Jessica Crabtree

So here’s my first foray into the web interactives of the Louvre Museum. First of all I’ve got say how much I love the practical layout of the features – so much to see but all very accessible and well-organized.

Out of the list of thematic mini-sites I’ve chosen “Rembrandt the Draftsman”. Of the three areas in which Rembrandt made his mark (no pun intended) – painting, etching, and drawing – this exhibit highlights the last. And with pencil and paper being my first love I could hardly resist.

France, it seems, has had a long history of Rembrandt appreciation, and French collectors of his drawings go way back. The Louvre alone possesses 64 of them, and many of these were acquired in the early 18th century.

Rembrandt’s drawings, to a greater extent than those of other artists, are like strobe photos of an artist’s mind in action – like a flip-book of creative ideas taking shape in his head. He sketched prolifically and copied works of his mentors to explore their method and many of these sketches are still extant.

Interior with Saskia in Bed – a scene from Rembrandt’s own home. This one I found unique in its masses of heavy rich shading that give structure to the composition. A very warm and domestic example of his genre painting.

Most of his drawings are done with chalk or ink wash or a combination of both. With his distinctive blunt, rapid, scrambled style, they are spontaneous enough to capture the essence of the subject with very little premeditation and an added sense of lightness and motion (especially so in his narrative scenes).

Cornelis Claesz – This was one of the most articulate and sensitive in the exhibit. It uses not only ink and wash but chalk and gouache, and is much more elaborate and self-sufficient than most of his drawings. The subject was a prominent Dutch Mennonite.

Below, completely different in tone and subject, is the sketch Shah Jahan on Horseback, with a Falcon on his Left Wrist. It shows Rembrandt’s uncanny readiness to assimilate other styles. He must have been fascinated with the line and texture of Oriental painting. He made this copy of the Mughal ruler’s portrait from a miniature, probably a piece in his own eclectic collection. His widely multifarious interests qualify him as something of a Renaissance man, notwithstanding the Netherlands’ cosmopolitan society.

The most interesting section (I think) was ‘Rembrandt the Narrator.’ He was certainly at his best as a storyteller – his exuberant curiosity and attention to detail made the combination of human dynamics with an eloquent (and sometimes flamboyant) presentation a no-brainer. I think they reveal his character the most. They exploit his favorite subjects – the expressiveness of the elderly face, the body language of individuals in states of strong emotion, and the intrigue of exotic settings and dress.

The counterpoint between his subjects is strong but not forced, because there is a real sense of innocence in Rembrandt’s characters. I think part of this quality stems from the way he explored lesser-known subjects: for instance, rather than painting many dozens of Madonnas over and over, he looked for the dramatic potential in obscure Old Testament scenes, such as Jacob’s sons returning from Egypt, or in the pages of the Apocrypha.

The Parable of the Talents – To the right is a close-up of the hired man: his face downcast, and his posture suggesting even more strongly his embarrassment and despondency.

Something remarkable about Rembrandt’s sketches is that no matter how spontaneous or cursory they appear, the faces are always given equal treatment. Even with just a few marks he makes sure that they convey the suggestion of expression that carries the symbolic weight of the narrative.

And finally, landscapes first appeared in his portfolio around 1640, done mostly from plein-air sketches. These have become fixtures of his portfolio representing the Dutch style (of course how could the mention of Rembrandt fail to conjure a vision of those iconic ink-wash windmills?)

River with Wooded Banks – one of Rembrandt’s later pieces. It illustrates how drastically his style softened over time. It is strikingly atmospheric and harks to a much later style of painting – perhaps to Turner or even the Impressionists?

The Old Masters: Rembrandt van Rijn This Day in History

I’ve been wandering through the collection of the world’s most-visited museum – the Louvre of Paris.

Well, not literally; but I have discovered its excellent and fascinating website. Spending time in it is like spending time in the Louvre itself. It is really exhaustive, as you might expect, with a slew of things to tempt the artist, the history buff, or the merely curious mind (all three of which apply to me!)

The material ranges from student-friendly to quite technical. The interactive “Workshop” gives an amusing guided tour of museum highlights fit (I think) for all ages:

The most significant attraction for me is the series of “In-Depth” studies of great paintings. On my first visit I explored the feature for Delatour’s pastel portrait of Madame de Pompadour (yes, that is a pastel!) This video, for instance, discusses the composition of the painting, the biography of both artist and subject, and the evolution of pastel technique. Like a 15-minute all-in-one art class.

There are features classed also by era or special exhibition – all very attractively presented – I will definitely be going back for more. Which brings me to the introduction of my new blog series…

As I explore the Louvre (digitally at least) I’ll post on the most interesting pages and give my best picks. It should make for some good conversation, n’cest pas?

The site Purpose Games has pages and pages of quizzes for the fine art aficionado. Test your knowledge of famous paintings and artists of various periods – for example, how many famous artists can you recognize from their self-portraits? Can you name a great work of art from just a close-up? Do you know your Manet from your Monet? You might surprise yourself…

You can also search for artist/period by name.

