Romantic Era Blog

Preferences and Perspective

Impressionism

~Not my favorite~

Mary Cassatt, Self-Portrait, 1878

An American-born artist, Mary Cassatt lived and worked in Paris for most of her life where she exhibited with other Impressionist artists. Her self portrait, finished in 1878 while she lived in Paris, exhibits the signature loose, visible brush strokes of Impressionism while transitioning to a softer, more realistic approach to her facial expression. During her time, Impressionism was a new, exciting, and highly criticized art form as it strayed heavily from academic forms of art. Challenging the status quo even more was the emergence of female artists, Cassatt being one of the “Women Impressionists” alongside Berthe Morisot, Eva Gonzales, and Marie Bracquemond. Cassatt became arguably the most famous of the Women Impressionists, mainly due to her close friendship with Edgar Degas.

Opinion

Although not as exciting or eye catching as other Impressionist works, I think Cassatt’s self portrait contains a sort of refined discipline that other impressionist portraits lack. She is recognizable, yet softly abstracted. Most of the detail and attention focus on her face as opposed to her dress which is more characteristically Impressionistic. Granted, Impressionism is not my favorite style of art, but I can appreciate the skill these artists had in creating scenes out of dissociated strokes of color.

Edgar Degas, Portrait of Mary Cassat, 1880-1884

As mentioned before, Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt had a close friendship, mainly because Cassatt was the only one who could handle Degas’ sense of humor, which was on the crueler side. Degas was born in Paris, France, but traveled extensively during his lifetime. Degas and Cassatt met in Paris where he painted his own portrait of her around 1880. Differing widely from Cassatt’s self portrait, Degas included no detail to soften her face and utilized wider brushstrokes to further discorporate any detail in her clothing. Even her posture, slouched forwards while playing cards, is less refined than how she preferred to present herself. Degas was often criticized for his ‘harsh’ portrayal of women, but he painted them no different than how he painted male subjects. The jury is still out on whether or not to call Degas a misogynist based on his portrayal of women, but he surely did not give his favorites preferential treatment.

Opinion

I have a little bit of bias towards Degas as I recently did a presentation on how his work could be interpreted as misogynistic or not, but that does not mean in the grand scheme of things I prefer his work. Impressionism as a whole does not impress me as much as other artistic movements, mainly because of many of the male artists’ personal lives. A lot of them were not cool. Character aside, Impressionists do not give me what I love in art: bold lines, patterns, and solid colors. Do you know who does that? Art Nouveau.

Art Nouveau

~My favorite~

Paul Berthon, L’ermitage, 1897

Do you see this? Bold line, conflicting patterns, and solid swaths of color. Amazing. Paul Berthon was a French artist mainly known for his posters and prints. L’ermitage was created in France in 1897. While Art Nouveau is an artistic movement mainly known for its architecture, it was also utilized in advertisement where its strong lines created a strong enough impact to draw the eye towards what the advertisers were promoting. Bethon also made posters that were not for advertisements and included imagery from the natural world. The delicate shading on the flowers and on the woman’s skin add a touch of realism into the rather graphic design, her hair is made up of individual lines alternating between highlights and lowlights, and the contrasting patterns in the back and foreground create a dynamic composition that catches and holds your attention.

Opinion

If you haven’t guessed, I love Art Nouveau and this poster is no exception. I can only described this poster as Romanticism meets Pop Art, even though the latter came much later. The lines used vary in thickness, keeping the delicate flowers delicate and the outline of the woman bold enough to separate her from the background. I wish I knew more about Paul Berthon and his artistic career, but sometimes ignorance is bliss and I would hate if learning about his personal life ruined his art for me.

 
Jules Chéret, La Loïe Fuller, 1897

This is about as graphic and eye-catching as you can get, bold color on a black background. This add for the Folies-Bergére by Jules Chéret features a popular dancer named Loïe Fuller. Fuller would perform under color changing lights while swathed in yards upon yards of fabric that she would manipulate the create mesmerizing dances. There are multiple posters of her, all of which try to capture the essence of her performance by using bright color a large organic forms to represent the fabric. The Folies-Bergére was a place where upper and middle classes could mingle and watch entertainment, something that had not happened in previous years. With the evolving social setting and rejection of academic art happening at the same time, it is no surprise that advertising became bolder and more experimental with the Art Nouveau movement.

Opinion

This poster focuses less on bold line and more on bold color, which fits this performer since she would often disappear into a tornado of bright colored fabric. While the first poster I picked is my ultimate favorite out of all four pieces I chose, this poster deserves no less recognition for its revolutionary design. The impressionists strayed away from harsh lines, and while some paintings had bright colors they were used as accents, not the main coloration for the composition. Jules Chéret used enough bright color to make your eyes hurt if you stared for too long. This poster screams ‘look at me!’ with confidence, and does not dissolve into a mish-mash of brush strokes when you look at it closely. Art Nouveau is wonderful and dramatic without the drama of academia.

Bibliography

“Art Nouveau Posters and Graphic Arts.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau_posters_and_graphic_arts.

“Art Nouveau.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau.

Broude, Norma. “Degas’s ‘Misogyny.’” The Art Bulletin, no. 59, Mar. 1977, pp. 97–107.

“Jules Chéret.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Chéret.

“Loie Fuller.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loie_Fuller.

“Paul Berthon.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Berthon.