Art+Survial - Taylor Wiley

 Taylor Wiley

11/19/2003

ARTH1132

Art+Survial 

All throughout history, art has been a significant part of society's culture. Art pieces can depict moments in time, or show visuals for other important pieces of work. They can also show the technical side of the painting, showing the masterful skills of the painters. They can also show the truth of the art world through the brush strokes of the paint. 3 of these paintings show the truly significant importance of preserving these works.

“Ophelia” by John Everett Millais is an oil on canvas painting, 76.2 CM x 

111.8 CM. The scene depicts the drowning of Ophelia from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, Act IV, Scene vii, in which Ophelia, driven out of her mind when her father is murdered by her lover Hamlet, falls into a stream and drowns.” The colors are beautiful, muted yet vibrant. The use of color creates a delicate feeling to the art. The realism of the figure in the painting is exquisite, showing the skills of the painter. The painting is a Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painting, which focuses on the refusal to give in the promotion of the style of work done by the artist Raphael by the Royal Academy. Since the first exhibit of the painting, it has garnered much attention, and according to Professor Laurence Roussillon-Constanty of “Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour”, “However, what makes Millais’s painting so unusual is the choice of the moment depicted and in some contemporary viewers’ opinions what made it subversive was his unconventional treatment of the subject and more particularly the blending of various genres, as the picture can be viewed as a portrait, a landscape scene or even a still life.” The painting shows a culturally significant moment from a very well-known play by one of the most famous playwrights in history, during a time of artist rebellion from the norm. 

Sir John Everett Millais, Bt Ophelia (1851–2), Tate

Another culturally significant painting would be “The Painter’s Studio” by Gustave Courbet. The dark and muted colors show the almost melancholy state of the room. The figures are painted beautifully, the lighting highlighting the realism. The painting is 361 cm × 598 cm, and is an oil on canvas. The scene shows a group of men and painters surrounding a woman who is posing in the middle of the room. The scene is chaotic, showing the chaos of being an artist. More specifically, the performance of being an artist. Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, a professor at Seton Hall University and a leading authority on 19th-century art says, “Courbet’s creative process, indeed, seems to have had an important performative aspect: the artist liked to show off his prowess as a painter.” It highlights the performance artist go through and depicts how he specifically basks in the attention. 

Gustave Courbet, The Painter’s Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up a Seven-Year Phase of My Artistic Life, 1855.

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

“The Dance Class” by Edgar Degas depicts a dance class taking place. The chaos of the scene shows the anxiety of ballet. The brushwork is stunning, in the style of the impressionist movement. The lighting is soft, as are the features of the dancers. The painting is 83.5 CM x 77.2 CM and is an oil on canvas. Degas often painted and sketched the ballet dancers of the period. “Opera and ballet were a fashionable part of Parisian cultural life”, and Degas showed this through his paintings. Many of these paintings people will recognize even if they do not know the name of the artist or the painting itself, “The Dance Class” being one of the most recognizable. His dedication to depicting the dancers show as “One ballerina later recalled that he “used to stand at the top or bottom of the many staircases . . . drawing the dancers as they rushed up and down.”

The Dance Class, EDGAR DEGAS, 1874

In conclusion, it is hard to find only 3 paintings that represent the world of art in such significant ways, but these paintings show the artisanship of the painters of the time, as well as the dedication of the artist. The technical skill these works show alone shows the importance of preserving them. But, with the added context of the cultural significance, whether it be a depiction of a popular media, a depiction of the life of an artist, or the cultural importance of the other arts, is enough to show the need to preserve the work of these artists. 

Bibliography

CHU, PETRA TEN-DOESSCHATE. “Showing Making in Courbet’s The Painter’s Studio.” In Hiding Making - Showing Creation: The Studio from Turner to Tacita Dean, edited by RACHEL ESNER, SANDRA KISTERS, and ANN-SOPHIE LEHMANN, 62–72. Amsterdam University Press, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wp7vb.8.

 Magazine, Smithsonian. “Degas and His Dancers.” Smithsonian.com, April 1, 2003. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/degas-and-his-dancers-79455990/. 

Roussillon-Constanty, Laurence. “Tracing Ophelia from Millais to Contemporary Art: Literary, Pictorial and Digital Icons.” Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens, no. 89 Spring (2019). https://doi.org/10.4000/cve.5438. 

Tate, “‘Ophelia’, Sir John Everett Millais, Bt, 1851–2,” Tate, accessed November 19, 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506.

Tate. “Pre-Raphaelite.” Tate. Accessed November 22, 2023. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pre-raphaelite.