sunset. From the sunset we can see more things that stand out. The grey cloud that could be demons in the sky agreeing with this gloomy scene. Then the angel in the top left corner is a very distinct character with the bright glowing white. These images add emphasis to this piece and are the focal points with the rocky mountains in the background being the subordinate images. These images give the piece a sort of variety that mixes up the unified dark color. The horizon causes asymmetrical balance in this piece. The painting is divided into two parts by a horizontal line going through the middle. It splits up a scene of dark, depressive, dangerous jutting rocks and ragging river; and a scene of the setting sun as glowing and peaceful. A rhythm flows with the man on the ragging river through the rocks to the peaceful ocean where the warm colors of the setting sun are.
The Vintagers is a great painting resembling the human experience through everyday life. A vintager is a harvester and producer of grapes, and in the painting you can see a grouping of vintagers walking home with bags on their backs filled with grapes.
Life for a vintager is their work. There are also homes in the background as well as a church to the right of the homes. These images add to the sense of human experience and the everyday routine of the villagers in the painting. When first viewing Thomas Cole’s painting, a theme that is very relevant is that of the sacred realm. There is an angel in the top left hand corner glowing in a bright light and gazing down at the man on the boat. The man on the boat is on his knees with his hands folded and staring upward, as if to show he is praying. This seems to be a very religious piece with the angel, the man praying, but if one were not religious they could see a theme of overwhelming fantasy and nature. From the dark red colors of the mountains and shy that dominate the painting, to the faces in the clouds, to the contorted trees, and finally the glowing figure in the top right can be depicted only be the viewer.
The two Paintings (The Vintagers; The Voyage of Life: Manhood) I chose have the same medium. They are both oil on canvas. The first painting The Vintagers is an Impressionist piece of the late 19th century. In this painting, the paint used seems thick, due to the over lapping of colors particularly the yellows and greens of the fields. The shadowing in the middle of the field and behind the trees mixes in with the rest of the painting, developing a feel of thick brush strokes. These thick brush strokes create an active quality to the painting, portraying the time of day by showing the villagers coming home and the shadow the trees make. A technique called alla prima, Italian for “all in one go,” seems to be used in this painting. This is a type of spontaneous approach, where bold slashing brush strokes are an important part of the piece. This can be seen in The Vintagers, in that there is no real detail at all, as if the painting was made quickly and without a stop. Many Impressionist paintings also follow this technique.
The other oil on canvas painting follows a different technique altogether. The Voyage of Life: Manhood has detail and visible characters in it. This technique is known as glazes, thin, translucent veils of color applied over a thicker layer of under painting. There were no rash decisions made in the painting, like in The Vintagers, it was well thought out and planned exactly where everything was to go. There is a lot of detail because of the time consumed on this painting. The artist wanted there to be a main character, a focal point, and images hidden all to add to the overall feel and meaning to the painting.
The painting The Voyage of Life: Manhood by Thomas Cole was developed during a period in Art history called the Romantic Period. Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe (Getlein p. 492). It followed the Enlightenment period and was in part inspired by a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the previous period, as well as a reaction against the rationalization of nature by the Enlightenment: Romanticism is an aspect of what has been called the Counter-Enlightenment. It stressed strong emotion (which now might include trepidation, awe, and horror as aesthetic experiences), legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority (which permitted freedom within or from classical notions of form in art), and overturned some previous social conventions. An influence upon the Romantic Movement by the ideologies and events of the French Revolution is thought to have characterized the movement. Thomas Cole is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century and was concerned with the realistic and detailed portrayal of nature. These two movements had an impact of the style of the artist’s work and where his ideas came from (Answers.com).
The Vintagers is a painting done by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It is a French painting and as well as Thomas Cole’s painting, it too was created during the Romantic Period. Romanticism stressed the awe of "nature" in art and language and the experience of sublimity through a connection with nature. An influence upon the Romantic Movement by the ideologies and events of the French Revolution is thought to have characterized the movement. Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe (Getlein p. 492). However, different from The Voyage, since this is a French painting it was also influenced by another movement; Realism. Realism in art is the depiction of subjects as they appear, without embellishment or interpretation. It was a mid-19th century cultural movement with its roots in France. Renoir however was influenced by both of these eras in time, he was an Impressionist, and is known strictly for that. He is one of the most widely recognized Impressionist paintings and studied with the likes of Claude Monet (Answers.com).
In conclusion, I have had a wonderful time learning about and dissecting my chosen art work over the past few months and my paper should reflect my excitement and knowledge of these two great works of art. Impressionist paintings, like Renoir’s, have always captivated me. They keep me locked on them until and make out what is going on in the piece while I make my own background story about what is going on. I feel Impressionist paintings are open to the viewers own interpretation despite whether or not the artist has given an explanation. There is rarely any detail, no lines, no borders, sometimes a few distinct objects in the background, but that is it. Portraits are never detailed, very faint characteristics so it is easy for a viewer to make up their own face, maybe they themselves are transformed into the piece. This is why I chose Renoir’s The Vintagers. I chose Cole’s The Voyage of Life: Manhood because it enchanted me. I loved his entire series of Voyages of Life, but this one I liked the most. To me it represented the struggle of man today; begging, pleading for forgiveness for all the wrongs they have done. The amazing colors gave it an almost fantastical atmosphere which I loved very much. It has been a delightful experience for me over the past four months, and I am leaving with a new found respect for art and everything that develops it.

