Henri Rousseau Paintings
Great Paintings from a Master
 Henri RousseauHenri Rousseau occupies a unique space in the French Post-Impressionist aesthetic that his works conveyed in the primitive or naïve style. Born into the family of a plumber in 1844 in Laval, Rousseau was an ordinary student but tended to have more luck with artistic subjects and competitions than mainstream school subjects, but did not follow art as a career decision for several decades after finishing his general schooling. Instead, Rousseau worked for a law office and gained a government position which eventually allowed him to be promoted to the position of tax collector. His first wife died, leaving two surviving children of nine. He later remarried and when he was 49 years old, he finally retired to work on his art full time. Ridiculed by much of the art world, Henri Rousseau oil paintings were imaginative depictions of jungle scenes that he claimed were remnants from his memories of Mexico as a part of the French armed services. However, these stories were simply untrue and it became common knowledge that Rousseau had never been to Mexico, nor even served in the French military. Because he had no formal training in art, the oil paintings of Henri Rousseau display a primitive style which is often inherent to the untrained artist, however, critics have found redeeming aspects in the paintings of Henri Rousseau which give him more credit as an artist than he may have received during his own lifetime. Henri Rousseau artwork was created in an untraditional, albeit creative, manner of painting. His technique was an invention in itself as Rousseau painted with one color at a time and started at the furthest layer of the background which was usually the sky and worked his way forward, color by color, to the objects in the foreground. Some critics also criticized his freedom in portraying botanical subjects in his jungle prints because none of the plants appeared to be actual representations of real plants, simply concoctions of Rousseau’s creativity. It is through these types of quirks that one can begin to see the strangeness with which Henri Rousseau paintings must have been viewed. He continued to have great faith in his artistic abilities and longed for mainstream acceptance of his work, but never seemed to notice the criticisms made of the works themselves or his thoughts and philosophies as an artist. One talent of Henri Rousseau was that he could effectively work in very large scale paintings which he practiced several times. He also practiced his technique of painting very well, although due to some of his painting techniques, the surfaces of some works have begun to crack resulting from the qualities of the drying of oil paint. However, this is not an uncommon occurrence in oil paintings but the amount of cracking in Rousseau’s works is probably a direct result of his self-taught career in painting. During his lifetime, the paintings of Henri Rousseau were displayed at the Salon des Independants among the works of other notable artists of the period such as Matisse.  Henri Fantin-LatourHenri Fantin-Latour was a French painter who lived during the era of the rising art movement of Impressionism, but despite his close friendships with many of its founding artists, the paintings of Henri Fantin-Latour remained traditional in their style. He was born in Grenoble, France as Henri Jean Theodore Fantin-Latour and as a young artist, studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, a prestigious art school in France to gain more formal education in his early artistic abilities which would allow for a lasting career as an artist. He also gained necessary skills and abilities earlier in his career through his time working and studying at the Petite École of Lecoq de Boisbaudran and even under his own father’s guidance, who also worked as a painter in France. Despite these forma learning experiences in art, Fantin-Latour counted his almost daily copying sessions at the Louvre as a great benefit to the development of his lasting artistic ability. Through his career, his works were exhibited in places such as the Salon de Refus- 23s, the Paris Salon, and the Royal Academy. He was married to Victoria Dubourg, whose flower paintings must have influenced his own works in some way. The significant oil paintings of Henri Fantin-Latour often relate to leading artists, writers, musicians, or even philosophers of the time whom he was acquainted with and seemed to want to assert his position in the progressive age by including them in his less progressive, traditional works. Henri Fantin-Latour paintings are stereotypically known most often as paintings of groups including the members of the artistic aspect of society already mentioned, and also known as the paintings of flowers and floral settings; the latter especially after 1890 when Fantin-Latour abandoned the art of portraits altogether to focus on other genres of painting. The formal qualities of Henri Fantin-Latour artwork allow critics to place him as an inspirational source to the later symbolists who would shy away from the gains of the Impressionists in most cases, to form a more emotionally deep work of art. The creation of distinctly Henri Fantin-Latour oil paintings was not the full-extent of his experimentation with different mediums and Fantin-Latour became a quite accomplished lithography, a medium which was well-suited for the stylistic characteristics of much of Fantin-Latour’s work. One of the most interesting series of lithography completed by Fantin-Latour was a set devoted to illustrating the music of classical greats. Henri Fantin-Latour paintings often exhibited a feeling of distance that has been compared to photography and had perhaps became a stylistic side effect from his early emphasis on copying works as practice, but could have also perhaps been a conscious stylistic choice, especially when his withdrawal from social groups caused him to lead to rest of his career in isolation starting in about. Some of the crowning achievements in the paintings of Henri Fantin-Latour are titled: Hommage a Delacroix, Self-Portrait, Naiade, A Corner of the Table, Apotheose de Berlioz, Night, Helene, The Queen of the Night, Still Life with Roses, The Hairdresser, Lohengrin, Studio at Batignolles, Reclining Nudes, and Tannhauser on the Venusberg.  