Showing posts with label french painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label french painting. Show all posts

Friday, December 02, 2011

A Painter of Spanish Life: Manet's Portrait of Madame Brunet

by Gregg Chadwick


Édouard Manet
Portrait of Madame Brunet
52 1/8" x 39 3/8" oil on canvas 1860-1863 (Reworked in 1867)
Recently Purchased by the Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Courtesy Getty Museum


In 1862 in Le Boulevard, a Parisian news sheet which was a sort of precursor to the L.A. Weekly or the Village Voice, the poet Baudelaire wrote a small article entitled Painters and Engravers. This was one of the few times that Baudelaire, who in his essay The Painter of Modern Life called for artists to search for subjects in the rancor and din of the urban street, wrote expressly about the art of his friend Édouard Manet. Baudelaire wrote,"M. Manet is the author of The Spanish Singer, which caused a great sensation in the last Salon. We will see in the next one a number of paintings by him imbued with the flavor of Spain, which leads one to believe that the genius of Spain has fled to France."

With the news that the Getty Museum has purchased Édouard Manet's Portrait of Madame Brunet, art viewers in Los Angeles will be able to answer for themselves: How did Spanish art influence Manet?


Francisco Goya after Diego Velázquez
Portrait of Ferdinand, Cardinal Infante of Spain and Archduke of Austria
etching and drypoint on paper 1778
Courtesy British Museum, London


The composition of Manet's Portrait of Madame Brunet seems to be modeled after Goya's etched version of Vélazquez's Portrait of Ferdinand, Cardinal Infante of Spain and Archduke of Austria. Madame Brunet holds her hands in a position similar to Ferdinand and her dark dress stands out against a light filled landscape in a manner that echoes Vélazquez. Further emphasizing the Spanish influence, the background of Manet's Portrait of Madame Brunet bears a striking resemblance to another Velazquez related work - Philip IV as a Hunter which had been acquired by the Louvre in 1862. At roughly the same time that Manet was painting Madame Brunet he was busy at work on an etching based on this very painting.



Édouard Manet
Portrait of Philip IV after the Workshop of Vélazquez
etching, aquatint, and drypoint on paper circa 1862


Even more striking than his compositional borrowings was Manet's use of oil paint. Manet applied the pigment thickly with spontaneous brushstrokes and flowing form that was inspired by the richness found in the paint-work of Vélazquez. In 1865, Manet visited Spain and reveled in the works of the Spanish masters at the Prado Museum (then known as the Real Museo de Pintura y Escultura).

From Madrid, Manet wrote to Baudelaire, "I've really come to know Vélazquez, and I tell you he is the greatest artist that has ever been." Open brushstrokes full of suggestion allow the viewer to enter imaginatively into Vélazquez's paintings and in a sense finish them. Manet applied this idea to subjects of modern life and created a new way of painting.




Édouard Manet
Portrait of Madame Brunet (Detail)
Courtesy Getty Museum



Édouard Manet
Victorine Meurent
16 7/8" x 17 1/4" oil on canvas circa 1862
Courtesy Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Scott Allan writes in the Getty Museum's blog The Iris, a rich description of Manet's technique in the Portrait of Madame Brunet:
"The signature elements of his original style are blazingly evident: in the brilliant summary execution of the mesmerizing gloves, the subtle wielding of a nuanced range of blacks in the dress, the sharp silhouetting of contours, and in the radical suppression of half-tones and shadows on the pale oval expanse of Mme. Brunet’s strongly lit face."

Perhaps because of the strength of the painting and the lack of nuanced delicacy, the art critic Théodore Duret recounted that, when Madame Brunet first viewed Manet's painting of her she "began crying and left the studio with her husband, never wanting to see the portrait again."

The soft atmosphere found in the painting of Vélazquez is missing. This suppression of delicate halftones coupled with sharp contours took a number of viewers of Manet's work in the 1860's aback. To many the paintings seemed flat, almost like playing-cards. What was Manet up to they wondered?

