CONTEXTUAL STUDIES ASSESSMENT TASK 3: MAJOR ESSAY Anne Welsh 823 words.
The works selected for discussion are Rouen Cathedral: The facade at Sunrise by Claude Monet and Irises by Vincent Van Gogh.
Monet’s painting is one of a series of paintings of the cathedral made over a period of time to show the effects of light on the building during different hours of the day. The painting is oil on canvas and 39.5 by 25.75 inches in size.
The colours in the painting are vivid and predominantly blue, gold and orange. The work shows part of the facade of the cathedral and a small area of blue sky. There is little attempt to place the cathedral in a landscape setting. Indeed the facade fills and is cropped by the canvas. There is only a narrow strip of foreground upon which the facade rests. The canvas crops the facade to both sides. The blue sky is confined to the upper centre of the architecture between two towers on either side whose height is cropped by the canvas. Limiting the subject in this way shows that Monet intended the painting to be all about the facade, its architecture, and the light on the architecture and not about the surroundings. This would have been very different from classical landscape paintings of buildings. This sense of something different is one of the hallmarks of the modern canon. New paints readily available made strong vivid colours readily available and are evidenced in this work.
The painting is truly impressionistic. On inspection from a distance one can “see” the architecture of the cathedral facade. Draw closer, and there are only many small rough marks to be seen. This painting belongs firmly in the modern tradition in that it does not present a smooth finished effect but rather is composed of many rough, thick paint marks. Seitz [4] quotes a criticism of the painting made by the Irish novelist George Moore who compared the paint surface to stone and mortar and suggested that Monet was trying not only to suggest the material quality of the stonework but to emulate it in his painting. Indeed the painting received much criticism in its day - again a feature of modern art which broke from classical tradition and offered instead something new. Seitz [4] explains that the composition was also the subject of criticism, having not enough foreground or sky. Seitz [4] says that Monet demonstrated, in his cathedral series, the contention that “nature’s colour lies in atmosphere and constantly changing light rather than inert materials; that during a short time the appearance of a single substance can modulate through the entire spectral and tonal range”.
In depicting Rouen cathedral in this way, Monet has given the pictorial image a magical quality in keeping with the spiritual nature of the subject.
Van Gogh’s painting is one of a number of different paintings which he made of irises. It is oil on canvas and 71cm by 93cm in size.
His painting is all about shape, pattern and vibrant colour rather than perspective, 3-D and light and shade. It is said that he was familiar with Japanese woodcuts and that this was an influence for this and other works [2]. He acknowledged in 1887 in a letter to his brother Theo that “Here my life becomes more and more like that of a Japanese painter”.
The painting is of the modern canon: The brushwork is clearly visible and rough. He is painting an everyday subject. The irises are depicted in part of a flower-bed. Van Gogh is not here concerned with 3-D. The flowers and leaves are outlined by dark lines which emphasises the patterns in the work yet, somehow, enhances rather than detracts from the representation of the irises.
His vibrant style is individual and, for the time when the painting was made, very new and different. The work could almost be an abstract in blue, green and orange colours. The deep blue of the irises intermingle in interesting irregular shapes with the green and light blue leaves making a visually rich and captivating area for the eye to roam over and explore. There is no information about the setting other than the irises, the rough pink, brown and orange brushwork depicting the soil in which the irises grow and a few background flowers. The painting is all about the irises and the canvas crops them on all four sides to emphasize this. It is a highly patterned and decorative painting with the bold, vibrant style of pattern, brushwork and colour which can be seen in Van Gogh’s other work and which is uniquely his own.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1 Bumpus, J. Van Gogh’s Flowers. Phaidon Press Oxford 1989.
2 Fahr-Becker G. Art Nouveau. Konemann Koln 1997.
3 Francina F. & Harrison C. Modernity and Modernism: French painting in the 19th Century
Yale University Press 1993.
4 Seitz, WC. Monet Thames and Hudson London 1989.
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