Nineteenth Century the Development of Painting and Photography

Nineteenth Century Painting and Photography

Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte

Georges Seurat was a post-Impressionist painter with a fascination for a mixture of urban life and rural landscape. His painting techniques are usually referred to as avant-garde pieces, with new advances toward depictions of color and light. In his later works, Seurat played with small dabs of color, unmodulating colors in his painting. His color relationships are evident in his later paintings.

The painting of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884-86) depicts this color technique and style usually seen in Seurat's later works. Exhibited at the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886, the painting contrived a number of controversies in 19th century French society. La Grande Jatte is also considered Seurat's greatest masterpiece of his career in art. It is no wonder that the work is considered thus, his dot technique features a vivid amount of colors; there is a dot-mixture of orange, green, and yellows.

2. Paul Cezanne's Montagne Saint-Victoire Seen from Les Lauves

Paul Cezanne is usually considered to be the link between the Impressionist period and the Cubist period. Like his Impressionist contemporaries, Cezanne displayed a vivid style full of color and composition. The brushstrokes in his paintings were clearly distinctive and indicative of Cezanne's style, and his subjects were mostly focused on inspirations of nature. Cezanne's brushstrokes are small, usually allowing for the freedom of movement within the brush strokes.

Cezanne made a series of paintings with the Mount Saint-Victoire as the subject. In Montagne Saint-Victoire Seen from Les Lauves (1902-04), the Impressionist technique is indicative of Cezanne's style of artwork: fantastically lyrical depictions of nature, color, a lighter, less heavy form of shadows and light. The oil painting shows Cezanne's views on visual perception and his attempts at making stemming away from a more realistic depiction of the scene.

3. Paul Gauguin's Vision After the Sermon

Paul Gauguin's beginnings as an artist can usually be attributed to the impressionist style. His later works, however, move away from impressionism and became darker and much more symbolic. Religious and indigenous depictions of tribes and other cultures have been displayed, most notably his works of native inhabitants. A radical break occurred in his later works, with darker color, more dramatic elements, and more symbolic and local depictions of religion.

Gauguin's Vision After the Sermon: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1888) was inspired by the legend of David wrestling Goliath. In the painting, the small figures of David and Goliath are shown wrestling in the far distance, while a multitude of local women are showcased, watching the fight in earnestness. The colors of his palette are dark hues, depicting a more severe and melancholy mood in order to portray the religiousness of the locals. The brushwork is soft, a contrast to the severity of the colors.

4. Vincent Van Gogh's Harvest A La Crau

Vincent Van Gogh is a well-renowned artist, whose brush strokes and vivid painting techniques is known throughout the world. Van Gogh's later influences include Japanese prints, as well as impressionism and neo-impressionism. In his visit to Arles, located in the south of France, Van Gogh was inspired by the light and the scenery, and he produced numerous paintings with the countryside as a subject.