The immediacy of Manet's subject matter seemed to call for an immediacy of paint handling. Like a Zen clap, Manet's simplified tonal gradations from light to dark emphasized the force of light.

Other influential examples of flattened spacial compositions made their way to Paris. As Manet was reworking his rejected portrait, the 1867 Universal Exposition opened and the artworks, performers and cultural objects in the Japanese pavilion would inspire new directions in the arts.



Édouard Manet
Portrait of Émile Zola
57"x45" oil on canvas 1868


Manet painted a view of the exposition grounds and included a Japanese screen and a woodcut of a Sumo wrestler by the Japanese artist Kuniaki in the background of his Portrait of Emile Zola.  Hanging next to the Kuniaki print in Manet's witty portrait is an engraving after Vélazquez's painting of Bacchus as well as a reproduction of his own Olympia. In another cross-cultural engagement, less than one hundred and fifty years later Japanese artist Takashi Murakami would bring his own superflat paintings to Versailles.




Kawaii- Vacances, Summer Vacation in the Kingdom of the Golden and Untitled Carpet in the Salle des Gardes du Roi at the Chateau de Versailles by Takashi Murakami, via Artinfo




Édouard Manet's painting Portrait of Madame Brunet will go on view at the Getty Museum on December 13, 2011. After writing this piece, it dawned on me that my painting Tokyo Lolita could be a 21st century Ms. Brunet ...


Tokyo Lolita


Gregg Chadwick
Tokyo Lolita
24"x18" oil on linen 2010
Manifesta Maastricht Gallery, Maastricht, The Netherlands

More at:
A French Mona Lisa Comes to L.A.
Getty Acquires Moody Manet

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Andrew Wyeth's Painting "Above the Narrows" Sells for $6,914,500


Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
Above the Narrows
48" x 32¼" tempera on panel 1960

Andrew Wyeth's Painting "Above the Narrows" sold for $6,914,500 at Christie's.
Wyeth's painting is an evocative portrait of his son that captures the mysterious journey from boy to man.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Helden: Remembering November 9, 1989


Helden: November 9, 1989
TwitPaint

20 years ago today as images of the fall of the Berlin Wall streamed across televisions around the world, I played Little Steven's poignant song Checkpoint Charlie. Little Steven's 1984 song openly dreamed of a free and united Berlin. On November 9, 1989 that dream began to come true. Today as we celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, I also dream of Freedom in Iran and the fall of the Iran Curtain.


The Berliner Zeitung has a nice series of images and articles about the history and fall of the Berlin Wall:
20. Jahre Mauerfall



John F Kennedy in Berlin: "Ich bin ein Berliner."


"This film shows video footage taken in April 1990 plus still image photographs taken in December 1989 and July 2005. There is footage on both sides of the wall, although for reasons of personal security the footage of the Eastern side of the crossing point is somewhat minimal. Nevertheless it is possible to see the arrangement of frosted glass screens which made it virtually impossible to see the crossing point from the East."


Photographer Anthony Suau talks about his iconic image of the fall of the Berlin Wall.



photo by current events.


Artist Kent Twitchell paints an image of JFK on a portion of the Berlin Wall on exhibit in Los Angeles

More at:
Wende Museum: Wall Across Wilshire

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Saturday, October 17, 2009

13 Geisha (13芸者)

Sea of Spring 春の海 (Haru no umi)
Gregg Chadwick
Sea of Spring 春の海 (Haru no umi)
36"x48" oil on linen 2009

Japan has been a continual theme in my life and artwork. At age 10, I began my artistic dialogue with Japan before I even exited our arriving plane in Okinawa. On that journey I sketched the new world around me and have continued to do so over the years. My latest body of work was inspired by an artistic pilgrimage to Tokyo and Kyoto in March and April 2009. At that time, I was privileged to be in Kyoto at the height of the cherry blossom season.
Young geisha in training (maiko) and full geisha brought their own color and timeless beauty to the city.
The word geisha in Japanese means arts - person ( gei - sha). The flower and willow world of these caretakers of Japan's traditional arts seems to be as fragile and impermanent as the cherry blossoms that bloom so quickly then fall each year.