Have a Closer Look – Identify paintings by details

Identify the Artist: Self-Portraits

More Self Portraits

Masters – Great Paintings Quiz

Can you identify 15 of the most famous paintings?

Famous People by Famous Artists (This one is especially tricky since you have to match BOTH the artist and the subject: good luck!)

June 11, 1776: English painter John Constable is born

“Painting is but another word for feeling” – John Constable

Constable found himself wedged between two artistic worlds – the formal, elaborate Classical style that relished the ancient and remote; and the new Romantic school that sought to sublimate nature into something at once mystical and intimately personal. Both groups found Constable’s work hopelessly domestic and mundane. While Constable’s paintings betray his admiration for the technique and skill of the old masters, they also showed a definite Impressionistic flair; but the provincial flavor of his work did not endear him to the Romantics either, who expected a more idealized approach.

Somewhere between the two camps was forged a fusion of tradition and innovation that made Constable perhaps Britain’s greatest landscape artist.

In fact it was not in England but in France that his work had both the best reception and the strongest influence – a ironic twist considering that Constable never traveled outside of England. His professional career suffered because his accomplishments were so slow to gain recognition in his own country. But the impact he had on early French Romanticism, and the later Impressionist movement, is obvious in the works of Millet and other painters of the Barbizon school, who successfully combined naturalism with realism.

Left: Self-Portrait (1804) courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery (Source: Britannica Online)

Constable was born the son of a merchant in Suffolk, England, and later credited the beautiful countryside of southern England where he was raised as his main artistic impetus. Like many great artists, he was originally intended to follow his father’s trade, but his first exposure to fine art led him to pursue serious study – and fortunately his family consented.

The Hay Wain (1821) is easily one of the most recognizable English paintings. But when it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy, no one would buy it. At the pivotal Paris Salon Exhibition in 1824, it won ardent acclaim – and a gold medal from the French king!

The oil on canvas (originally titled Landscape: Noon) is one of the so-called “six-footers,” and depicts a mill belonging to Constable’s father and the cottage of a local farmer. It illustrates the artist’s need to incorporate the human elements of his environment.

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The Golden Ratio is a mathematical relationship in which the ratio of the larger portion to the smaller is the same as the larger portion to the whole. While the number itself is irrational and goes on indefinitely, it is usually rounded to 1.618.

As in many other cases, underlying mathematical patterns in a structure or design often result in an aesthetically pleasing visual form. The mathematical properties of this proportion have fascinated scholars as long as mathematics has been around. They can be observed in the designs of Egyptian pyramids and in Greek monuments (naturally the Greeks were fascinated with it and today it is represented numerically by a letter of their alphabet).

It was all the rage during the Renaissance, as studies like mathematics were being rediscovered with new zest, and humankind’s natural instinct to find patterns in the world went into overdrive. Renaissance men like da Vinci saw mathematical ratios everywhere – from to the proportions of the human body – and incorporated them into their art and architecture. In fact we get the term “divine ratio” from a friend of his, a monk and scholar named Luca Pacioli, who felt he had found God’s formula for ultimate beauty.

Even before the Renaissance, the medieval mathematician Fibonacci (drawing off of Eastern scholars) uncovered a sequence of numbers that follows this very same ratio. Ever since then, scientists have found more and more ways that this ratio is ingrained in the behaviors of the natural world. The Fibonacci spiral, as an example, is visible in everything from the arrangements of flower petals to the strands of our DNA.

Photo from MathematiciansPictures.com.

Whatever our motives in uncovering the patterns that exist in nature – the fact remains that we find them irresistible. Consciously or not, artists constantly borrow from the patterns that make up the natural world. Every time we create art, we recreate nature ourselves on a very small scale – as if by reproducing it we are somehow able to master it. It’s ironic that Renaissance man tried so hard to find divine patterns in himself to prove that he was a superior part of nature. Nature is so very big and we are really such a small part of it. That begs the question, Is art a product of man or of nature? Is nature the art or the artist?

“Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.” (Alfred Whitehead North)

ThinkQuest: The Fibonacci Series – more on Fibonacci sequences, da Vinci, and patterns in art

Mathematicians Pictures – lots of interesting posters related to math patterns in art, architecture, etc.

Wikipedia: The Golden Ratio

Space photo from FabulousFibonacci.com.

February 6, 1809: Birth of portrait painter Karl Bodmer

Karl Bodmer was a Swiss-born artist best known for depicting the peoples and landscapes of the early American West.

Confluence of the Fox River and the Wabash in Indiana, watercolor (1832)

In 1832, an eager, energetic 23-year-old Bodmer was invited to accompany German naturalist Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied and hunter David Dreidoppel on an expedition through the Upper Midwest. The eventful trip lasted two years and explored the regions surrounding the Ohio and upper Mississippi River valleys, part of the recently acquired Louisiana Territory. This region was home to the Lakota, Mandan, Hidatsa, Assiniboine, and Blackfoot Indians – all of whom feature prominently in Bodmer’s work.

