YOUNG GIRL WITH HAT

Young Girl with Hat (1892) by Berthe Morisot

Berthe Morisot identified herself as an impressionist, that group of 19th-century French artists who rebelled against the Salon and the academic works exhibited there. Associated with Monet, Renoir, and Degas, Morisot was included in all but one of the impressionist exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886. Although associated with the renegade group, as a woman Morisot often escaped the unfavorable judgments the other artists received. Most 19th and 20th-century critics focused on the "feminine" qualities in her work: intuitiveness and delicacy.  Morisot is generally considered one of the most important woman painters of the late 19th century.

Morisot achieved significant recognition during her lifetime. Her work was included in George Petit's International Exhibition and in Paul Durand-Ruel's exhibition of impressionist painting in New York, both in 1887.  She was married to Eugène Manet, although previous to her marriage, she was romantically involved with Édouard Manet; the famous painter was her soul mate, but unfortunately married to someone else.

Her works can be found in the museums in Paris and around the world. This painting here is part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, and it is one of my favorite paintings. Unfortunately it has not be on view for some time.

Thank you for visiting.

A Great Europe Trip Planner

This photo was taken by me during my visit to the Art Institute of Chicago.

COURTYARD, DELFT

Like fellow Delft artist Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch specialized in quiet scenes of Dutch domestic life especially courtyards at the back of upper middle class homes. Painted in the 1650s, this painting may be one of de Hooch's earliest examples of the subject and offers a glimpse into the private world of the Dutch home that visitors rarely saw.

This painting is part of the fabulous permanent collection of the Toledo Art Museum. The Toledo Art Museum is FREE to the public. 

Thank you for visiting.

A Great Europe Trip Planner

This post was originally published in my blog Tutti Capolavori on November 18, 2012. 
The photo was taken by me during my visit to the Toledo Art Museum.

CAMERA OBSCURA

In the previous post, I mentioned that Canaletto often used a camera obscura as an aid to creating his drawings and paintings.  Let's discuss what that is...

The principle of the camera obscura has been known since ancient Greek and Chinese time, but it became popular during the Renaissance of the 1500s.  The literal translation of the Latin term is dark room (camera for "room", obscura for "dark").

It works like this: You are in a very dark room on a very sunny day.  Cut a small hole in a window cover and look at the opposite wall.  What do you see?  Magic! There in full color will be a view of outside the window upside down! This magic is explained by a simple law of the physical world.  Light travels in a straight line and when some of the rays reflected from a bright subject pass through a small hole in thin material they do not scatter but form an upside down image on a flat surface parallel to the hole.  With mirrors positioned inside the room the image could be flipped 180 degrees and reflected right-size-up onto a surface for tracing onto a canvas.

In the image above you can see how an artist would use the camera obscura to help create his painting.  The reflected image inside the camera obscura not only miniaturizes the scene reflected, but it also intensifies color, and highlights and increases the contrast of light and dark areas.  The image could then be traced to create an accurate sketch and be transformed into a painting.  

In the mid-17th century the portable camera obscura was developed and became the basis of the photographic camera.

Thank you for visiting.

A Great Europe Trip Planner

This post was originally published in my blog Tutti Capolavori on July 6, 2012.