Intimate Impressionism - treasures from the National Gallery of Art - now closed
If you missed this show, then you missed a wonderful one. Here is the
review by Kenneth Baker of the SF Chronicle.
Simply for my own benefit, this blog post is to remind me of the paintings that made an impact on me, my visual notes to jog the memory when I revisit these images for inspiration. I generated 4 pages of written notes during my visit. I hope you enjoy these images.
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| Alfred Sisley "Meadow" 1875 |
I started analyzing the colors used in the following 3 paintings: cerulean blue, sap green, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, and mixtures of these.
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| Pissaro "Orchard in Bloom - Louvecienne" 1872 |
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| Monet "Argenteuil" |
SF Chronicle's art critic,
Kenneth Baker has made no secret of his distaste for Renoir. However, I think he is less distasteful of the artist after spending time with Colin Bailey, an authority on Renoir and director of the Fine Arts Museum of SF. I find Renoir to be a little cloying but I must admit to loving these 2 paintings. I fell in love with the color palette of "Madame Herriot" and I love the pose in "Head of a Young Girl" as well as how the hair was rendered.
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| Renoir "Madame Herriot" 1876 |
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| Renoir "Head of a Young Girl" 1906 |
Again, Renoir treated hair lusciously. I love the prussian blue background. I think I will do this with a portrait I am working on.
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| Renoir "Young Woman Braiding Her Hair" 1875 |
Now on to the Post Impressionists...
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| Toulouse-Latrec "Carmen Gaudin" |
This was roughly painted, looked fresh without the face details. But who needs that? The painting has great feeling and mood.
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| Cezanne "Three Pears" |
I adored the brush strokes on the pears. When I see this, I immediately think "must do fruit!"
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| Cezanne "Still Life with Milk Jug and Fruit" 1900 |
If you haven't noticed from previous posts, I am a huge Cezanne fan. I am always awed by this colors, composition, his brush strokes. I love the dark outline of the fruit, the purply lines against the orange yellow of the fruit. Sigh....
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| Vuillard "The Artist's Paint Box and Moss Roses" |
This lovely Vuillard is an example of his mastery and his attention to the subtle details, so different from the sad brown cardboard work.
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| Redon "Breton Village" 1890 |
And then, I was surprised by these landscapes by Odilon Redon. Surprised because I am familiar only with his painting of the adorable cyclops.
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| Redon "Village by the Sea in Brittany" 1880 |
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| Redon "Yellow Curtain" |
"Yellow Curtain" has an illustrative quality.
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| Redon "Child Wearing a Red Scarf" 1891 |
Doesn't this look like an
Instagram shot?
It was interesting to me to learn that Redon used
distemper, an ancient type of paint made of water, chalk and pigment which gave his paintings a matte finish. I love the matte finish hence the reason I use beeswax in my paints.
The Nabis - means prophet in Hebrew and embraced decoration as painting's primary function.
One of the notable member of the Nabis, Pierre Bonnard's choice of colors can be overwhelming for me because of their intensity but these two paintings have subdued colors. They are graceful.
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| Bonnard "Two Dogs in Deserted Street" 1894 |
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Bonnard "The Artist's Studio" 1900
And, a couple of notable portraits..
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Henri Latour "Self Portrait" 1861
The Latour portrait seems so contemporary but I guess that just means that many of us have copied this look.
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| Degas "Self Portrait with White Collar" 1857 |
How nice to see a portrait with the face in shadow...very contemplative.
And finally, perhaps because it was close to lunchtime, I loved these very realistic peaches by Latour.
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| Latour "Three Peaches on a Plate" 1868 |
This show was popular, I've never seen the cafe so crowded. So, I had to be satisfied with the image of these lovely peaches since I wasn't going to brave the long line for food.
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