By the end of the journey, Bodmer had produced 400 original watercolors documenting the cultures, landscapes, flora and fauna encountered on the expedition. It took years to produce engravings of the entire collection. A portion of these became illustrations for Prince Max’s book, Travels in the Interior of North America.

Following his return to Europe, Bodmer spent the duration of his long career making a living as an esteemed landscape painter. While popular at first, his American paintings fell into oblivion for many years, until they were acquired by US collectors in the mid 1900s. Recently a huge cache of his journals and sketchbooks were uncovered in the possession of Prince Max’s descendants; today they have joined the illustration plates in the Joslyn Art Museum.

The Interior of a Hut of a Mandan Chief, mixed media (1834)

Karl Bodmer’s paintings are archetypes of historical Native American portraiture. Like the works of George Catlin, Charles Bird King, and Edward Curtis, they are nearly ubiquitous and have proven themselves more valuable with the passage of time.

They are highly regarded for their painstaking accuracy – a fact even more remarkable considering the less than ideal circumstances under which they were produced. In an era before cameras were widespread, Bodmer succeeded in capturing a rich and authentic image of the period’s natural landscape and of the Indians who still lived freely in the northern Plains.

Another central aspect of Bodmer’s work is its objectivity. As a continental European, his portrayals were not shaped by the same biases that often tainted those of his American contemporaries – making them as vivid and relevant today as when they were first captured.

Marshall B. Davidson writes in American Heritage:

“Almost everything Bodmer produced on his American journey was intended for reproduction, to provide specific graphic reports of the Prince’s observations; but, as his admirer Théophile Gautier remarked in later years, the youth had “the soul and eye of a painter,” and the purely artistic quality of his work was never lost in the reportorial realism that was required of him.

At times he was confronted by what must have seemed almost unbelievable prospects—the kind of nightmarish landscape and grotesque savagery that the Federalists with their eastbound imaginations (and political biases) were so quick to dismiss as figments of Jefferson’s enthusiasm. But he depicted these utterly alien sights without distortion, without reading into them what he had been taught and what he remembered that the world about him should look like. And in so doing he produced illustrations that, in their fidelity and charm alike, present an unsurpassed image of a vanishing America.”

One effect of Bodmer’s works, and their initial popularity, was the establishment of the Plains Indian in the public image of Native Americans. At a time when most Americans lived east of the Mississippi, Bodmer’s widely publicized paintings of the Western frontier and its native cultures captured the imaginations of people on two continents and created a precedent for later works of this genre.

Swiss Info: Karl Bodmer Exhibition and Image Gallery

National Agricultural Library: Bodmer and Maximilian

American Heritage Magazine: Carl Bodmer’s Unspoiled West

The Essence of Line: Bodmer sketchbooks

Bodmer’s Journey – companion website for the award winning docudrama

Smarthistory.com: How the Impressionists Got Their Name

Can you answer this one? Here’s a bit of art history from Smarthistory (which is by the way a is very interesting website).

A piece by Monet, one of my favorite Impressionists.

Jan Vermeer (also variously Johann or Johannes) painted during the “Dutch Golden Age” of the 1600s. Although he was highly esteemed during his lifetime, his work soon fell into obscurity until it was rediscovered in the 1800s. Since then, Vermeer has become one of the pillars of composition, style, and technique.

Left: The Girl with the Pearl Earring, originally called Girl Wearing a Turban – thought to be Vermeer’s eldest daughter.

Vermeer was born in 1632 in Delft, Netherlands. He has been dubbed the “Sphinx of Delft” for his confounding obscurity. Unlike many of the Old Masters, there is little documentation of his life, his training, or his work. He produced relatively few paintings during his lifetime; never traveled far beyond his hometown; left behind no drawings or studies to show his method; and worked with a guild but never had students to pass on his techniques.

Most of his paintings portray the industry and accomplishment of the privileged Dutch middle class, despite the fact that he worked during a period of war and economic depression. In fact many of his original works were sold off after his death in 1675 to relieve his widow and children of debts he had accrued in trying to support his large family. While he did not lead a lavish lifestyle, he must have been dependent to a large extent on wealthy patrons.

Although little is known of his painting process, an apparent signature of his work is the underpainting technique which he used to imitate the subtleties of refracted and diffused light. His portrayals of undertones, shadows and reflections are considered the most accurate and precise of all the great artists.

Above: Young Woman with a Water Pitcher – quintessential Vermeer, depicting a tranquil domestic scene. Notice again the blue-yellow color combination.

Another Vermeer signature is the consistently cool color palette and the particular combination of complementary yellows and blues. This is a prominent feature in his most famous works, and appears in some form in nearly all of his paintings. He especially favored blue midtones such as cornflower and made unparalleled use of the rare and expensive lapis lazuli pigment with striking effect.

The Geographer and The Astronomer. I love the way the geographer gazes out of the window – very typical of Vermeer. Another artist might have chosen to depict this scholar immersed in his charts; but here Vermeer captures the soul of imagination and exploration.

See a critical comparison of the two here and here.

VERMEER AND REMBRANDT: A comparison (continue reading…)