Paintings of Vincent Van Goh and Paul Cezanne - Essay Example

The Wonder of Art For centuries, cultures have wished to express themselves through art as a way to show thought and feeling. The use of a color pallet to express what otherwise may not have been able to have been expressed as clearly. Many great artists have lived throughout the ages such as Picasso and Monet to name a few. Two artists that will be evaluated for this assignment are Vincent Van Goh and Paul Cezanne and their individual works “The Rocks” (Van Goh) and “The Ravine” (Cezanne). To best enjoy the majesty and wonder that the artists wish to create, the viewer must enable the sense to full take in that wonder. What can be demonstrated through art, as well as what this paper will show, is that to fully enjoy and understand art, the key idea to keep in mind is that understanding and interpretation comes through finding and knowing what it is that draws you to the masterpiece and how you got there in the first place. Just as with the case of history books, the paintings by the great artists of the time serve as a historical record of the goings on of the time. Often times painters chose to express the world around them the only way they may have known how, and that was through some for artistic expression. Little bits of color, as they are arranged throughout the canvas, find themselves forming together to create images of life, love and the wonder, as well as the amazement that can come with it. They serve as a portal to the imagination as no other artistic creation can. Many people travel to museums such as the Louvre in Paris to experience the greatness that hangs along its walls. To stare into the eyes of the portraits of subjects, or to witness the grander and vastness of the great seascapes and landscapes which provide for a sense of freedom from that which may be otherwise hindering creative thought. With that being said, the works in this analysis pay tribute to the notion that, with creative expression, can come insight that can only be provided in this medium and these artists are examples of creative expression at its richest form. “The Rocks”, as well as “Bottom of the Ravine”, after initial viewing, both appear to be of landscapes. They each have the same attributes within them than one would connect with being a visual look at a landscape environment, or an environment which is found outdoors. By saying environment, it gives the viewer the visual picture, even without seeing the image(s) itself, of something that has greenery, rocks, and sky to it. Overall, both chose an environmental, outdoorsy, type of theme for their respective works. They compare with having the essential aspects found in a landscape laid out on the canvas. Any sort of difference would be subtle in nature due to the fact that, to the naked eye, they both appear to be thematically attempting the same concept. Both take on the theme of nature and all of its glory, with the rich greenery that applies to the natural world. An Artists ability to achieve composition in their work is instrumental in their work of achieving the desired effect. The first thing to contrast between the two as it comes to composition is the use of technique in painting both. While “The Rocks” appears to have more forced brush stroked to it as seen by the texture of the paint as it appears in the canvas, “The Ravine” itself has no visible force applied as it comes to the paint and in the end almost appears to be a photograph. Someone could very easily assume that it was a photograph if had not have been for the direct labeling that it was in fact “Bottom of the Ravine” created by Paul Cezanne. Both do have a tree that is in the central forefront of the visual intent with the tree having a surrounding environment that is primarily comprised of rocks. With that in mind, “The Rocks”, as Van Goh composed it, appears to have a single tree that’s surroundings include more greenery at its base, as well as a sky that gives the sense of being overcast through the shades of white paint that are meant to symbolize heavy cloud cover. “Bottom of the Ravine” takes a different visual approach than its counterpart. While it does in fact have a central tree within its primary eye line, as well as the emphasis of a rock filled surrounding, the usage of green in background along the rocks gives a sense of other trees lining the rocky mountainside and not the alternative of being a grass like plan structure or some other kind of shrub. Despite that, both are works that fall within the classification of nature pieces, but are clearly two individual interpretations of how the outside majesty of nature looks to them as they see it through their own eyes. The paint application of “Bottom of the Ravine” is in direct contrast to that of “The Rocks”. As has been said, the application of color to “Bottom of the Ravine” appears picturesque in nature rather than an actual oil painting, while the creation “The Rocks” has been composed through brush strokes that appear forced in nature and rushed. The strokes are not smooth, but rather they appear jagged in application which gives the impression that Van Goh himself was rushed as he was creating it. His rushed strokes can also give off the impression of anger, whether it was intended for the viewer to feel, or anger that Van Goh subconsciously was feeling and transferred that to the work which he was creating at the time. According to the text, “Gardner’s Art Through The Ages”, the stylistic periods of Van Goh and Cezanne were of different cultures, but had the same artistic theme motivation and time period. Authors Kleiner & Mamiya write in regards to Van Goh’s period saying that he partook in the impressionism period, while Cezanne also was a painter of impressionism. Van Goh created his art “The Rocks” during a lifespan that lasted from 1839 until his death in 1906. The medium which he used was oil based paint on a canvas backdrop. Cezanne, also being part of the impressionism period, lived from 1839-1906 but unlike his Dutch-based counterpart, was