The Treatment of the Human Figure: a Travel Through Time

Impressionism is an artistic style of painting that originated in France in the 1870s. This style of painting attempts to capture an experience or emotion opposed depicting a scene accurately. Every impressionistic painter has a distinct method of rendering as well as their own distinct set of qualities that reflect the artist themselves. For instance, The Basket Chair by Berthe Morisot and The Orange Trees by Gustave Caillebotte are two impressionist works of art of oils on canvas that contrast in many ways. These two paintings will be compared side by side with an in depth approach comparing the artist’s personal status in society, modernism’s role in the piece, and the execution of composition.

The evolution of Greek art has expanded over hundreds of years and has contributed to many artistic developments, especially in sculpture. The depiction of the human figure has drastically changed overtime from an undeveloped form to a more detailed rendering. This transformation can be seen from Early Bronze Age figurine models to Ancient Hellenistic sculptures. Examples of early figurines are small with disproportionate and unusual bodies while much later sculptures are large scale showing the importance of corrected bodily proportions. Tiny figures generally had the same poses lacking facial and body definition details while later sculptures have exquisite, clear facial features, and deeply chiseled bodies. The developments of sculptors

While the painters after the Impressionism period were collectively called the “Post-Impressionists,” the label is quite reductive. Each artist had their own unique style, from Seurat’s pointillism to Signac’s mosaic-like divisionism, Cezanne, Émile Bernard, and others. These artists were all connected in that they were reacting to the aesthetics of Impressionism. Two of the more influential painters from this movement were Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, who aimed to connect with viewers on a deeper level by access Nature’s mystery and meaning beyond its superficial, observable level. However, each artist’s approach to achieving this goal was different. In close examination of Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin) and Paul Gauguin’s Self-Portrait with Portrait of Émile Bernard (Les misérables), one may clearly see the two artists’ contrasting styles on display.

     Post Impressionism, as the name would suggest, is the art movement that directly followed Impressionism. One artist, who led the Post Impressionism movement, was French artist, Paul Cézanne. Much of his early work was pure Impressionism and, although he was introduced to the style and guided by Camille Pissarro, Cézanne's works showed a distinctive uniqueness. Cézanne broke away from Impressionism because of the lack of composition; he felt the desire to depict subjects in the third dimension as well as appearing flat. Cézanne did not agree with the Impressionistic trait of portraying the world through light, instead, he built up images by a generous use of colour.

It granted access for more depth and dimension than earlier methods. Artists began to interpret human form realistically, paying close attention to the model to capture the movements and emotions of the face and body. Women were commonly in reclining positions and draped. Men were typically nude to mirror godlike physiques. Sculptures were now sculpted from clay and then copied in marble or bronze (though very few bronze originals survived) and were no longer chiseled out of marble.

Impressionism can be considered the first distinctly modern movement in painting. Developing in Paris in the 1860s, its influence spread throughout Europe and eventually the United States. Impressionism was a style of representational art that did not necessarily rely on realistic depictions. The Impressionists loosened their brushwork and lightened their palettes to include pure, intense colors.

In the early twentieth century Post-Impressionism was the avant-garde art movement in the world, with its central city Paris, France. Artists from different religious backgrounds, cultures, and societal hierarchies migrated to Paris to take their art in new directions. France was a city of tolerance during both Pre and Post WWI; therefore, it was a beacon for those who wanted to convey their emotions and ideas visually. Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, and Robert Delaunay came to Paris and sought to create art with a personal aesthetic and to capture the essence of the modern era.

Claude Monet was the leader of impressionist painting movement. Manet, Cezanne, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, and Alfred Sisley, gave art the ability to

Visual opulence, creativity, inimitable vision, and a style that is highly influential are the many characteristics of an admired movement in art history, that being of the Post-Impressionism movement (1875-1892). This movement, which was a by-product of the Impressionism movement, is the bridging gap between the two movements known as Realism and Expressionism. Post-Impressionism takes on some of the stylistic characteristics of these movements; however, it does not contain the all too glossy visuals of Realism or the heavily fantastic visuals of Expressionism, rather it is the intermediary of these two poles. My paper will discuss why this link was absolutely essential to the history of art movements, and I will be specifically using the

Pontormo was amused at painting human figures using ‘contorted or twisted’ poses. Creating an ’illusion of art forms’ projecting into space, and stretched beyond what was considered natural and realistic. The goals of the earlier Mannerist art movement was to create similar proportions of the human body from the High Renaissance period, but enhance human form into conforming

She further analyzed many artworks based on the process of toning. Though some artists paint with one layer, those that paint with multiple layers enhances the objects in the painting. The color that appears on the surface underwent multiple shades in order to obtain the desirable color. After analyzing Ship Carpenter at His Hobby, 1872, Helena’s second group approached the artwork Women Embroidering, 1904. Two differences I distinguished from the comparison of these two artworks are the time period as well as the visual context. I had paid less attention to the story behind this portrait because there was less detail. Women Embroidery, though looked unique because of its lack of details (which could have been intentional), did not have much space. Helena described it as “flat.” She infers that as time period increases, artists were becoming more focused on flatness, painting on the surface and ignoring the layers of tone and landscape space. Another artwork that we analyzed was the Back Surgery. Dating back to the 1600s, this portrait was created with underpaintings and a few touch ups. It could be inferred that the artist intended to leave the underpainting in order to bring out the procedure. On the surface lies a realistic, colored curtain that seemed to have been drawn by the audience, and staring straight at the artist/audience was the patient. With these observations, I

A cosmopolitan young flapper-looking woman occupies two-thirds of Tamara de Lempicka’s (b.1898- d.1980) painting of 1928 entitled “Maternity”, wearing a pink satin draping top that reveals her perfect rounded right shoulder and the peak of her inflated breast that is tenderly held in her left hand by her elongated fingers, which she helps her baby to breastfeed (Figure 2). The baby, whose sex is unidentifiable, is wrapped up in a white polka-dot cover that adorns his/her neck with a perforated floral design, emphasizing the roundness of his/her head that depict a dark full of hair and a red-flesh rounded cheek. The minimal dark grey background that is incorporated in the composition serves as an indicative tool to the viewer, by bringing into

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

Impressionism as an historical art period is best described as a shift in thinking and focus. This paradigm shift, away from realism and toward individualism, began a centuries long transformation of self-expression in art as a whole. Impressionism is generally considered a French movement and is typically defined as spanning from approximately 1867 to 1886. Impressionism is best embodied by and was perhaps initiated by Claud Monet in such world-renowned works as Impressions: soleil levant which lent its name to the style and subsequently the art period as a whole.

     Impressionism began during the 19th century. An example of an artist’s beliefs influencing his art can be seen in the works of Pierre Auguste Renoir. It is documented that he felt that art should be different from the real world, which can be cold and harsh. He said, “Why shouldn’t art be pretty?” and “There are enough unpleasant things in the world.” An example of his attitude towards art can be seen in ‘A Girl with a Watering Can’ from 1876. This picture can easily be interpreted as being beautiful and therefore it proves that his belief of art is true. ‘Dance at Bougival’ from 1883, is yet another example of the artist and the inspiration for the art. By painting an attractive scene with two people dancing accompanied by laughing faces in the background we see a correlation between his quotes above and this piece. Therefore, one can conclude that Renoir painted mostly beautiful and attractive art.