The Vintagers 1879
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
oil on canvas

The Voyage of Life: Manhood 1842
Thomas Cole
oil on canvas

References:

Getlein, Mark. Living With Art. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005.
“Anwsers.com” Thomas Cole & Pierre-Auguste Renoir Accessed 8 May 2006 http://www.answers.com/Thomas%20Cole & http://www.answers.com/topic/pierre-auguste-renoir?method=22

Activity # 13

Auguste Renoir
The Vintagers, 1879
oil on canvas

The Vintagers is an Impressionist piece painted with oil on canvas in 1879 by Auguste Renoir. Impressionism, according to the http://www.artmovements.co.uk/impressionism.htm website, is a French 19th century art movement which marked a momentous break from tradition in European painting. This painting was done during the Industrial Revolution. It is possible that the time period is reflected in this work of art by depicting grape farmers coming home form the day of work. The Industrial Revolution marked a time where machine started to take the place of man. The Vintagers could be a reflection on how it used to be before the machine was invented. Impressionist art is a style in which the artist captures the image of an object as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse of it. This style of painting is quite possibly how Renoir painted The Vintagers, with rough brushstrokes detailing a visible texture and showing the representational figures of the farmers and villagers. The theme of this seems to be that of the human experience and the daily routine. Farmers doing there jobs, picking grapes in the field and then returning home after a long days work, probably something they did every day.








Thomas Cole
The Voyage of Life: Manhood, 1842
oil on canvas

The Voyage of Life: Manhood is a Romanticism piece painted with oil on canvas in 1842 by American painter Thomas Cole. Thomas is also attributed as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement of the late 19th century. Romanticism is a deeply-felt style which is individualistic, beautiful, exotic, and emotionally wrought; from the art movements website mentioned in the above essay. Romantics gloried in such subjects as mysterious or awe-inspiring landscapes (p 492 Getlein). The period of which this work was done was the Victorian era. The appearance of the painting is a flat texture, no visible or defining brushstrokes, very much how Romantics painted. There are representational figures in the style of this painting, mainly the man on the boat and the angel in the sky. The theme of the Manhood can may have been the Sacred Realm, mainly because of the angel, and the man kneeling in prayer formation. Another theme of this piece could be that of fantasy and nature due to the dark colors of the landscape, and the faces in the grey clouds representing something not of this world.

Activity #11

The painting The Voyage of Life: Manhood by Thomas Cole was developed during a period in Art history called the Romantic Period. Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. It followed the Enlightenment period and was in part inspired by a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the previous period, as well as a reaction against the rationalization of nature by the Enlightenment: Romanticism is an aspect of what has been called the Counter-Enlightenment. It stressed strong emotion (which now might include trepidation, awe, and horror as aesthetic experiences), legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority (which permitted freedom within or from classical notions of form in art), and overturned some previous social conventions. An influence upon the Romantic movement by the ideologies and events of the French Revolution is thought to have characterized the movement. Thomas Cole is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century and was concerned with the realistic and detailed portrayal of nature. These two movements had an impact of the style of the artist’s work and where his ideas came from.


The Vintagers is a painting done by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It is a French painting and as well as Thomas Cole’s painting, it too was created during the Romantic Period. Romanticism stressed the awe of "nature" in art and language and the experience of sublimity through a connection with nature. An influence upon the Romantic movement by the ideologies and events of the French Revolution is thought to have characterized the movement. Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. However, different from The Voyage, since this is a French painting it was also influenced by another movement; Realism. Realism in art is the depiction of subjects as they appear, without embellishment or interpretation. It was a mid-19th century cultural movement with its roots in France.

