Impressed by Impressionism

Next to the Romantic style, the paintings of the Impressionists are my favorite. They are beautiful. The work isn’t as harsh as previous styles. It is soft and brilliant in color. There are no dark colors or harsh lines.

The Post-Impressionist style is said to have paintings with more emotion but actually, I see and feel more emotion when I look at Impressionist paintings. I love how Impressionists painted with no boundaries and hardly any lines. I feel like I can use my imagination more, when I look at the Impressionist paintings. The Post-Impressionist paintings look like photographs.

Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet, painted in 1872, is my favorite of all the art displayed.

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

I chose Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as my representation of the Classical Era. This is my favorite piece from the presented material.

Serenade No. 13for stings in G major, also known as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, meaning “little serenade” in German, was beautifully created by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1787. This piece comes to life when played with two violins, a viola, and a cello, and is known as chamber music.

People tend to naturally equate classical music to the prestigious and the wealthy, but this is not the case. In all actuality most of Mozart’s classical musicians were middle-class laborers. Middle class people fund classical music just as well as the wealthy. Middle class citizens were among those in the audience at the operas in the classical age and the middle class made classical music popular and kept its popularity alive until our present age.

Mozart was one of the most famous classical composers and very popular with the middle class. Just as his fans, Mozart had a middle-class income. He had fame but struggled to be financially secure. Mozart was said to have the greatest child prodigy the world has ever seen and died a predominant musical genius of the classical age.

Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop

 

Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop is my favorite piece of Baroque visual art presented in this section. It was imagined and created in Musée du Louvre, Paris, by Georges de la Tour in 1645 and is among the most famous of his works. Georges de la Tour was a famous French painter of the Baroque era.

When I look at the painting I see a few interesting things. The painting is classified as a simple genre scene and not a strict religious piece because of the lack of symbolism. There is no background in this scene and the only light in the picture, comes from the boy’s candle. I love the kindness in the eyes of the father and the delight in the eyes of the boy. The father has given the boy purpose and worth. It is a picture of the the training up of a boy into a man. Though the scene is ordinary, it speaks of the future. It can be a picture of every ordinary family. It also is a picture of Joseph and Jesus and God the father to his creation. That is what I see.

The realism in the painting is quite obvious. When we discuss realism in the arts, we are discussing how well the piece depicts ordinary life and every day routine. In this photo the carpenter is teaching his son his trade. His son helps him and they work together. REALISM. The religious overtone of the painting is that the son is the Christ child.

Georges de la Tour was heavily influenced and supported by royalty. He started a good living in Luneville in the Duchy of Lorraine. He was the official court painter to Louis XIV. Tour had a style of realism and tenebrism together. Tour was a young man during the early Italian Baroque and quickly became famous. King Louis XIII, Henry II of Lorraine, and the Duke de La Ferte were among the royal who collected Georges de la Tour’s work. George held the “personal esteem of the Governor of Lorraine, the Marechal de la Ferte, for whom he painted a Nativity, a St Alexis, a St Sebastian, and a Denial of St Peter. His works fetched high prices (600-700 francs or more).”

 

Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/old-masters/georges-la-tour.htm