Your Daily Art

Category: France

  • Foggy Impressions

    Houses of Parliament, London, Sun Breaking Through the Fog, 1904 by Claude Monet, Musee d’Orsay,Paris.

    Monet, like Turner recorded the London Parliament buildings but his was a study of the same building at different times of the day.

  • A Shout Out

    An Image from the Hall of Bulls, the Caves at Lascaux, Dordogne,France.

    The caves at Lascaux contain some of the earliest known art work to be created by man. They are dated to between 13,000 to 15,000 BC and were discovered in 1940. They were open but carbon dioxide from visitors was damaging the paintings so they were closed in 1963 to preserve them.

  • Kick Up Your Heels

    Dance at the Moulin Rouge, 1890 by Henri Toulouse-Lautre c
    Dance at the Moulin Rouge, 1890 by Henri Toulouse-Lautre c

    Toulouse-Lautrec immersed himself in the world of dance halls, becoming friends with the performers. He saw the upper class men of his birth, visit these lower class venues looking for drink and prostitutes and must have felt that at least his working friends in the venues were the more honest about who they really were.

  • Who’s Watching Whom?

    Merry Jesters by Henri Rousseau 1906

    Rousseau frequently visited the botanical garden in Paris for inspiration, he then concocted scenes with wild animals in his imagination and put them on canvas. His style was admired by other artists for it’s straightforward and untrained style.

  • Peacock

    La Libre Esthetique exhibition poster by Gisbert Combaz, Library of Congress

    The Art Nouveau style was created as a reaction to the literal styles which dominated most of the 19th century. It is primarily a decorative style which utilizes sinuous shapes and naturalistic plant forms to create flowing movements.

  • Setting the Scene

    Dancers in the Wings by Edgar Degas, 1876-78, Pastel

    Degas is well known for his superior ability to draw and to fade into the background so that he could capture a scene without influencing what was happening.

  • Spot On

    Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte by Georges Seurat, Art Institute of Chicago.

    Seurat did preparatory drawings everyday for six months getting ready to paint this picture of people relaxing on a day off. The style is called Pointillism and involves using color dots to create the image. Who knows how Seurat would have refined the style he invented if he had not died at the age of 32.

    Love you, Mom!

  • Sketch

    Monkey (study for La Grande Jatte), 1884 by Georges Seurat, The Art Institute of Chicago.

    Seurat made hundreds of studies for his painting La Grande Jatte, some just small pencil sketches like this, some on-site oil sketches, and even full large scale drafts.

  • Mad Monsters

    Matthias Grunewald, detail, Isenheim Altarpiece,1510-15,

    These fantastic monsters are part of one of the most amazing pieces of art to come out of the 16th century. There are three different views or openings and the final view is a wood carving.

  • Tripping the Light Fantastic

    Ball at the Moulin de la Galette by Pierre Auguste Renoir, Musee d’Orsay.

    Renoir was studying the effects of light at different times of the day at one of his favorite venues and as he enjoyed himself with his friends – good work if you can get it. One of the most famous of the Impressionists, he was working closely with Monet at this time. Check out Kahn Academy for some great videos on art and artists.