Gion Night
Gregg Chadwick
Gion Night
85"x37" oil on linen 2009

karyūkai ( 花柳界)
Gregg Chadwick
Karyūkai ( 花柳界)
85"x54" oil on linen 2009

Maiko's Night
Gregg Chadwick
Maiko's Night
36"x18" oil on linen 2009

Studio with Karyūkai ( 花柳界)Gregg Chadwick's Studio with Karyūkai ( Flower and Willow World ~ 花柳界)

Santa Monica Art Studios 5 Year Anniversary Event Tonight

Takekurabe  (Growing Up)
Gregg Chadwick
Takekurabe (Growing Up)
80"x80" oil on linen 2009

Santa Monica Art Studios is celebrating its 5 year anniversary tonight at the Santa Monica Airport. And Speed of Life also celebrates its 5 year anniversary. Stop on by tonight from 6-9 pm to celebrate and preview my new work. I'm in Studio 15. Hope to see you there!

Santa Monica Art Studios
3026 Airport Avenue
Santa Monica, California 90405

Saturday October 17th 6-9 pm
Sunday October 18th 1-5pm

Friday, September 25, 2009

Kseniya Simonova - Sand Animation (Україна має талант / Ukraine's Got Talent)


Kseniya Simonova


Kseniya Simonova - Sand Animation (Україна має талант / Ukraine's Got Talent)

"Here, she recounts Germany conquering Ukraine in the second world war. She brings calm, then conflict. A couple on a bench become a woman's face; a peaceful walkway becomes a conflagration; a weeping widow morphs into an obelisk for an unknown soldier. Simonova looks like some vengeful Old Testament deity as she destroys then recreates her scenes - with deft strokes, sprinkles and sweeps she keeps the narrative going. She moves the judges to tears as she subtitles the final scene :
"Ty vsegda ryadom" -- "You'll always be near."
James Donaghy, The Guardian

Echoes of William Kentridge's filmed drawings ...

More at:
Kseniya Simonova

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Joyeux Quatorze Juillet !

Rue Mosnier with Flags
"Rue Mosnier with Flags"
Édouard Manet
25 3/4 x 31 3/4 in. oil on canvas 1878
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
photo by Gregg Chadwick

Édouard Manet's "Rue Mosnier" was painted two years before July 14th was declared the French national holiday in 1880. The holiday is known as the Fête Nationale in France and commemorates the Fête de la Fédération of 1790, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris by an angry mob on 14 July 1789, sparking the revolution that rid France of its monarchy. Manet painted the scene as if he is looking down from his second story studio onto the flag decked street below. Manet's brush is fluid and the color scintillating but the weary amputee on crutches, perhaps a war veteran from the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, is the figure with which we enter the painting. In essence we as viewers enter the scene carrying a ladder just behind the man on crutches bearing the "costs and sacrifices" of nationalism and national pride. With this in mind, the swirling strokes of red, white and blue that make up the French tricolor flag are not as joyous as a cursory glance would suggest.

And also on this Bastille Day, I look forward to a future Evin Day in Tehran, when that horrible prison is at last closed down.
In the United States and France we celebrate our freedoms and our revolutions and we remember the brave souls fighting with words - tweets and blogs - against tyranny in Iran.

From the Getty's description of Manet's " Rue Mosnier with Flags":
" The French government declared June 30, 1878, a national holiday: Fête de la Paix (Celebration of Peace) which marked France's recovery from the Franco-Prussian War and the divisive Paris Commune that followed.

The urban street was a principal subject of Impressionist and Modernist painting; many artists aimed to show not only the transformation and growth of the Industrial Age but how it also affected society. Manet's eyes saw both elegant passengers in hansom cabs and, in the foreground, a worker carrying a ladder."

Modernkicks has more on the birth of Liberté.

Bonne fête !