Henri Toulouse-LautrecHenri Toulouse-Lautrec possesses one of the most interest lives of any of the famous French painters, partially due to the circumstances of his life and partially due to the time and place that his artistic career flourished. Born in 1864 in Albi, France, Toulouse-Latrec’s early life was plagued with difficulty. He broke his legs as a child and as the result of a genetic condition brought on by inbreeding, they were unable to heal, causing Toulouse-Latrec to turn to art since his athletic potential was so greatly reduced. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec artwork is known as post-impressionist with tendencies that signify the coming movements of art noveau and modern art. He received additional artistic training with Leon Bonnat and Fernand Cormon The paintings of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec possessed a very linear, and often graphic quality which was most likely influenced by the Japanese wood block prints that were favored by Degas toward the mature phase of his career. Because much of his work is so linear in nature, with thinly applied paint, it looks very similar to the results of the lithography process and he did in fact, experiment with lithography as a medium. The style of many Henri Toulouse-Lautrec paintings has been copied by countless artists as a trendy old-French advertisement for the Moulin Rouge because he is one of the first artists to employ the use of the poster as art. During his career, he had little discretion with the types of art commissions he accepted: anything from sheet music and books to traditional commissions or menus. Toulouse-Lautrec spent a great amount of time at the Moulin Rouge because it was the height of the bohemian lifestyle in Paris and the Moulin Rouge in Montmarte was the popular place to be at the time. The subjects of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec oil paintings and other artworks were often scenes from the bohemian lifestyle of this area which depicted scenes of the working class in caberet, nightclubs, and brothels. Despite an artistic career which only lasted fifteen years due to an early death resulting from complications of alcoholism and syphilis, Toulouse-Latrec oil paintings numbered in the seven hundreds and he had also produced 275 watercolors, 369 posters, and nearly 5000 drawings. He did favor an unfinished appearance for the final version of his paintings which displayed the original lines of sketching. Critics who dislike Henri Toulouse-Lautrec artwork often comment on the lack of emotion portrayed in his representation of the subjects. Their complaint is that Toulouse-Latrec merely recorded the colors and lights of the garish scenes inherent to his lifestyle rather than attempting to expand his talent by evoking emotions through the representations of women and other subjects in his paintings and drawings. Some of the most famous examples of oil paintings of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and other works of art are: At the Moulin Rouge, Woman Pulling up her Stocking, Alone, Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant, Avril, The Two Girlfriends, Nude Woman Seated on a Divan, The Dance at the Moulin Rouge, and Yvette Guilbert. | |
 Jacques-Louis DavidJacques-Louis David was a French painter who is often considered to be a leader of the Neo-Classical movement in art which took place in the 1780’s. He is often considered one of the most influential painters of his time due to the widespread respect held for paintings of Jacques-Louis David and the many students and apprentices he took on during his career. Born in Paris in 1748 to a wealthy family, David was given the opportunity to study with one of the leading artists of the age, Francois Boucher and later with Joseph Marie Vien. After traveling to Rome with Vien as a young artist, David was hooked on the classical style of art and began to exhibit works that displayed his developing mastery of neoclassical subjects in his own paintings. A supporter of the French Revolution, one of his crowning achievements for historical portraiture occurred after he met Napoleon Bonaparte and was named “first painter” by the emperor. In this position, the paintings of Jacques-Louis David became living monuments to the French emperor and remain the most famous depictions, which are present a physically idealized Bonaparte in glorified scenes exhibiting his subject’s power. His work was also supported by close confidante Maximilien Robespierre. Though most frequently associated with neoclassicism, the oil paintings of Jacques-Louis David also contain elements of influence from other genres such as romanticism and and realism. The culminating result of the mixture of these influences caused a great success in Jacques-Louis David paintings. It was the acclaim stemming from his artistic abilities, as well as the important historical commissions that he received, which caused the popularity of Jacques-Louis David artwork to skyrocket, particularly among the Pro-Revolution set of individuals. The most significant students of David who went on to become well-respected painters who embraced some aspects of David’s paintings were: J.A.D. Ingres, Baron Gros, Antoine Jean, and Pierre Narcisse Guérin. After the resurrection of the monarchy, David was lucky to be allowed to relocate to Brussels where he spent the rest of his life. The paintings of Jacques-Louis David occupy an important position in the era of their creation because they fully depict and express the feeling and mood of the era in which he lived. This quality makes the artwork of Jacques-Louis David a treasure to historical painting due to the wealth of information and emotion that it can express to its viewers. The compositions of these paintings is often seen as severe and the color tones are uninviting to the viewer, but it was through these formal aspects of his art that Jacques-Louis David was truly able to convey the mentality that was present during the era of the French Revolution and beyond. Some of the most important oil paintings of Jacques-Louis David are: The Death of Socrates, The Intervention of the Sabine Woman, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, The Coronation of Napoleon, The Death of Marat, The Oath of the Horatii, Rape of the Sabine Woman, and Leonidas at Thermopylae.  