Artists Research

In this essay I will, be discussing three artist of my choosing, those being Caspar David Friedrich, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn and Pablo Picasso. I chose these artist and these pieces of work specifically because I saw something in these pieces that I quite liked, thought this I hope to find and uncover the aspects of these works that I like and want to try and replicate in my own works for this project.

Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich was a German Romantic landscape painter of the 19th century and possibly the most important artist of his generation in the German Romantic field. He is best know for his landscape paintings, which typically had silhouettes of figures against the night sky, morning mist, trees or Gothic/megalithic ruins.

Style and technique:

Friedrich mostly used oil paints on canvas and often used the technique “Rückenfigur”. This technique is a way to compose an image, in which depicts a person in the foreground, taking in the view before them, this links the viewer of the piece to the figure then the in the piece, since both are experiencing the view.

Case Study:

Two examples of Friedrich’s work are that of The Abbey among oak trees and The Monk by the Sea. There two pieces are Pendant paintings, two paintings as a pair and shouldn’t be separated. The two were shown at Prussian Academy of Arts exhibition in 1810 and on Friedrich’s request The Monk by the Sea was hung above The Abbey among oak trees.

The Monk by the Sea

Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Der_Mönch_am_Meer_-_Google_Art_Project

Colours:

In this piece the colours used are quite calming, although there are darker colours in the piece it, this creates depth and severs to highlight the lighter colours. These colours are many blue which are used to depict the vast blue sky and the deep blue sea.

Meaning:

For this piece, like many of Fredrich’s works, has a religious meaning to it. The emphasize on the vast nature of both the sea and sky is meant to represent God’s presence in all and is just as vast as the endless sea and sky. While the figure of the monk can be sympathized by the viewer, for the monk and viewer are subsequently minuscule compared to the presence of God.

Mood and Tone:

While the meaning can be interpenetrated as the futile existence of man, the mood isn’t quite that dark. This is thanks to the tones used within the piece, which while there are quite a bit of dark tones in the piece, this is manly used to create depth in the piece and helps to highlight the lighter tones in the piece as a contrast. With the meaning of the piece being the presence of god its clear to see why the piece has bight tones that “brake throw” the darker tones, reaffirming

Scale:

In this piece it would be quite difficult to tell the scale within it, if it weren’t for the monk in the piece. It is thanks to this we can grasp an idea of the scale, since this a large landscape piece that is manly sky there aren’t that many features, even without any a load of features like buildings or trees we can see how vast and large the scene truly is.

Abbey among oak trees

Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Abtei_im_Eichwald_-_Google_Art_Project

Colours and Tone:

In this piece, similar to that of “The monk by the sea”, uses some what darker and dull colours. However in this piece there isn’t as much emphasis on the light, this maybe due to the time in which the piece depicts. Since we can see the moon in the sky, we can arrive to the conclusion that this takes place late in the day, this is accomplished through the tones used in the piece.

Mood:

When looking at this piece the mood feels dark and drab, the tones used are what help with creating this mood. But its not just the tones that create the mood it is also what is depicted in the piece, that being a funeral. The theme of death is throughout this piece and is what makes this piece dark in its mood.

Meaning:

In this piece its meaning shows us many religious themes. The ruins of the cathedral shows us the futility of man’s accomplishments in this world. The piece also shows us the theme of passage of human time, this is seen in the funeral taking place in front of the ruins of the cathedral.

Scale and shapes:

In the piece we can get a sense of scale much easier then “The Monk by the Sea”, this is thanks to the amount of details in the piece, like trees, head stones and the monks carrying a coffin into the Abbey ruins, so since we have human figures next to other items in the piece, we as the viewers have a much easier time finding a point of reference for the scale of the piece.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a dutch draughtsman and painter, in the 17th century, in a period known as the Dutch Golden Age of art. as well as and artist himself he was also an art collector and dealer. Vincent Van Gogh is quoted saying “Rembrandt goes so deep into the mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language. It is with justice that they call Rembrandt—magician—that’s no easy occupation.”

Style and technique:

Rembrandt’s works depict a large variety of subject matters, this ranged from portraits, self portraits, landscapes, allegorical (hidden meaning), historical, biblical themes and narrative painting.

Case Study:

This painting, created in 1633, depicts Jesus calming the storm on the Galilee sea, as it was described in chapter four of the Gospel of Mark, and is the only seascape Rembrandt created.

