Art History 102 Final: May 2013

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Introductory Post

Gallery Name: The Gallery at U.C. Santa Cruz

Located on the campus of U.C. Santa Cruz

Gallery Director: Samuel B. Lamace, PhD

Works of art shown have a connection to the ocean and are restricted to paintings.

Exhibition Introduction

Title of the Exhibition:

Exposition de Navires et Bateaux des Mers

Artists being shown in the exhibition:

Claude Monet

James Edward Buttersworth

JMW Turner

Johan Jongkind

James McNeill Whistler

Ludolf Backhuysen I

Vincent van Gogh

Edouard Manet

Homer Winslow

Claude-Joseph Vernet

This is an exhibition of maritime paintings, taking the viewer from a regatta on calm seas, through increasingly rougher seas, to the finale of a shipwreck in stormy seas. Man has always had a fascination with the sea and the vessels which make their way upon them. These paintings bring with them an emotional connection to remind us that while the ocean can be peaceful, providing a pleasant place to have fun, she can also be unforgiving when respect is not given.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Regatta at Argenteuil

Monet, Claude

Oil on Canvas

19 x 29 inches

1872

Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840, in Paris France. After an art exhibition in 1874, a critic insultingly dubbed Monet’s painting style “Impression,” since it was more concerned with form and light than realism, and the term stuck. Monet struggled with depression, poverty, and illness throughout his life. He died in 1926.

http://www.biography.com/people/claude-monet-9411771 1926.

Two years before the Impressionist movement officially came into existence, Monet painted this scene which has all its features, in particular the famous fragmented brushstroke. Regattas at Argenteuil was painted in natural light, because tin tubes and portable easels allowed artists to leave their studios and paint outside. Monet sought to capture the fluidity of air and water and the way they changed with the light. He explained what he was trying to do: "I want to do something intangible. It's appalling, this light that drifts off and takes the colour with it".

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/regattas-at-argenteuil-3036.html?cHash=514c2d0e72

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

Schooner Agnes

Schooner Agnes of the Atlantic Yacht Club

Buttersworth, James Edward

Oil on Canvas

12 x 18 inches

1880

J.E. Buttersworth was born in England in 1817 and was the son, and student, of Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842) – the well-known British Marine artist. James settled his family in West Hoboken, New Jersey and set up a studio in Brooklyn. James died in New Jersey on March 2, 1894.

http://www.rehs.com/James_Edward_Buttersworth_Bio.html

Buttersworth frequently accepted direct commissions from yachtsmen, as is likely the case here. The sharp details and gracefully drawn lines of the racing schooner AGNES are well represented, as is her yacht club pennant, personal ‘A’ signal and crisp American ensign on display in the soft breeze. Just enough sunlight is shown breaking through the heavy coastal atmosphere, stylizing the sky as Buttersworth’s own. AGNES lasted more than 25 years before selling to foreign owners.

http://www.vallejogallery.com/artist.php?name=James Edward Buttersworth&suid=&id=37&

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

The Fighting Temeraire

JMW Turner

Oil on Canvas

90.7 x 121.6 cm

1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, better known as J.M.W. Turner, was born on April 23, 1775, in Covent Garden, London, England. As a landscape painter, Turner brought luminosity and Romantic imagery to his subjects. Turner died on December 19, 1851, in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London England.

http://www.biography.com/people/jmw-turner-40806

The painting was thought to represent the decline of Britain's naval power. The 'Temeraire' is shown travelling east, away from the sunset, even though Rotherhithe is west of Sheerness, but Turner's main concern was to evoke a sense of loss, rather than to give an exact recording of the event. The spectacularly colourful setting of the sun draws a parallel with the passing of the old warship. By contrast the new steam-powered tug is smaller and more prosaic.

