Types of Paintings
•religious images
•portraits
•history paintings
•still lifes
•genre* (scenes from every day life)
* Genre painting is a fairly new development at the end of
the 16th century (1580’s).
Religious
Images
Christ Preaching
Rembrandt
1652
etching
Portraits
Jacques-Louis David
Portrait of the Marquise d'Orvilliers
1790
Oil on canvas, 131 x 98 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
History
Paintings
Benjamin West The Death of General Wolfe
1770
oil on canvas
Still Lifes
A Vase of Flowers
Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin
1760-61
oil on canvas
Genre
Jean-Baptiste Greuze The Father's Curse: The Ungrateful Son
1777
oil on canvas
What type of painting is this one? How would you categorize it?
Watteau was finally admitted to the French Academy on the
basis of this painting: Pilgrimage to Cythera (1717). The
subject of this painting does not fit any established category.
The Academy actually invented a new category for Watteau:
the fetes galantes—elegant entertainments.
Cythera is the island of love in classical mythology; the young
couples have journeyed to Cythera to pay tribute to Venus, the
goddess of love. The boat on the left waits to return these
couples back to the every day life.
Is this meant to be a depiction of “real” life or the projection of
a dream—a scene from a play?
Jean-Antoine Watteau
The Festival of Love
c. 1717 oil on canvas, 61 x 75 cm
Jean-Antoine Watteau
Diana at her Bath
1715-16 oil on canvas
Jean-Antoine Watteau
Pilgrimage to Cythera
1718-20 oil on canvas, 129 x 194 cm
Watteau’s work signals an artistic movement….
Jean-Antoine Watteau
The Embarkation for Cythera
1718-20 oil on canvas
Rococo
Characteristics of
Rococo:
•According to Stokstad, Rococo is refined, fanciful, and often
playful (939).
•Rococo is characterized by pastel colors, delicately curving
forms, dainty figures and a light-hearted mood.
•Rococo first appeared in France around 1700, primarily as a
style of interior design as the French court moved from Versailles
back to Paris and all the rich courtiers (think entourage but
incredibly wealthy) redecorated their hotels (mansions) in the
latest style of the moment.
•Paintings on canvas were used to decorate the walls.
Characteristics of
Rococo:
•According to Gardner, Rococo appeared in France around 1700,
primarily as a style of interior design (780).
•Shells and shell forms are the principal motifs in Rococo ornament
•Expect irregular painted shapes surmounted by sculpture (imagine
a painted surface with a white, sculpted putto on top).
•Painting, architecture, and sculpture will combine to form a single
ensemble, (see Francois de Cuvillies, Hall of Mirrors, the Amalienburg, Nymphenburg
Palace park, Munich Germany, early 18th century).
•Expect soft colors; themes of love and happy scenes in outdoor
settings
Hall of Mirrors
a putto
Characteristics of
Rococo:
Compare the style Rococo painting and
Baroque; both these painting were made for the
French court.
Hyacinthe Rigaud
Louis XIV 1701
Baroque
Hyacinthe Rigaud
State Portrait of Louis XV
1715
Baroque moving toward Rococo; this
boy will grow up to become the man
who befriends Madame de Pompadour
and Madame du Barry
Jean-Antoine Watteau
The upper-class enjoys nature while on elaborate
picnics.
Subject matter: fete galante (elegant outdoor
entertainment)—a subset of genre painting
intended for the rich?
Watteau seems to love “soft-focus” trees and
hazy atmospheric effects.
Watteau died when he was only thirty-seven of the same disease that
everyone in Wuthering Heights dies from…..
François Boucher
•moves the viewer closer to the subject;
•the content of many of his works are based on
mythological scenes
•details are subordinated so the human form can
become the central focus of the image; the details are
sued to provide a context—a reason—for the nude
•Madame du Pompadour was François Boucher’s
major patron; Pompadour was an amateur artist and
took lessons from Boucher (she was the mistress of
Louis XV)
François Boucher
•Boucher worked from 1735 on (and on….) decorating
the royal palaces at Versailles and Fontainebleau; he
was a court painter (which would be the opposite of
self-expression—the opposite of the Chinese literati);
•Boucher welcomed a young Fragonard into his studio
as an apprentice-assistant (at no charge)
François Boucher
Diana Resting after her Bath
1742
Oil on canvas, 56 x 73 cm
François Boucher
Diana Resting after the Hunt
Oil on canvas, 56 x 73 cm
François Boucher
The Toilet of Venus
1751
Oil on canvas, 108,3 x 85,1 cm
This painting and its pendant, Venus
Consoling Love (National Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C.), were
commissioned by Madame de
Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV, for
her Château de Bellevue, near Paris.
