No post yesterday because I was sick… again. I’m still feeling run down but it’s nothing like how I felt last night.
Anyway, on to fauvism (sounds like: foe-viz-um).
Fauvists used exaggerated colors when painting subjects. In fact, color was the most important aspect of a fauvist painting, with the subject taking a backseat. For example, when painting a portrait of a woman with very dark hair, a fauvist might choose to use blue in the hair to show just how dark it was. He might use yellow for the skin instead of a carefully mixed bronze. Shadows might be drawn in greens and purples instead of grey.
Shown above is Andre Derain’s The Turning Road, L’Estaque. I love this painting for the way Derain has taken the colors of the changing fall leaves and used those colors throughout the painting, in the trees, the earth, and the people.
Fauvism began in 1905, though artists were moving toward this color-based style of painting before this time. Fauvism in some ways grew out of the impressionism movement that van Gogh was a part of. Vincent van Gogh had a great influence on the fauvists. His use of color affected Henri Matisse (whose Woman with a Hat is shown below) and it affected Maurice de Vlaminck.
Most people didn’t like this new movement. It was called fauvism by an art critic. Fauvism means “the wild beast” and it was not meant as a compliment. Some wealthy art buyers did purchase paintings, though, which allowed the artists to continue working.
By 1908 the movement had run its course and many of the artists involved moved on to other styles. Georges Braque, for instance, moved on to cubism. You can see this in the two paintings shown below, Spared from the Storm (1906) and Houses at L’Estaque (1908). Look at the change in style that happened in just two years!
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Current NaNoEdMo Hour Count: 13.5/50hours
Anyway, on to fauvism (sounds like: foe-viz-um).
Fauvists used exaggerated colors when painting subjects. In fact, color was the most important aspect of a fauvist painting, with the subject taking a backseat. For example, when painting a portrait of a woman with very dark hair, a fauvist might choose to use blue in the hair to show just how dark it was. He might use yellow for the skin instead of a carefully mixed bronze. Shadows might be drawn in greens and purples instead of grey.
Shown above is Andre Derain’s The Turning Road, L’Estaque. I love this painting for the way Derain has taken the colors of the changing fall leaves and used those colors throughout the painting, in the trees, the earth, and the people.Fauvism began in 1905, though artists were moving toward this color-based style of painting before this time. Fauvism in some ways grew out of the impressionism movement that van Gogh was a part of. Vincent van Gogh had a great influence on the fauvists. His use of color affected Henri Matisse (whose Woman with a Hat is shown below) and it affected Maurice de Vlaminck.
Most people didn’t like this new movement. It was called fauvism by an art critic. Fauvism means “the wild beast” and it was not meant as a compliment. Some wealthy art buyers did purchase paintings, though, which allowed the artists to continue working.By 1908 the movement had run its course and many of the artists involved moved on to other styles. Georges Braque, for instance, moved on to cubism. You can see this in the two paintings shown below, Spared from the Storm (1906) and Houses at L’Estaque (1908). Look at the change in style that happened in just two years!
Return to main page._____
Current NaNoEdMo Hour Count: 13.5/50hours
In 1632, he began to paint portraits. It was these portraits that made him famous. He made great connections that allowed him to paint many important people, including the prince! Rembrandt also painted portraits of himself throughout his life (about 100 of them). These portraits let us know what he looked like as he grew up (from a teenager to an old man with wrinkles, both shown below).
He was married in 1632, then had four children. Three of his children died when they were young, and then his wife died in 1642. Rembrandt became depressed and his paintings became darker. He exchanged his bright yellows and reds for deep blues and greens and darker reds. These later paintings are considered by many to be even more beautiful than the cheerier paintings of his youth. This painting shown below, The Mill, is an example of Rembrandt's darker style, painted in 1650.
Rembrandt lived in a large house which he should have been able to pay off. He earned a lot of money painting because he was fantastically popular. The house eventually became the cause of money troubles, however, and in 1657 it was sold along with his possessions.