Turner was in his sixties when he painted 'The Fighting Temeraire'. It shows his mastery of painting techniques to suggest sea and sky. Paint laid on thickly is used to render the sun's rays striking the clouds. By contrast, the ship's rigging is meticulously painted.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-fighting-temeraire

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

Entrance to the Port of Honfleur

Jongkind, Johan Barthold

Oil on canvas

16 5/8 x 22 1/4 in. (42.2 x 56.2 cm)

1864

Johan Barthold Jongkind (June 3, 1819 – Feb. 9, 1891) was a Dutch painter and printmaker regarded as a forerunner of Impressionism who influenced Claude Monet. In 1878 with his wife, painter Josephine Fesser, Johnkind moved to live in the small town of La Cote-Saint-Andre near Grenoble in the southeast of France where he died in 1891.

http://www.topofart.com/artists/biography/Johan_Barthold_Jongkind/

Every summer, Jongkind returns on the Norman Coast, between Trouville and Honfleur. There, a deep change takes place in his work, points of view are getting larger and more diversified, and the subtil game of light becomes the central element of his paintings and watercolours. He applies himself to better translate it by means of multiple decompositions in small colored strokes, avoiding dark and flat colors he used to paint low and cloudy heavens at his beginnings.

Jongkind stands by his roots, his love for sea and ships, his education as a naturalist painter, demanding observer of the real world : far from the crowdy world of estivants, he prefers the approaches to harbours where he paints fishermen or sailors at work.

http://www.impressionniste.net/jongkind_johan.htm

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

The Thames In Ice

Whistler, James McNeill

Oil on Canvas

30 x 22 inches

1861

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born on July 11, 1834, in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was educated in St. Petersburg, Russia, and then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. Establishing himself as a painter in Paris and London, Whistler developed his distinctive style, utilizing muted colors and simple forms. Whistler died in 1903.

http://www.biography.com/people/james-abbott-mcneill-whistler-9529133

The boats here are rendered with an almost dry brush over a thinly painted background. The masts and sails are accurately drawn, not merely suggested, as they would be in later river paintings.

Painted after Whistler finally settled in London, this painting and other works in ‘the Thames set’ show the artists fascination with life along the river. The French realist influence is much in evidence, but the treatment of the distant factories, the sky and the water foreshadows the evocative mood of the later Nocturnes.

The Great Artists, Book 14
Whistler
Funk & Wagnalls
1978

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

The Merchant Shipping Anchorage

The Merchant Shipping Anchorage of Texel Island with Oude Schild in the Distance

Ludolf Backhuysen I

Oil on canvas

106.5 x 165 cm

1665

Ludolf Backhuysen (Dec 28, 1630 – Nov 17, 1708) was a Dutch painter, born in Emden, Hanover. He was an ardent student of nature, and frequently exposed himself on the sea in an open boat in order to study the effects of storms. After a visit to England he died in Amsterdam on November 17, 1708.

http://www.opaintings.com/artists/backhuysen/biography/

This painting shows the merchant anchorage off the island of Texel, where ships of the Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) used to gather before setting sail for East Indies. In the center there are three vessels, a boyer, a kaag and a pink, full of people loading cargo. The smaller boats are delivering supplies to the larger boyer, while its crew is busy hoisting sails.

The scene is full of dynamism in the style that distinguishes Backhuysen from his contemporaries. The light-colored sail directs viewer’s attention to the events on board of the pink where a family of one of the departing mariners is captured in the height of excitement.

G. de Beer, E-J Goossens, B. van de Roemer, “Backhuysen at the Helm!”, Stichting Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam, 2004

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

The Sea at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

van Gogh, Vincent

Oil on Canvas

51 X 64 cm

1888

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. Van Gogh was a post-impressionist painter whose work, notable for its beauty, emotion and color, highly influenced 20^th-century art. He struggled with mental illness, and remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life. Van Gogh died in France on July 29, 1890, at age 37, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

http://www.biography.com/people/vincent-van-gogh-9515695

‘The Mediterranean Sea is a mackerel color: in other words, changeable – you do not always know whether it is green or purple, you do not always know if it is blue, as the next moment the ever-changing sheen has assumed a pink or a gray tint,’ Van Gogh wrote from Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. In this fishing village, Vincent painted the effects of light on the sea, with small fishing vessels returning with the catch. The large bright red signature is striking: ‘because I wanted to have a red note in the green.’

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=2679&collection=1282&lang=en

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama

Manet, Edouard

Oil on Canvas

53 x 50 inches

1864

Born into a bourgeoisie household in Paris, France, in 1832, Edouard Manet was fascinated by painting at a young age. Manet’s most famous works include “The Luncheon on the Grass and Olympia,” Manet led the French transition from realism to impressionism. By the time of his death, in 1883, he was a respected revolutionary artist.

http://www.biography.com/people/edouard-manet-9397188

Manet’s unconventional depiction of a naval battle between the Union frigate Kearsarge and the Confederate vessel Alabama off the Normandy coast drew mixed reviews. Some complained of the lack of clarity in presenting the opposing vessels; others found the arbitrarily high vantage point and wide expanse of water disconcerting; most deplored the painting’s lack of drama.

