Analyzing Rembrandt's Paintings

Standing at 75”x69”, the oil and gold leaf on canvas painting makes a huge impact on any gallery it resides leaving viewers both amazed and confused. At first glance the painting presents just an elephant head atop a bouquet of flowers; which, while elegantly painted leaves one with no sense of what he artist is trying to bring across. The painting has unusual lighting which resemble the baroque style; also, it is structure

Rembrandt uses oil on wood in one of his earliest self-portraits, depicting himself in a fabulous costume that includes a plumed hat, a silk scarf, and an elegant jacket complete with gold trim. There is a heavy use of shadow, concealing half of his face, with the left half being illuminated by a sole source of light located out of the frame. His face purposefully lacks an expression, as if to create an open-ended illusion of confusion. Unlike most of his works, this painting is quite large, having dimensions of 35 by 29 square inches. Although Rembrandt had already begun to attract serious attention, he had not yet received any portrait commissions by 1629, so this piece may have been created to show off his artistic abilities. This self-portrait currently resides in the Isabella Gardner Museum after it was purchased in 1896 from a private collector, Lieutenant Colonel Sawyer.8

In the set of the reading and the lecture, the author and the professor both discuss Rembrandt, a well-known dutch painter, and his paintings. On the one hand, the reading argues that Rembrandt did not create his own paintings because of the woman clothes, Rembrandt’s method of light and shadow, and the back of his paintings. On the other hand, the lecture opposes the reading’s opinion by stating that Rembrandt painting totally belongs to him.

This series is immensely personal for not only Rothko, but also for the viewer. These murals explore identity as these paintings are an exploration of raw emotion felt by such a deeply depressed man who committed suicide in 1970. These paintings can be seen as a discovery of Rothko’s self and also a form of emotional release due to the unsettling colours he has adopted (black on maroon and dark red on maroon); these paintings are a clear reflection of emotional instability. According to Rothko, these paintings were “concerned with the most profound questions of existence.” That statement could possibly mean that he was thinking about his mortality at this time as he had been suffering from depression and had also been diagnosed with a mild

The portrait is displayed horizontally with a gold trimmed frame. The subject is a female that looks to be in her early 20’s sitting upright on a large brown chair. If the viewer travels up the painting the first indication of the woman’s class is her satin, blue dress. The saturated blue shines and falls in the light like water. Paired with the dress are her exceptionally detailed endings to her sleeves. The lace is even painted as though it is translucent, allowing a little of the blue dress to show through the sleeve. Flowers throughout history have symbolized innocence of a woman and her virginity. The repeating theme of flowers, in the sleeve cuffs and ribbon) in the woman’s attired suggests her purity or innocent nature. Another very details section of the painting includes the corset/torso details. The sewing suggests texture in the torso with small beading in between. Towards the top of the chest in the center, the female seems to bear an extravagant, ribbon piece with a tear drop bead in the center. The light pink

Support of how Vermeer had such vibrant paintings was the 3D glowing “working-up” which made his paintings so bright and lifelike. However true this may be Vermeer used a technique called underpainting or “working-up” which used much more paint than usual, but also added volume and gave his paintings more of a 3D feel. He would lay an initial layer of paint to the canvas, which served as a base for subsequent layers of paint. He then slowly built up the paint layers using multiple paint colors, rather than the more common method of building up the image using neutral or gray. This gave his paintings even more depth and a feel of reality. He had a very expensive pallet and used hand-ground paints and a glazing technique which was mostly used

Concerning color, there is a stark contrast between the figure on the painting and the background. More specifically, the figure of the woman is predominantly delineated in white color, especially pale, ashen white, as far her apparel and facial complexion are concerned, while there are also various hues of grey, with respect to her hair and accessory feather. These white and grey shades are vividly contrasted with the prevailing red and crimson hues of the background (viz. the drape, armchair, and table). Moreover, one can detect colors of dark green (jewelry), some beige on the left (pillar), and darker or lighter shades of blue on the right side of the canvas (sky), which all in concert and in addition to the subtle purple hue forming the sun or moon exude a certain dramatic sentiment. Also, there is brown, which often easily segues into gold (viz. books and attire details respectively). The main contrast of colors between white and red would be interpreted as serving the purpose of rendering the figure of the woman, and especially her face, the focal point of the work, despite, paradoxically enough, the lush red shades at the background. Bearing that in mind, the significance of the woman’s face will be enlarged upon later, when discussing aspects of her identity.

With such popularity, the world’s eyes fall on this painting. Yet, this image they see does not portray women in the best light. The Women of Algiers features 4 abstract figures in various positions, spread evenly across the room to create balance. The lines that shape the figures are thick and black, and thus their outlines are filled with many cool colors such as blue and green, and complementary tones of red, orange, and yellow. On each figure, there is great emphasis on the breasts and buttocks— they are large, round, and protrude from the figure, over-accentuating the female

First of all, the author says that the dressing of the women is not going with each other. He claims that the white linen cap is for poor servants, while the fur collar is prestigious. Furthermore, Rembrandt was known as careful in choosing the clothes. This point is challenged by the lecturer. She believes that the fur color was not part of the original painting. She puts forth the idea that the color was added after the painting was made in order to increase its value.

The feel of the picture lends to emotions of unease and recognition of sexual innuendo. The colors of the painting are vibrant, but for the most part are dark. The heavy tones and shades of the colors are well balanced throughout the piece. It can be noted that the brightest shades of color are found on areas depicting the actual woman. In areas that are understood as landscape, the colors are more dreary and create a sense of instability. Even Hess observes that the

Did you know that you could make art with just using dots? George Seurat did all of his paintings with just dots. He was born on December 2nd 1859 and died on March 29 1891. His death is still unknown but there’s theories that he died from pneumonia or some other type of physical illness. There’s three paintings that stood out to me there full of color and have a lot of things incorprated into them.

The first point made in the reading passage is that the painting shows inconsistency in the dress of woman, which would have not been for the painting of Rembrandt. The lecturer, however, challenges this particular view point by arguing that the painting was done by Rembrandt and someone added fur on the original one after few hundreds of years later. She further indicates that additional coloring of the dark fur collar was painted by someone who wanted to increase value of

First, the lecturer argues contrary to the passage that the clothing in the original painting was inconsistent. While the reading claims that the painting was not by Rembrandt because the fur collar worn by the woman does not match to her simple bonnet, experts discovered that the fur collar was added approximately 100 years later. The motivation of the forgery was likely to increase the value of the painting by making it look like an aristocratic portrait.

The shapes of the figures are sharply defined and the objects such as the table, book, and string instruments. There are diagonal rhythms throughout the painting in which it creates movement. The light source in the upper left allows the source light to have a more natural appearance throughout the painting. The shadows at the right-hand corner and the men wearing green in the middle contrast the main object with the most sources of lighting. The objects shadows and lighting create dimension and a vivid sense of more contrast. There are areas in the making with more contrast and the sharp contrast that creates movement in the painting. The shadows and the lighting throughout the painting show gradations and the highlights create more depth. Staring from the upper-left hand corner with the first figure of a gentleman wearing a hue of blue and yellow, the left side of his face and garment shows the source light in right above him. The source light above the

The idea of this piece is to show the connection between mother and daughter being painted. It shows the time and the classic style of the