Madame de Pompadour
had played the title role in
La Toilette de Vénus
staged at Versailles in
1750.
From http://www.metmuseum.org
François Boucher
Portrait of Marquise de Pompadour
1759
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
•He was an apprentice-assistant to Boucher.
•Notice that the content of Fragonard’s works seems to be
“interrupted” or “frozen” moments between lovers.
Because it seems as if time has suddenly been stopped in
his paintings, the paintings have a tremendous immediacy.
•His patron was originally Madame du
Barry (the last mistress of Louis XV),
but unfortunately, du Barry decided the
Rococo style was “over” and
Neoclassicism was the new “hot” thing.
Louis XV
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
•He filled the vacuum left by Boucher’s death in 1770.
•Patronage: He “catered to the tastes of his aristocratic clientele”
(Stokstad, 946).
•Fragonard produced fourteen canvasses commissioned around 1771
by Madame du Berry to decorate her chateau--Louveciennes Château de
Voisins.
Self-Portrait Facing Left
1780’s black chalk
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Meeting
1773
Oil on canvas, 318 x 244 cm
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Musical Contest
c. 1754 oil on canvas
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Love Letter
1770s
Oil on canvas
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Stolen Kiss
1787-89
oil on canvas
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Swing
1767
Oil on canvas
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
•In 1779 she became the painter to
Queen Marie Antoinette—wife of Louis
XVI.
•Her portraits are often described as
having an “elegant informality.”
•In 1783, Vigée Le Brun was elected to
one of the four places in the French
Academy available to women.
•She escaped Paris with her daughter
on the eve of the revolution (1789) and
fled to Rome.
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Self-Portrait
1800
oil on canvas
The Hermitage
St. Petersburg
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Marie Antoinette
after 1783
oil on canvas, 93 x 73 cm
National Gallery of Art,
Washington
Marie Antoinette is twenty-eight.
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Marie Antoinette with Her Children
1787
oil on canvas
We need to read this portrait as a
work of propaganda. This image is
not intended to construct power.
What then is this image intended to
communicate?
Marie Antoinette is thirty-two.
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Self-Portrait with her
Daughter, Julie
1786
oil on wood
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Portrait of a Young Woman
c. 1797
oil on canvas, 82,2, x 70,5 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
•He was influenced by 17th century
Dutch genre paintings (like
Vermeer.)
•He painted scenes of everyday
middle-class life; usually there is a
gentle moral communicated in the
scene. The images are quiet.
•Chardin’s work is not as heavyhanded as Greuze; Chardin’s work
does not have Wright’s dramatic
lighting; Chardin’s work does not
evoke Hogarth’s disgust of the
upper classes.
Self-Portrait with an Eyeshade
1775
pastel on blue paper
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
La Gouvernante
(The Governess)
1739
Oil on canvas
This type of work is called a
genre painting.
Johannes Vermeer
The Milkmaid
c. 1658
Oil on canvas, 45,5 x 41 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
In many ways, Vermeer’s work
can be read as genre painting.
However, Vermeer’s use of
light and his incredibly
sculptural forms (think Piero
della Francesca) elevate his
work beyond the actual
subject….
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon
Chardin
Servant Returning from the
Market (La Pourvoyeuse)
1738
oil on canvas
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
The Attentive Nurse
c. 1738
oil on canvas
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
The Hard-working Mother
1740
oil on canvas
Supplement your book knowledge with visual knowledge…
Marie Antoinette (2006) PG-13 Sofia Coppola directs a stylized portrait of Marie
Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst), the naive Austrian princess who married Louis XVI (Jason
Schwartzman) to become queen of France at age 19. The film explores the effects of a
luxurious yet terribly confining lifestyle on the young queen. Her resulting youthful
indiscretion and frivolity ultimately led to her undoing. A Cannes Golden Palm
nominee, this biopic also took Oscar honors for costume design.
That’s the only one I can recommend….the others are rated “R”…..