1. Nicolò Paganini
2. Frédéric Chopin
3. Rumored to be the illegitimate son of Talleyrand. At the time of Delacroix’s birth, his father had undergone an extensive operation leaving him impotent. Would he have been able to impregnate is wife a couple of weeks after having a 28lb tumor from his body? Charles was also absent from Paris at the time of his son’s birth. The resemblance Delacroix and Talleyrand had to one another further sparked such rumors.
4. Baudelaire – after a trip to Morocco, Delacroix’s technique changed with his painting Women of Algeirs
5. Ingres?
6. Lightening\
7. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. Watercolour, 240 x 320 mm
8. How can one choose another’s thoughts and experiences over another? Both Van Gogh’s letters and Delacroix’s journal provide a personal account of the lives of each artist. Delacroix put to the page his personal accounts regarding his life, sorrows, his hopes and of course his paintings. Van Gogh’s letters are intimately written providing a first hand account of his thoughts, beliefs, and frustrations. Most of these letters are to his brother Theo, whom he was close with and dependent upon. Vincent’s trust and faith in his brother provide pure honesty within his letters. Both Delacroix and Van Gogh’s written form provide further insight into their work, their thoughts and their experiences. I cannot weigh one over the other.
9. Saint Sulpice, Saint Denis du Saint Sacrement, Saint Paul-Saint Louis.
10. Death of Sardanapalus is based on the tale of Byron’s Sardanapalus. The drastic diagonal claims dominance upon first glance, but Delacroix took artistic freedom with Byron’s story and further elaborating the story visually. Delacroix depicts the king as having burned his worldly possessions and all that provided him with pleasure including horses and women. They are both shocking; the diagonal is visually shocking while the imagery is emotionally shocking.
11 .Jewish wedding in Morocco.
12. Delacroix classified himself as a Romanticist. He visited the Orient and his journal details his first impressions, his awes, his fears, his excitement during this trip. Aren’t we always marveled at the unknown, the new? Delacroix took in what he saw and experienced. His journal passages are written with a respectful tone. Was Delacroix’s depiction of the Orient to show it in a light of backwardness? Was his intention to exploit? Delacroix painted from his personal experience during travels. When Delacroix arrived in Tangier, he marveled at what he saw and experienced. He immediately was inspired to paint. Aren’t we all inspired by new places, sights, colours, smells, and tastes? Did Delacroix have false assumptions of the Orient? Perhaps. But, Delacroix was able to experience the Orient first hand, rather than only paint from assumption and fantasy about far-away lands. In the catalogue for Delacroix’s exhibition, Arlette Sérullaz, wrote that Delacroix was “the first painter to penetrate the heart of Moroccan culture.” Delacroix had an open soul – he took in literature, music, conversation, travel. If one is truly ignorant, does one not form beliefs based on what one is told? Delacroix engaged in first-handed experience of life and culture.
13 Horse, lion, tiger, lobster, alligator, rabbit.
14. Picasso made studies of Delacroix’s Women of
Algiers
15. Frédéric Chopin
16. Delacroix was greatly influenced by the
techniques of painters such as John Constable. Delacroix visited England
in 1825, but there was no evidence of a meeting with Constable.
Constable never traveled abroad and lived in Suffolk and Hamstead from
1821 until his death.
17. Christ on the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of
Galilee located in northern Israel is mentioned many times in the
bible as the place where Jesus performed his preaching and miracles. Mark 1:16 As He
was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the
brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen.
18. Malerisch was introduced by the American critic Clement
Greenberg who defined it as the blurred, broken, loose
definition of colour and contour.’ Malerisch is painterly…I’d
classify this definition to DeKooning.
19. Delacroix! ‘Still Life with Lobsters’
20.A)
Matisse’s work pulls me in, whether it is through a simple line drawing, or
with his bold use of colour. I’m drawn not to, but rather into his work,
into his compositions, lines, and subject matter. His work Woman
Reading has a sober tone. The monochromatic use of colours and
subject matter provides a calm and quiet scene. The viewer is allowed a
glimpse into a private moment in this women’s life. She is not exploited
in this painting, but cradled lovingly. The viewer is given a moment of
reflection and solitude while the subject matter, the woman reading, does the
same. Somehow Matisse manages to capture this without it feeling
voyeuristic. It feels intimate. The quiet moment that Matisse has
captured with this woman reading is returned to the viewer. It personally
provides me with serenity and calmness as if I’ve taken a moment to myself to
sit in a still room and read a favorite book.
In Matisse’s Dance (I), we are given a different palette and different
scene. There is a bold circular composition. Again, a limited palette of
colour, but this time the palette is simpler and bolder having only four main
colours that could be described as crayola cadet blue and jungle green.
While Woman Reading was tranquil, Dance (I) provides such
fluidity and movement. The dancers’ movement is graceful and elegant just
as the woman’s mannerism is in Woman Reading. A common thread of
Matisse’s work perhaps? There is beauty in life. There is beauty in
things that appear mundane. Matisse is beauty.
Both Woman Reading and Dance (I) appear quite different at first
glance. Their compositions, subject choice, and palette vary, yet both
leave me with a wonderful meditative exhale. Matisse’s work allows me to
look within a scene and walk away with more than when I arrived. Matisse
paints emotion in his work, but his work also evokes emotions. It’s a
give and take. I walk away with a sense of fulfillment. Art will always
leave the viewer with an opinion, a feeling or emotion. I suppose that we
have a preference of artist due in part to what feeling is most safe for
us. It doesn’t mean that we can’t appreciate all types of art, but I find
it natural that we will be partial to one over the other. I find comfort,
beauty, serenity, and honesty in Matisse’s work and this is the scene in which
I prefer.
20B)
Ben Shahn’s painting The
Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Why? Perhaps due in part
to its underlying theme of Xenophobia. Is that not still feverishly
relevant today?
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Congratulations, Deanna. You win a David Shapiro collage. -- DL