The Great Book of French Impressionism
Diane Kelder
Harrison House, New York
1984

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

The Gulf Stream

Homer, Winslow

Oil on Canvas

28 x 49 inches.

1899

Winslow Homer was born on Feb. 24, 1836, in Boston, MA. In 1860 Homer exhibited his first paintings at the National Academy of Design in New York. After 1883, the sea became the dominant theme in his work, and by the 1890s he had become generally recognized as one of the leading American painters. Homer died on Sept 19, 1910, in Prouts Neck, Maine.

http://www.biography.com/people/winslow-homer-9342812

Of all Homer’s later paintings of men facing the dangers of the sea, this is the culminating masterpiece. Characteristically, a few significant details – sheared-off mast, bright red flecks on the water, the thrashing sharks – build a story which the viewer is invited to end.

As in many other canvases, such as Breezing Up, the boat is canted sharply, forming a diagonal that should pull the observer directly into the picture. But the abandoned Black sailor is cut off from us by the menace churning up the dark waters in the foreground.

The Great Artists, Book 3
“Winslow Homer”
Funk & Wagnalls, Inc., New York
1978

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

The Shipwreck

The Shipwreck (in Stormy Seas)

Vernet, Claude-Joseph

Oil on Canvas

113.5 x 162.9 cm

1773

Claude-Joseph Vernet was born on Aug 14, 1714, in Avignon, France and was the leading French landscape painter of the later 18^th century. He spent the years 1734 to 1752 in Rome, where he studied classical landscapes in the tradition of Claude and Gaspard Dughet. Vernet became a member of the Academy on his return to France and in 1753 received the important royal commission for a series of large canvases representing the ports of France (1753-1765). He died on Dec 3, 1789, in Paris France.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/claude-joseph-vernet

'Storm on a Coast' is a sensational storm and shipwreck scene depicting lashing rain, ships tossed on the sea and survivors scrambling to safety. Like 'Landscape at Sunset', the effects of light create visual drama in the contrast between the darkness of the sea and the sun breaking through the storm clouds.

Vernet was renowned for pairs of paintings showing contrasting states of nature and his works were especially sought-after by British collectors in the 18th-century. This painting and its pendant, 'A Landscape at Sunset' are now the only such pair to be found in a British public collection. The pair originally belonged to the celebrated Englishman Clive of India, who bought them from Vernet in 1773. They are acknowledged as being two of Vernet's greatest marine pictures.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-joseph-vernet-a-shipwreck-in-stormy-seas

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Conclusion

In curating my virtual exhibit, I found that the first step required was to develop a theme. There are countless works of art from a wide array of media and narrowing the field by the theme made the rest of the project much simpler. With a theme in mind, I was able to select only those works of art that fit neatly within that scope and not waste time looking up label information for works that I found intriguing, but would not be used. Because I developed a theme that deeply appealed to me, I was able to select paintings that also appealed to me. This is what came naturally. I simply let my emotions do the choosing. I initially selected more than required, in case I could not find all the required information. The most challenging part of the assignment was locating statements on the work by credible sources. In fact, not all of my works chosen had such comments available in the time allotted. However, since I had ten paintings that all fit nicely into my theme, I decided to keep them without the comments.

As I continued along the task of finding, identifying, and selecting the works of art to be displayed in my exhibit, I realized that I do not envy the curator’s job. I found the assignment to be time consuming and often had to eliminate a painting that I was particularly fond of because I could not locate enough information on either the artist or the work itself. If I had such difficulty with just ten, I can only imagine how taxing the life of a curator must be. It is even more so when one considers the price of some of the works of art, limited space available, and having to appeal to a wide range of tastes in art.

I enjoyed the process of looking at paintings within my chosen theme. I did find several artists whose work I have a greater appreciation for. One in particular, Ray Ellis, had several paintings that would have easily made the cut in my exhibit. Unfortunately, I was able to locate neither the images on-line nor the label information. I hope you enjoyed the paintings that I did select for you.