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

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Colours and Tone:

In this piece I would say that there are two tones present. To the lift there are light tones, while the rest on the piece have darker tones. The piece depicts a sail boat in the middle of a storm, the dark tones create the strong waves and dark storm cloud covering the sky. The lighter tones come from the sun breaking through the storm clouds and reflected on the waves and the boat. The contrast between the light and dark tones create a great sense of depth, both in the foreground and background.

Mood and Meaning:

In this piece both fear and hope are depicted here. Fear is clearly shown on the faces of the crew and passengers aboard the boat as they struggle against the forces of the storm, as well as the fact a part of the rigging has come undone and is swing around the vessel. While fear is clearly seen in the faces of the people, hope comes in a more subtle way. Hope can be seen in two forms, mainly the clear sky to the left that lets the sun shine down as the storm passed. The second place hope can been seen is the depiction a Jesus waking from his sleep to calm the storm, it isn’t as clear as the rays of sun light, however Jesus has a slight glow to him, as if to show his connection to the light, clearing the storm.

The meaning behind this piece is a religion one, since it depicts a biblical scene. The meaning and message to this piece is to always have faith, since the biblical story and the painting share the same message.

Scale:

The scale in this painting is quite easy to see due to the numerous people aboard this small sail boat. The dark tones used to create depth in the sky also gives us a good understanding of the fact that this takes place far from land, since we can not see any sign of a shore line.

Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright. Picasso is highly regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is also known for being the co-founder of the Cubist movement.

Style and technique:

Picasso was widely known for his cubist style, a style in which the artist analyses an object, breaks them down and rebuilds them in the piece in an abstract form, which instead of depicting one view point of the object, the artist depicts the object in a multitude of view points, which gives a greater context to the subject.

Case Study:

This oil painting, finished in 1904, depicts an elderly man weakly hunched while playing his guitar on the streets of Barcelona in Spain. This piece was created in the period of Picasso’s life known as the blue period.

The Old Guitarist

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Colours and Tone:

In this piece, created in the blue period on Picasso’s life, is comprised of a lot of blue colours and tones creating a monochromatic colour scheme. The only place in this piece that isn’t a shade of blue is the guitar itself it was a more realistic brown to it and stands out from the rest of the image. Even the man himself is a shade of blue.

Mood and meaning:

In the this piece, the amount of blue used creates a cold and melancholy feeling for the audience, its as if the old man is wasting away be for the viewers eyes, the blue colour to his skin makes it clear that this man isn’t well and as mentioned seem quite cold in his raggedy clothes, the fact that he is bare foot coupled with the ragged clothes leads us to come to conclusion that the man is poor and homeless.

The piece invokes a depressing feeling, no to dissimilar to the way Picasso would have felt in the time of him painting the piece, even the fact that the piece only depicts the man alone, gives a feeling of isolation and loneliness.

Scale and shapes:

In this painting the scale is clear, as the piece is taken up by the guitarist. The rough shapes used to depict that man create the image of a malnourished and seemingly motionless man, possibly even at death’s door, this is clear in the shape of his boney fingers, as well as the man’s body posture. he is slumped over his guitar, eyes closed and mouth a gap.

Conclusion

In conclusion, after analyzing each piece I my own opinion, I will now discuss what I liked in each piece and what parts I feel I would want to include in my art works for this project.

Firstly, The Monk by the Sea. With this piece, all be it appears simplistic, its use of light and dark tones creating the depth for the horizon is something I cant help but love, it gives a great sense of scale and with the monk there on the coast, small and seeming insignificant gives myself a feeling of existential dread, alone and meaningless in the vast space.

Secondly, Abbey among oak trees. This piece is my favorite of the pieces here. The contrast between the sky and the ground is something I just love, with the tree seemingly reaching for that light from the darkness of the ground. I also love the little details like the frames of the broken window of the abbey and the waxing crescent moon, also missed yet still stands out from the rest of the piece.

Thirdly, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. This piece is interesting for me, since its a biblical painting, even though I myself am not religious, I cant help but like the message behind it. Besides that its message I love the contrast between the light of the sun and the dark of the storm, The light piercing the stormy sky, shining down and reflecting off the sea and mast of the boat, is something I’d to try to replicate in my work.

Finally, The Old Guitarist. I really liked this piece of its use of tones of one colour, that being blue, the fact that almost the whole piece is blue (aside for the guitar) is an amazing way to depict something, especially since this was Picasso’s blue period, as said this piece is quite melancholy and for some reason, I’m really drawn to that aspect of this piece, I hope to create a piece that can come close to giving that feeling to my audience.