Art and Survival - Laci Geuy

 The world is quickly crumbling to an end and all museums are drowned, aflame, or in the process of becoming extinct. With the given power to save three pieces of art, I must carefully curate my choices. We could save many of the larger art collections like Da Vinci’s journals or pieces of the Sistine Chapel that were beautifully curated by Michelangelo, but those are out of range. In being limited to the more modern pieces of art, I have made my three choices. 

My first choice is Bather at the Source by Gustave Courbet. This piece is from the Realism era of art.

 

The Bather at the Source was painted in 1868 and is an oil painting measuring ninety seven centimeters by one hundred twenty eight centimeters. It’s currently being displayed in the Orsay Museum in Paris, France (Artisoo). It depicts a young brunette woman, nude, leaning against a tree. She is holding her hand out as water runs from a water source and into a small brook. I chose this because it accurately depicts human and female anatomy better than most older works. Comparably to many paintings from the past, like the Birth of Venus or many roman sculptures of female figures, they depict women as objects of absolute beauty and flawless perfection, which is not true under almost any circumstance. I feel this sets too high an expectation of the female image in modern era works. In most works women are depicted with no flaws, or chub if you will. In Gustave’s depiction of the brunette, he displays the dimples in her lower back that are caused from where your body connects on the inside. He also depicts the natural shape of chunkier calves, thighs, and chunkier arms. Gustave also very masterfully has shown the landscape in a photo realistic way that doesn’t distract from the main focal point of the woman. However, where the landscape lacks in detail further away from the focal point, the detail of the landscape around her is very realistic, even through a point where you can see her reflection in the brook below her and the crevases on the rock below. This shows a combination of both rough brush strokes and smooth blending to effectively present us an image of sheer natural feminine beauty. My only critique to her anatomy is that her waistline looks visually too small to fit her hips, but even then Gustave captured the folds in her skin in a way that others have not. I feel that this is a vital point to have noted in art history. 

The second piece I chose to save is a print advertisement from 1896 for absinthe. I chose “Absinthe Robette” by Alphonse Mucha. 

This is a twenty four inch by thirty inch print, I am not totally sure where the original print is being housed, I couldn’t find a source that had much more than the dimensions and a . Personally, having print design in this collection is just as important as fine art. It shows that the artistic world is not only fine art, but that it can be almost anything. This illustrated print is showing a young red headed woman, nude, holding a glass of golden fluid. She is draped in a transparent golden cloth, and has her hair up in a bun. Behind her head is a halo, and the title of the piece is skewed to the left. The piece takes inspiration from gilded intricate florals and borders the left side with a repeating vine. There are puffs of smoke in the background behind the woman. She is young and youthful, and is framed to be very attractive. There is a lot of representation when it comes to this advertisement. Absinthe Robette, as a drink, was known to make people hallucinate or to give a floating drug-like feeling, which is paralleled by the smokey texture in the back of the poster. The green is supposed to reflect the natural youthful feeling it gives you. This also plays into the Irish drinking culture. In the end, this piece provides insight into the influence of art nouveau and the spectrum of sources it can take inspiration from.  

Finally, the last piece I will be taking is not a painting, print, or sculpture, but a blueprint. I’ve decided to take the blueprint to the Admiralty Arch in the London County Council Buildings. Not London, Ohio; London, England. 

It is currently in possession of the Kew National Archives in Richmond, England(Catalogue). It demonstrates strong structure work in buildings. The structure of the arches are in line with the baseline style of architecture, but the small parts between them are laid in a way that calls back to the original style of arches, corbeled arches. There is also a presence of doric, ionic, and corinthian columns in this. There are receded windows, which help with storm leaking and cleanliness. Similar to the Absinthe Robette, this includes lots of intricate floral detailing. That could be a reflection of the ornate Victorian style, or of the natural western cottage aesthetic that made a popular comeback in recent years. It also includes intricate sculpted details on either side of the symmetrical arches, which could call to the history of many early sculptures.

In the end of it all, I feel the three choices I’ve made, being: A Bather at The Source; Absinthe Robette; and the blueprint, that I could represent a fair chunk of the majority of art history that provides implicit skills in a post apocalyptic, artless world. 

Bibliography

Apiaria. n.d. “Henri Privat-Livemont ‘Absinthe Robette.’” Apiaria. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.apiaria.com/products/privat-livemont-absinthe-robette.

Artisoo. n.d. “Bather at the Source by Gustave Courbet | Oil Painting Blog.” Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.artisoo.com/OilPaintingBlog/bather-at-the-source-by-gustave-courbet/.

“Catalogue Description Admiralty Arch. Elevation to Spring Gardens North Block and Elevation to London County...” 1907. National Archive of the UK. 1907. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4273382.