Paul GauguinGauguin is best known as his place in art a post-impressionist painter who strived to use bright colors and exotic subjects as a way to represent a more progressive version of art that would later inspire the return of primitivism. Born in 1848 in Paris to a French father and a Spanish-Peruvian mother, his family fled to Peru when Napoleon achieved his victory. Four years later they returned to Europe and Gauguin seemed to be headed for any direction other than a career in art after he attended seminary, joined the merchant marine, became a stockbroker, and married a Dutch girl named Mette Sophia Gad. It wasn’t until Gauguin was 35 years old that he decided to became a full-time artist. One of the most historically interesting moments in the career and paintings of Paul Gauguin occurred when he spent several weeks in Arles with Vincent van Gogh. However, the personalities of the two artists clashed and Gauguin returned to Paris when apparently, van Gogh threatened him with a razor. Soon, he grew tired of Impressionism and tried to create a style which would incorporate a richness of meaning and symbolic depth to set apart the paintings of Paul Gauguin from other artists who were practicing different styles at the time. One of the definite inspirations for Gauguin’s decision to pursue a more progressive style for his artwork was the reigning popularity of a style called Japonisme, often inspired by wood block prints, and in the oil paintings of Paul Gauguin, he thought that he could create a style which was similar, but very characteristic of his own ideas at the same time. One of the ideas which Gauguin was most focused on portraying within his artwork was the style he named synthetism which was a way of painting that used simplications of form, expressive pure color, and flat prominent outlines. The Paul Gauguin paintings which display this aesthetic are very easily attributed to the artist because they differ quite greatly from the other movements occurring at the same time in art. During his lifetime, the paintings of Paul Gauguin never reached the level of fame and respect that he felt they deserved. Another great dividing factor between the Paul Gauguin oil paintings and those of many of his contemporaries is that he spent a great deal of time abroad; not simply elsewhere in Europe, but Gauguin spent a great deal of time in Tahiti and the most famous Paul Gauguin artwork reflects subjects, colors, and symbols evoked there. His works would become an inspiration for modern and surrealist art of the future. Some of the most significant paintings by Paul Gauguin are: The Yellow Christ, Ia Orana Maria, Tahitian Women on the Beach, Te Matete, The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch, The Bathers, The Alyscamps, Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers, Night Café at Arles, and Words of the Devil. All of these paintings are clear representations of the slight variations in style that Gauguin embraced through out his artistic career.  Pierre Auguste RenoirPierre Auguste Renoir was one of the founding French artists of the Impressionist movement, but unlike many of his contemporaries, began to question the aims of the movement toward the end of his career leading toward to fusion of a style which mixed elements of Impressionism with the traditional in-studio types of painting practiced in the past, particularly by the old masters of whom Renoir was especially influenced by. Renoir was born to a working class family in Limoges, France in February of 1841. The first instances of artistic training that Renoir encountered was first in his position working as a china painter in a porcelain studio, and later training in the studio of Gleyre. His work was a china painter was one definite characteristic which would come to affect the later paintings of Pierre Auguste Renoir. The artist who was most closely associated with oil paintings of Pierre Auguste Renoir’s Impressionist style is Claude Monet. The two artists worked together at La Grenouillère, a popular bathing spot located on the Seine River. There they created many studies of color and shadow and came to the conclusion that shadows are reflective of the colors in their surroundings, not simply a black, brown, or grey darker area. The rich color and free hand of the Impressionist brush strokes were very similar in the two artists during this period in their careers due to their close work together. Like many of Monet’s works, Renoir’s works often contain subjects which display young women and Renoir seemed to be fascinated with the color, light, and happy emotions of the subjects that he painted. The formal characteristics of Pierre Auguste Renoir paintings evolved over the course of his career, but some of the lasting elements of his work are: a free brush stroke to handle and convey expression, the use of the rainbow palette in many, but not all works (meaning that Pierre Auguste Renoir artwork was created without the use of black in the painter’s palette), subjects including light-hearted and upper-class diversions, and a richness and handling of light that is superior. These qualities have all set Pierre Auguste Renoir oil paintings in a position of high esteem, particularly among collectors who have paid over seventy million for some of his most famous works. The later works of Renoir begin to show an increased emphasis on the work of the Old Masters because Renoir himself began to become very critical of the Impressionist movement and felt that his artwork was going too far in the Impressionist direction to be of great value to the history of art, which was one of his deepest longings for his career. Despite suffering extreme problems with arthritis as he aged, Renoir’s later paintings exhibit a maturity that was simply not evident in his earlier works. Some of the most well-respected Renoir paintings exhibiting this style as well as the early penchant for Impressionism are: Bal a Moulin de la Galette, Montmarte, Luncheon of the Boating, Party, Nude, The Swing, La Promenade, Girl with a Watering Can, Restaurant Fournaise, Umbrellas, In the Meadow, Young Girl with Daisies and Girl with a Hoop. | |