Activity #10-Mediums and Techniques

The Voyage of Life: Manhood, 1842
Thomas Cole
oil on canvas

The Vintagers, 1878
Auguste Renoir
oil on canvas

The two Paintings (The Vintagers; The Voyage of Life: Manhood) I chose have the same medium. They are both oil on canvas. The first painting The Vintagers is an Impressionist piece of the late 19th century. In this painting, the paint used seems thick, due to the over lapping of colors particularly the yellows and greens of the feilds. The shadowing in the middle of the field and behind the trees mixes in with the rest of the painting, developing a feel of thick brush strokes. These thick brush strokes create an active quality to the painting, portraying the time of day by showing the villagers coming home and the shadow the trees make. A technique called alla prima, Italian for “all in one go,” seems to be used in this painting. This is a type of spontaneous approach, where bold slashing brush strokes are an important part of the piece. This can be seen in The Vintagers, in that there is no real detail at all, as if the painting was made quickly and without a stop. Many Impressionist paintings also follow this technique.
The other oil on canvas painting follows a different technique altogether. The Voyage of Life: Manhood has detail and visible characters in it. This technique is known as glazes, thin, translucent veils of color applied over a thicker layer of underpainting. There were no rash decisions made in the painting, like in The Vintagers, it was well thought out and planned exactly where everything was to go. There is a lot of detail because of the time consumed on this painting. The artist wanted there to be a main character, a focal point, and images hidden all to add to the overall feel and meaning to the painting.

Activity #8

I made this collage in the effort for everyone to get to know me a little bit better. Hope you enjoy!

Activity #9

The Effect of the Camera on Visual Arts






The invention of the camera had huge effects on visual arts when it started to become more widespread. This new medium could record an event on the spot it was considered to bare truth. Because of the truth baring “new realism” of photography visual artists were free to begin to explore more expressive ways of depicting their subjects. They expressed themselves by changing color, or subject matter, or presentation of subject matter. The main medium of photography was light, visual artists of the day knew this and as a result they became more interested in the effects of light on objects and colors. This became a new matter of content for their work. Cameras also made use of the landscape and still life as a popular subject, therefore visual artists also began to see the possibilities of a subject that before had been considered low art. In a movement called pictoralism, photographers used a variety of techniques to undercut his objectivity of the camera, producing gauzy, atmospheric images that seemed more like a painting, thus more like art. But an important American photographer did not agree with this way of photography. He came to the conclusion that for photography to be an art, it must be true to its own nature, it should not try to be painting. Abstract images were later created by Paul Strand, using close up views tat would obscure the subject of the picture and create something else. Artists such as Hannah Hoch used found images, basically anything, as a new kind of raw material for art. This type of art is know as collage, and has its roots from the art movement data. These and many more are examples of the effect the camera had on visual arts. The camera took ordinary, hum-drum life, and turned it into art.

Activity #7

American Pop Art

An artistic look into American Pop Art and one of its most famous artists was explored in this exhibition, which presents 9 objects associated with this theme. In America Pop artists reproduced, duplicated, combined, overlaid and arranged visual details that make up American society, introducing shifts and transformations and acting like commentaries. Pop Art attempted to show that a detached look at the over familiar objects of daily life could give them new meaning as visual symbols. Pop artists took material in the mundane, mass-produced objects and images of America’s popular culture- comic books, advertising, etc. and turned them into something exciting. In this exhibition shows all of that. All of these objects in this show are taken from one of the most famous and enigmatic Pop artists, Andy Warhol.

One of the leaders of the pop art movement, Andy Warhol produced paintings and silk-screen prints of commonplace images, such as soup cans and photographs of celebrities. Repetition was a key to Warhol's work, as evidenced by his many recurrent series Marilyn Monroe, Che Guevara, and Chairman Mao, among others. The use of photographic silkscreen gave the images a mechanical look. Warhol deliberately infused his work with a mechanical and impersonal character that intensified when he adopted silkscreen printing techniques in order to increase his production. The silkscreen process, which consists in the mechanical repetition of an image on fabric while reducing it to its essential outlines; stripped of its details, the form acquires a greater visual impact. This technique deriving from the advertising industry for which Warhol had worked, allows him to approach his ideal of objectivity, whereby perfection would be a matter of identical reproduction. This operation's effect would be to separate the image from the meanings attributed to it, preserving only its appearance, the pure image. Warhol attempted to keep his personal fascination with fame from showing through too clearly in his works, preferring to leave their meaning open to the interpretation of viewers. These 9 objects in this show exemplify all of the artistic talents Andy Warhol had. From paintings of the Campbell’s Soup can, to his famous mass produced silk screens such as the Marilyn Monroe.

American Pop art took me by surprise the first time I saw it. I was looking through our book and saw a picture of Andy Warhol, and thought this person looks very strange and interesting, so I read the little piece the book had on him. I saw some of his work in the Pop art theme and some work of others such as Roy Lichtenstein and Niki de Saint-Phalle and I enjoyed it very much. I found it so interesting how these artists took such simple things and turned them into art. What really intrigued me was why these artists constructed what they did, but a lot of them would not say why. Like Andy Warhol, they wanted to leave the interpretations up to its viewers. I look at these creations for long periods of time and have no idea what they mean or why they are there. But I realize it is up to me to develop a meaning behind the piece and I love that about Pop art. You can never be wrong about the interpretation, because it is your own.