ART Appreciation "class" #1: Manet and Homer

5/25/05 | republicanprofessor

[Argh]

Is it just me or is the woman in Manet's Olympia missing a nipple?

In her case, it appears possible but depends on the quality of the reproduction here. In your case, I don't know.

[AnnaZ]

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Fascinating stuff, and your examples are stunning.

 

My main focus of "study" regarding the relationship between the advent of the camera and painting has been the immortalization of the "ordinary", especially in regards to Impressionism. Otherwise, realism tends to blow my mind, I'm really amazed by the ability.

 

Then again, my appreciation is pretty broad -- at the Duncan Phillips exhibit at LACMA last year there was nary a canvas that I didn't find breath-taking (the Bonnards!).

 

If there's a ping list for this I'd love to be on it.

[Labyrinthos]

That question is discussed in this famous work by Manet, Dejeuner sur l’Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) which is another reworking of another Venetian Renaissance work, this time by Giorgione Pastoral Symphony.

How do you know that Manet was "reworking" the earlier painting. Did he acknowledge that or is that speculation among art historians?

[iceskater]

Isn't this the painting that Sargeant had originally shown the strap of the gown draping down her arm? IIRC, it was considered so scandalous that he had to change it as it is now. I'm thinking there's a lot of backstory to this painting which, of course, I can't remember! Then again, I could be thinking of a different painting. I saw the Sargeant exhibition at the National Gallery in 98 or 99. There were so many paintings and I may be getting some of them confused.

[AnnaZ]

P.S. My reference to "realism" should have been defined, perhaps, as "realisticalism", I suppose... like Alma-Tadema, for a super-quick example. (Yet Boccioni may be my favorite. Unless Van Gogh actually is. Then there's Bouguereau. Or Dali. *sigh* Too many brilliant artists, too little time.)

[brewer1516]

Please add me to your ping list. Thanks.

[AnnaZ]

I have had many students who had never seriously visited an art gallery before come back and write how moved they were by a ceratin piece and were surprised how much they enjoyed seeing serious art for the first time.

 

I have visited museums and galleries my whole life, and loved great and even, sometimes, "interesting" art. But for whatever reason, seeing the following painting last year, for the first time "live", made me cry. Cry! Each time I looked at it I teared up. Bizarre.

 

 

 

 

[AnAmericanMother]

West Indian light is different. Not just that it's a tropical light -- I guess it's all that blue-green reflective sea and the white sand.

Spent a lot of time in the Caribbean as a kid. I have actually seen a turtle pound just like the one Homer painted.

[AnAmericanMother]

It wasn't just the painting itself. The subject of the painting was fairly notorious -- Mme Gautreau. She wore lavender makeup (foundation I mean, not eyeshadow or blush) and one strap of her gown down . . . she was a Professional Beauty, in other words just at the borderline of the demimonde.

Here is the painting as it originally appeared:

[iceskater]

Yes, that's it! Thanks for the information. (And I am relieved to know my memory is not *that* bad :))

[AnAmericanMother]

Your memory is excellent! (Only reason I know is that my favorite magazine growing up, American Heritage, had a whole article on Sargent and his portraits, and of course the notorious Madame X figured prominently . . .

Ugly woman, though. Don't like her nose, although that seems to be a French thing.

[Republicanprofessor]

For me the acid test is watercolor, because it can't be worked over or corrected. What you see is what you get, and Homer is brilliant in the medium.

Homer's watercolors are amazing. I saw a show of his at Yale years ago, and one watercolor had the smallest bits of paper showing through to give the effect of sunset light on the water. I could not see how he did it. The paper shining through seemed to be the size of pinpricks. It was wonderful.

[Republicanprofessor]

How to get an "A" in a college art class:

On post 20 or so.

Sorry, you need bigger words. To decontexualize the post-structural re-composition of the late modernist tradition....blah, blah.

Actually, I understand that the woman in Olympia is black and wearing white because she is a transition between the black background and the white foreground. But I like what the previous poster said about prostitutes often having black maids.

[AnAmericanMother]

If I had all the money in the world, I would have a VERY nice small art collection and a beautiful home to house it in . . . and Homer's watercolors would figure prominently.

[iceskater]

I totally agree about her nose. Definitely a haughty French appearance.

So, why was lavender make-up considered to be so "bad"?

[iceskater]

Did they have masking fluid back then?

[Mudbug]

Please add me to your ping list. Thanks.

[AnAmericanMother]

Sargent himself said it was the ugliest thing he had ever seen. He hated it because she had no skin tone (and he was very good at painting skin tone.) She laid it on very thick, he said she looked like a medicinal lozenge.

[Zechariah11]

My favorite painting is at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I really appreciate how he managed to capture the temperament and moods of these two young women. It was painted shortly after the Civil War.

The young lady on the right seems to have higher ambitions than the field work. Her friend on the left seems to be thinking of just getting by for the day. I spent an afternoon one day drawing it, loving it.

[Zechariah11]

That's Homer's work, btw.