The Marvelous Sauce painted by Jehan Vibert in 1890 is a part of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery 's permanent collection. Located in Buffalo, New York, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is best known for its collection of modern art rather than its number of older masterpieces. Therefore this late Nineteenth-century painting kept hung on the gallery 's wall is worth taking a closer look at. It is a delightful work of art to admire, but also holds a deeper meaning. What first catches the viewer 's eyes are the vivid colors used in the painting. Ultimately what jumps out the most is the man on the right 's red robe. The artist intended this for a reason, discussed later. The room where the men are standing is front lit. Also the atmosphere is …show more content…
Post-impressionists disliked the unfinished quality of Impressionist paintings. They believed in the deliberate arrangement of subjects in the composition, and that this composition was more important than the effects of light. However, Vibert 's painting is also not entirely post-impressionist in nature, but influenced by post-impressionistic ideas. Made in the late nineteenth century, it exists as a lead-off into the twentieth century styles of art. At this time the camera was gaining popularity and photography was used for portraiture and to capture important events. This kitchen scene could have been created with use of a camera. But a camera captures a likeness, while an artist produces art. According to Smith 's write up on The Marvelous Sauce on the Albright-Knox 's web site this painting also functions as social commentary, and clerical scenes were popular at this time (Smith). The man in red who is the central focus of the painting is a Cardinal, a high ranking church official. The other man in the picture is his chef. The largeness of the kitchen and the copious copper pots are meant to be a testament of the cardinal 's wealth. It is clearly the Cardinal himself who has prepared the sauce and in the scene he has given it to the chef to taste. The Cardinal appears delighted at his creation while the chef "is
Then there are also many psychological lines to be seen in the work. One such line is of the woman and the floor, where she is staring down towards it. Another is from the young child and the store clerk, showing a defiance between the two. Next, light and value are not very contrasting in this painting, with only the basic highlights and the shadows seen. It isn’t completely contrasting or contradicting since the colors blend well together with close to the same value ranges, dark colors seen throughout except for the people’s pale faces. There also seems to be a variety of light sources since the woman’s face along with the shop clerk and the young boy’s is lit up by what seems to be a light bulb since they’re much brighter and highlighted and then the men and women in the back aren’t really as bright, except for the ones who close to the open door, creating a blue tinge from the outside light. The shapes shown through the painting is shown to be either very round or very geometrical. There are organic shapes in things such as the umbrella or even the back of the chair, but mostly it is either straight lines and geometrical shapes. The volume shown in the painting is very much implied, correctly showing the
The focal point of the painting is the woman with infant. This is shown by the lighting in the painting being directly on her, the bright red that she is wearing, and the circling of the putti around her figure along with the majority of their gazes being directed at her. The bright light directly behind her and the infant could possibly be coming from the sun behind the clouds in the sky, the putti to her upper right holding the torch, or it could be symbolic in that it is the infant’s halo and representative of his divine nature. The overall piece is not overly dark but the lighting seems to be most focused on the woman, infant, her other children, and the flying putti. This is an example of tenebrism.
Impressionism, in contrast, strove not to capture the toils of society in a moralistic setting like Realism did, but to evoke a general mood in the viewer. Painting was transformed from the idea of capturing a moment on canvas to creating a moment on canvas; painting was reduced to its own surface, “no longer transparent means but opaque ends” (Schneider 43). This was exemplified by Manet’s own ideas of painting not as “sight” but as “insight” into the human condition, driven by an artist’s intuition. Manet and the impressionists began painting en plein air, outdoors in the fresh air where they were closer to their subjects and captured the light of fleeting moments like sunrises and sunsets with quick brushstrokes intended to evoke general mood in the viewer based on the capture of light and tones in the painting, leading to the namesake “impression” left by the movement.
Color values are strong in this painting. It goes back to what I said about color, but I believe the soft hue of the blue walls against the strong hue of the bed frame and floor provides enough contrast to pull you into the painting. I also like the strong hue of the table. It connects the visual of looking at the chairs and the bed. When you look at the table, your eye cannot help but look at the other furniture.
There is also a mirror placed on the table allowing the viewers to link with space beyond the frame. Also in the far back right of the painting you can see a young man talking to an elderly. The artist created an very old or old-fashioned look by using opposing colors, red and green. “The second half of the fifteenth century in northern Europe saw an expansion of genre
His hand is positioned on the bottom left of the frame with the fingers and palm situated towards the middle left side. The shoulders positioned in the top third cut through representing a horizon. The direction of the fingers makes your eye travel around the painting, the tie the slices through the middle of the shirt, the cuff of the shirt cuts across to stop your eye falling out of the frame, the lightness balancing all the darkness. The mouth dominates the image and drags you eye back to the
The beginning of an appreciation always starts with the most basic of trends in a painting. Though they seem axiomatic in nature, they are in reality very important and not as obvious if one is truly vigilant. The painting was slightly large and had dimensions that were approximately five feet by twelve feet. By looking closely at the painting using sharp eyes one could tell that Volaire used oil on the canvas. The framing used was apparently vintage (as I was told by a vehement supervisor, unhappy that I touched the frame) and came from the late seventeen hundreds. What was also learned was that vintage
The two visual elements that stands out to me is the texture and the tone of the art work that the artist created. The texture is a very smoot looking texture and the tone has a lightness to it with dullness to create a peaceful atmosphere in the picture.
The photograph is a very powerful medium. The French painter Paul Delaroche exclaimed upon seeing an early photograph “from now on, painting is dead!” (Sayre, 2000). Many critics did not take photography seriously as a legitimate art form until the 20th century. With the
Red appears to dominate the painting and serves as an eye-catching color. The use of intensely saturated colors draws the attention to the front couple. Additionally, the red color plays with the mind of the onlooker without them thinking about it. It suggests deep passion, anger, and struggle. The artist intends to relay his feelings about the event to the viewer. His outlook consists of disgust towards the great depression that leaves many taken advantage of due to desperation.
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.
Also, has a positive energy going. It also shows like I said before a sense of calm, because of the horizontal lines give us a feeling of peace. The lines are different types of emotions that the artist is trying to transmit. Rembrandt could transmit between his painting some type of calm and positive personality. The space in the painting allow the artist to show to the viewers that there is a feeling into the piece, it directs our attention to focus on the main point of the painting. The artist use oil paint because back then oil was a recent invention and he uses the primary the color soft pink and red and normally these types of colors are associated with love and has an emotion of
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
This painting is divided into three equal parts by the arches in the background and the characters correspond to each of these arches (TV12). The father is in the middle portion of the painting. The lines of perspective created by the tiled floor, draws our attention to the swords that the father is holding and the vanishing point lies just behind the handles of the sword. Our angle of vision is such that we are looking directly at the main figures groups, particularly the father. A single light source from the left of the picture illuminates the characters and also focuses our attention to the father holding the sword. This creates a ‘theatrical’ effect. The background is simple and stark so our attention is focussed on the figure groups in the painting. The painting has a wide tonal range that makes the composition logical and balanced. The colours used in this
When I saw the painting for the first time it grabbed my attention. At first I thought it was the beautiful colors that attracted me to the painting, but it was more. In the picture the shadowy men look scared. They looked as though they were trying to run away from something and this lake that forms into this river that is surrounded by tall grass is the way out, or at least a place to hide until the coast is clear. During that time in my life I felt