of France nationality. The medium which Cezanne himself chose to use for “The Ravine” is also, according to the authors, oil on canvas, (Kleiner Vol. II). The Impressionism period is defined as, “a 19th-century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s. The name of the movement is derived from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satiric review published in Le Charivari,” Going on to further say that, “ Characteristics of Impressionist painting include visible brushstrokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angels,” (“Impressionism” p.1.). To perceive impressionistic artistry in that matter, it would be evaluated that, based on that clear definition, Van Goh’s work would be more ‘true’ to the nature of impressionism in its whole form as compared to Cezanne, whose work doesn’t appear to clear fit either the visual understanding, or the literal definition of the period in which his artwork has been classified. To look at other artwork, a piece of work by Claude Monet titled “Impression, soleil levant” shows the same sort of vibrant color and imagination that can be seen by Van Goh’s work. For the work by Cezanne, a similar approach can be seen in looking at Degas, whose work like Cezanne’s, takes the same paint flow that is seen in “Bottom of the Ravine”. Often artists are attacked for their work if, as the attacker sees it, the work fails short of what the piece is still being labeled as. While not mention Van Goh directly, the source from Wikipedia does make note of criticism that Cezanne faced. How the discussion begins is that a compilation of work was put together by artists whom the experts of the day had deemed to be lacking in approach to say the least. Wikipedia writes on this when they say that, “In April of 1874 a group consisting of Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, and Edgar Degas organized their own exhibition at the studio of the photographer Nadar. They invited a number of other progressive artists to exhibit with them, including the slightly older Eugène Boudin, whose example had first persuaded Monet to take up plein air painting years before.[3] Another painter who greatly influenced Monet and his friends, Johan Jongkind, declined to participate, as did Manet. In total, thirty artists participated in the exhibition, which was the first of eight that the group would present between 1874 and 1886,” (“Impressionism” p.1). This exhibition, as was described later in the writing, was put together by utilizing works by creators that had been deemed as being of lesser quality in nature than some of the others around them. When done with true passion, as well as grasp of technique to name a few, art can overwhelm and inspire those who view it. It can engage the mind and the senses as the viewer seeks to grasp what it is that they are in fact looking at. Through the artwork itself the innermost thoughts, as well as the feelings, of the painter can come alive and figuratively ‘jump’ off of the canvas to the viewing public. Many say that art is the truest form of expression. In which thoughts, feelings, or ideas, can be given to the world in a way in which may not have been possible if attempted through some other medium. Just as the artists used their interpretations, in this case of the impressionistic period, to create what they felt to be works of heart, it is up to the viewer as well to use their skills of understanding in order to formulate their own “impression” of what it is that they are looking at in the first place. Understanding art is always based on the impression which is given from viewing the work. It is easy to misconceive that just because two individual artists come from the same style period, or really the same period in history, that they in return will have exactly the same approach and take on the period in which they are aligning their masterpieces to. For “The Rocks” & “Bottom of the Ravine”, Van Goh and Cezanne respectfully first and foremost did live during the same time period and classify themselves within the same stylistic classification. Proving the previous point correct, while both claiming to be impressionistic artists, Van Goh and Cezanne individually had very unique comprehension of what it was exactly to be an impressionist artist and in placing the two pieces of artwork side by side, the approaches by both differed in nature despite the impressionism intent. Undoubtedly they both set out to make an impression on the viewing public with their work, but each did it in their own way through their own means. Van Goh and Cezanne each had a cultural divide between them which could easily have resulted in their varied view of the impressionism period and what it means to be an impressionism painter. Van Goh was a man of Dutch decent and Cezanne came from France which gives them the cultural distinction of coming from two very different cultures which would have molded them in two very different, but not any less powerful ways. It has widely been known that Van Goh was the painter who, whether it be in artistic frustration or not, elected to cut off his own ear. With that being said, the anger for which he seems to express through “The Rocks” would in itself symbolize an anger that would thrust anyone into a despair that would cause them to take any course of action, in most cases with not as much severity as Van Goh’s loss of an ear. It could be argued also that in the loss of his ear, Van Goh’s intent was to further ‘sharpen’ the use of his visual capability as he set out to create his world of art. To not have what may have been to him an obstruction in place of having his eyes give him the brilliant pictures that he in return would be able to transfer to paint and canvas. References Kleiner, Fred S., & Mamiya, J. Christian. Gardener’s Art Through The Ages. Ed: 12th Vol. II. Published: March 2004. Publisher: Wadsworth. ISBN-13: 9780534640910. Wikipedia Online: The Free Encyclopedia. “Impressionism”. Accessed On: 29 March 2008. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism Read More