Have you ever eaten a maejakwa? What about some cookies? A maejakwa is one of traditional Korean sweets. Starting from making dough, cooking a maejakwa requires rolling the dough thin, shaping it into the unique appearance, and frying it. Then how can we make a cookie? It is also made from dough, but it seems that not only its recipe but the taste of it is totally different from that of maejakwa. However, we can easily find that they all often make people satisfied when people are not hungry but need something to nibble on. Now, let me give you these two paintings, Impression: Sunrise and La rencontre ou "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet."(The rest will be expressed as Sunrise and La rencontre), which look so different but have something quite similar with each other. As you can see with the comparison of maejakwa and cookie, these two different paintings have something very important in common.
If you try to observe these paintings closely, you will soon realize that they are very different in the way of making a brush stroke, using colors, describing the details. While La rencontre is concentrating on people who bumped into each other, Sunrise is focusing on a landscape, the beautiful scene of sunrise. In this point, Sunrise tried to give the viewers the chance to feel that they are actually looking at the sunrise when they see the painting. If we look closely at Sunrise in a very short distance with it, there would be just some brush strokes. When we see the painting in farther distance like we can do right now, however, we can feel sure that he tried to give us the image, impression of sunrise. In contrast, if we do the same thing on La rencontre, we would find the men's shoes, collars, hats or maybe right ear of the dog. Courbet, who drew the painting, wanted to show the viewers that how he thought about an artist. The person right in front him is generally accepted as his patron, Altred Bruyas. The person is with two partners who would protect him in emergency, a servant on the right side of him and a dog on the other. Compared to this, Courbet in the painting doesn't seem to care about his condition of life. He just seems to be proud of himself, which is hard to find in the rich person standing right before him. In this painting, we can see what the important principle that Courbet had on drawing was: Courbet painted according to his own standards, not for King, Pope, or his patron like people commonly did in his age.
Now, leaving from what we talked before and let's try to focus on what Sunrise and La rencontre have done for us, like we did on a maejakwa and a cookie. They reliezed in different times of art, but the reactions were the same. People shoked on these two paintings because they both tried something new in the times. Before La rencontre, artists thought that an art is should be all about meaningful religious or historical events like the Last Supper, the Birth of Venus. Compared to them, what Courbet described on his canvas was just a thing which can happen in everyday life. Similar to this, Monet, the artist who drew Sunrise, experienced the same reactions of his painting because he drew the impression of sunrise without using the color black, which seemed incredible to the people of the day. Most people didn't want to believe it so some of them even made sarcastic remarks at him and his painting, Sunrise.
Sunrise and La rencontre are totally different paintings except they both made remarkable changes in the history of art. Behind them there are the braveness of the painters who did not afraid of what people at that time might think about their painting.
References---------
(http://www.bridgemanart.com/ Bridgeman -Art culture History)
the Bridgeman Art Library: Founded in 1972, it works with museums, art galleries and artists to make the best art available for reproduction.
(http://www.rmn.fr/)
the RMN websites ( Reunion des Musees Nationaux ) : opens up access for everyone, professional or amateur, to a fabulous catalogue of online photographs of artistic works
(http://navercast.naver.com/art/western/711)
Naver Cast about La rencontre ou "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet."
[Second Draft]
ReplyDeleteAre they different?
Have you ever eaten a maejakwa? What about some cookies? A maejakwa is one of traditional Korean sweets. Starting from making dough, cooking a maejakwa includes rolling the dough thin, shaping it into the unique appearance, and frying it. Then how about making a cookie? A cookie is also made from dough, but it seems that not only its recipe but the taste of it is totally different from that of maejakwa. However, we can easily find that they all often make people satisfied when people are not hungry but need something to nibble on. Now, let me give you these two paintings, Impression: Sunrise and La rencontre ou "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet."(The rest will be expressed as Sunrise and La rencontre), which look so different but have something quite similar with each other. Like the similarity you could see with the comparison of maejakwa and cookie, these two different paintings have something very important in common.
If you try to observe Sunrise and La rencontre closely, you will soon realize that they are very different in the way of making a brush stroke, using colors, describing the details. While La rencontre is concentrating on the people and their gestures, Sunrise is focusing on a landscape, the beautiful scene of the sunrise. In this point, Sunrise tried to give the viewers the chance to feel that they are actually looking at the sunrise when they see the painting. If we look closely at Sunrise in a very short distance with it, there would be just some brush strokes. When we see the painting in farther distance, however, we can be sure that he tried to give us the image, impression of the sunrise. In contrast, Courbet, who drew La rencontre, wanted to show the viewers the key principle he had on drawing: Artists should paints according to their own standards, not for King, Pope, or their patrons like people commonly did in his age. He expressed this by depiction of the situation when his patron came to meet him. In the painting, his patron is accompanied by two partners who would protect him in emergency, a servant and a dog. Compared to this, Courbet in the painting doesn't seem to care about his condition of life. He just seems to be proud of himself, which is hard to find in the rich person standing right before him. For giving the idea vividly, without anything that might make his painting look impractical, Courbet drew the painting in a very realistic form. So, if we look at La rencontre in a short distance with it, we would find the men's shoes, collars, hats or maybe right ear of the dog, rather than the brush strokes.
Leaving from what we talked about the features that we can find in the two pictures themselves, let's try to focus on what Sunrise and La rencontre have done for us, like we did on a maejakwa and a cookie. They released in different times of art, but the public’s reactions toward them were almost the same. People were shocked by both of the two because Sunrise and La rencontre tried something very new in the times. Before La rencontre, artists thought that an art is should be all about meaningful religious or historical events like the Last Supper, the Birth of Venus. Compared to them, what Courbet described on his canvas was just a thing which can happen in everyday life. Similar to this, Monet, drew the impression of sunrise without using the color black, which seemed incredible to the people of the day. Most people didn't want to believe it so a lot of them ignored him and some of them even made sarcastic remarks at his painting, Sunrise.
Sunrise and La rencontre are totally different paintings except they both made remarkable changes in the history of art. This can happen thanks to the braveness of the painters who did not afraid of the negative reactions people at that time would have made for their paintings.
References---------
ReplyDelete(http://www.bridgemanart.com/ Bridgeman -Art culture History)
the Bridgeman Art Library: Founded in 1972, it works with museums, art galleries and artists to make the best art available for reproduction.
(http://www.rmn.fr/)
the RMN websites ( Reunion des Musees Nationaux ) : opens up access for everyone, professional or amateur, to a fabulous catalogue of online photographs of artistic works
(http://navercast.naver.com/art/western/711)
Naver Cast about La rencontre ou "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet."
(http://www.authornation.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=The-Legacy-of-Gustave-Courbet-How-the-Artist-Replaced-Man-as-the-Measure-of-All-Things-.html&Itemid=109)
A short review on the book “The Legacy of Gustave Courbet: How the Artist Replaced Man as the Measure of All Things”