In addition to seeing Lucas Cranach’s work in the MET recently, I was able to see some of the works from the Robert Lehman Collection.
In this collection, I saw some modern works. I was able to see a painting from Vincent van Gogh and André Derain (both two artists that I really enjoy). It was definitely a different experience to see the works of someone you’ve studied. As stated in my other post, seeing Lucas Cranach’s work after doing a paper on him was definitely a unique experience. Also, I’m currently in a Modern Art class and we have already learned about van Gogh and Derain! I was finally able to see and understand the textured style of art that many individuals have talked about.
The art piece by van Gogh was Madame Roulin and Her Baby, created in 1888.
Van Gogh’s painting is about Augustine and baby Marcelle Roulin. It’s main focus is on baby Marcelle. The Roulin family was very important to van Gogh and his art success. He moved to Arles, France in 1888, and when many people were critical of his artistic style, the Roulin families admired it. Soon van Gogh created many portraits of the family, which are very well known today.
Madame Roulin and Her Baby represents the art style of post-impressionism. Post- Impressionism is a style that tried to out do Impressionism, which was another art style that aimed to depict a close to exact impression of the world at a particular moment. Post-Impressionists tried to incorporate real emotion into the works with the use of vivid and (sometimes) unrealistic colors. This can definitely be seen in the background of van Gogh’s painting, where it is bright yellow. Also, Madame’s face is a little more yellow than the average face. And just looking at her hands, one can see the elaborate details and types of colors van Gogh uses to depict just one hand.
The second work I saw was by André Derain, called The Palace of Westminster, created in 1906-1907
In 1905 and 1906, Derain traveled to London after his art dealer, Ambrose Vollard, suggested he go there to study and paint the town.
When I think of André Derain, I think of Henri Matisse and fauvism. In case anyone is unfamiliar with fauvism, it is an art style that really emphasizes the use of colors as an expression in art. Which can definitely be seen here, where the colors are a little unrealistic; however, this painting does not explore with as much unrealistic color as Henri Matisse’s works does.
One comment I remember from one of my teacher is that Derain’s brushstrokes were a lot more thicker than Matisse’s. Yet, in the Palace of Westminster the brushstrokes didn’t look that thick, especially compared to van Gogh’s work. This shocked me a bit because I know that Fauvism is known for its rough brushstrokes. However, this may have been because the Palace of Westminster was just the beginning phases of Fauvism.
The drawing of the hands in the Van Gogh is so beautiful. Interesting that he lets yellow dominate in the one hand. In his painting La Mousme at the National Gallery of Art in Washington he does something similar only the color is pale green — one of La Mousme’s hands is green. Perhaps some of fauvisme was influenced by Van Gogh’s arbitrary uses of color in late works ….???
I know it’s gorgeous, I absolutely love this painting by him. And I just looked up the painting you mentioned, and I totally agree with you. Honestly, I think the fauvist artists were probably influenced by van Gogh. I remember learning in my modern art class that him and a few other modern artists were influential to modern art groups in some ways, but the art groups took their ideas to the max (or what they thought was the max, if that makes sense!)
That makes splendid sense! I’m glad that you found La Mousme. It’s a gorgeous painting.