In 1873 he painted Impression, Sunrise (shown above), the painting for which the entire Impressionism movement was named. The term “Impressionism” was originally meant as an insult by an art critic but the painters liked it and used the name to describe their style of painting.
After his wife died in 1879 (shown above on her death bed), Monet began in earnest to produce. He continued in the Impressionist style and tried to create a portrait of France with his paintings. In 1883 when he moved to Giverny and, over the next 10 years, planted his grand garden. He loved to paint the garden and the lily ponds. He painted his many series during this time, which showed the same subject at different times during the day. You’ve seen some of these series already, including 
Like the 
Despite the condition of the sculpture, Nike of Samothrace stands grandly upon the ship on the landing of a prominent staircase in the Louvre. She continues to attract hordes of visitors and to stun even those who didn’t expect to see her.
She was found hidden away in a cavern on the island of Milos in the Aegean Sea in 1820. She was broken in pieces: upper body, lower body, top of left arm, left hand holding an apple, and inscribed base. The peasant who found her, Yorgos Kentrotas, knew that he should turn her in to the Turkish authorities but he found her beauty so great that he kept her for himself. He was probably also interested in how much money he could make if he sold her to the right buyer. Eventually, the officials learned of the discovery and took Venus de Milo from Kentrotas’ barn.
Once at the Louvre, the sculpture was put back together but the arms were not as well finished as the rest of the sculpture so they were left off. Experts later determined that the arms were original pieces of the Venus de Milo. The inscribed base told us who had created the sculpture, Alexandros of Antioch, but it dated the Venus de Milo much later than the French had originally thought. That piece of the base has mysteriously disappeared, though we haven’t forgotten the information it taught us.
And below is Monet’s The Cliff, Etretat, Sunset. I chose to show you this painting because I remember seeing it when it was included in the Monet in Normandy exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art last year and the image stuck with me. I love the sun in this painting.
It wasn’t just Monet who painted this scene, though. Below, find Gustave Courbet’s take on the cliffs in The Cliffs at Etretat and Etretat After a Storm. 
Eugene Boudin’s Etretat, The Cliff of Aval (below).
Eugene Delacroix also painted the cliffs but I couldn’t find a picture online to show you. You can always go to the library and look it up in a book if you’re interested.
When complementary colors are place next to each other, both look bright. This has been used to great effect in many paintings. Below, look at 
Renoir’s use of blue and orange in Boating on the Seine.
Yellow and purple in 
I would not claim that Monet was an abstract artist. This is just meant to illustrate the process of moving from art that shows recognizable subjects to art that does not.
Rousseau was born to a poor family. His father’s debts even caused the family to lose their home at one point. Rousseau served in the army for four years before going on to become a customs officer at the edge of Paris. He worked until he was 49, painting on the weekends, until he could retire and focus fully on his art. He taught painting lessons, performed as a street musician, and did other odd tasks to earn enough money to live as he painted.
Rousseau’s favorite subject was the jungle but he never actually saw a jungle. He based his scenery on the botanical gardens in Paris and the animals were drawn from guide books and zoo pamphlets. Some of his subjects he never saw in three dimensions so his paintings have a flat look to them. Also, Rousseau sometimes grouped together animals that would never be seen together in nature. In one painting, the bananas hang upside down from a tree.
After his death in 1910, Rousseau began to gain popularity and now his canvases hang in museums around the world.
In 1884 he began his best known piece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (shown at the beginning of this post). He finally finished it in 1886, two years later. This painting is now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago and has been since 1926. It is a massive piece of about 10 feet wide by 6 feet tall and is worth the trip. If you do get the chance to see the painting up close, notice that there is a shadow in the distant trees that looks like someone lurking. Also look closely at the skirt of the woman with the monkey. In person, you can see that Seurat made the skirt larger after the painting was finished. This painting is a great example of why it’s important and preferable to view original paintings than photos of paintings on glossy pages.
Seurat lived a short life which ended in 1891 when he was just 31 years old. He had two sons, one of whom was born after Seurat’s death. Nothing is known of the children. 
