Inspiration and Interpretation in Art
Inspiration is a vital ingredient when it comes to the creation of a masterpiece. Different artists have different inspirations. It is always interesting to observe how aspects of our daily life are represented in art. Although a piece of art often represents an artist's point of view, art is open to different interpretations. This work will concentrate on the comparative analysis of two difference pieces of painting. These will be The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel and Garden at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet. A though these paintings have aspects of similarities, they also differ from each other.
The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel
The Harvesters is an oil painting on wood completed in 1565 by Pieter Bruegel. The accession number is 19.164. It measures 119cm height and 162cm width. It depicts the harvesting season between July and august. It is part of a series of six works by Pieter Bruegel showing seasons or times of the year. The painting displays a ripe field of wheat partially cut and stacked. In the foreground, there is a group of peasants pausing in their work. Some picnic in the relative shade of a pear tree. Work continues behind them and to their left. A couple is gathering wheat into bundles and tying them. Three men cut the stocks. A boy fetches water up the hill through a path cut from standing grains and struggles with the weight of the heavy jars he carries. A woman gleaner is leaning over her sheaf. The peasants picnicking in the foreground-the off-center focus of the painting-crap food into their already filled mouths. Some drink in gulps from crocks and bawls. One man has reached his limit, he is slipping hose and legs apart as he lies flat on his back. Pears can be seen on the white cloth in front of the upright sitting woman who eats bread and cheese. A view of some peasants eating as others work in the grain field depicts both the production and consumption stages of food. This makes this piece of painting diachronic.
Colors are thinly and rather flatly spread in The Harvesters. The thin layer allows one to see the drawing underneath. The changes made as the picture progresses are evident upon close examination. It is easy to tell that where the right arm of the sleeping man meets the tree trunk presents an unrealistically awkward position thus a cap is painted slipping from his head over his wrist to mask the unrealistic effect due to unbroken outlines of his forearm. A few alterations can be noted in the painting of the large tree. The church tower can be seen through a limb drawn over it after the paint was dry.
The painting composition presents a magnificent sweep of landscape. The composition moves the eye from front to back through the entire painting. Progression of space in this painting is barely a linear recession. The space is curved out. The mown field in the foreground represents the outermost ring of space constricting a pivot point buried in the hazy gray of the distant seen bay.
The paint is a progression of six movements in space; from the mown field to the unmown, to the path into the village, the deeper space to town and harbor and distant plane. Each curved space looks like a plane whose surface points to a different nature. The harvested field and the not harvested field both originate in the near space of the lower left hand corner and sweep back beyond a windbreak of trees towards a church in the middle distance. The surface of the plane is bare ground marked by the stubble of cut shafts. The surface of the second, which is parallel to the first, is blanket of mature wheat heads. The division of space articulates the independence of the peasants and their physical environment.
The Garden at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet
On the other hand, The Garden at Sainte-Adresse, is painting by the French impressionist painter, Claude Monet in 1867. The paint is an oil on canvas measuring 91.8cm height and 129.9cm width. The accession number is 67.241. the painting shows a gray-bearded gentleman modelled by Claude's father sitting in a panama hat. He is accompanied by a fashionable woman in a black-accented white dress and a parasol seated in one of the bentwood cane chairs in the foreground. The two are looking out to the younger couple at the edge of the water. The lady is in a highly fashionable white dress with red trimmings and parasol whereas the gentleman is formerly dressed more than Monet's father in a top hat and a black jacket. Both men are carrying walking sticks. The scenery is surrounded by flowers in red and yellow hues and whites that echo the white dresses. Gladiolas, geraniums and nasturtiums occurring naturally in varying reds unite in one red tone. A tri-colored red, white and blue French flag flies high on the right. Another red and yellow flag flies on the left. Two people sit on a sailboat near the young couple with three sails. More boats with sails down are moored at the left. Smoking steamers lie farther at the sea with larger ships. They paint the sky with gray smoke. The painting naturistically presents smokestacks representing the mucky element of the then global trade's steamships. The clear sky gets cloudier as it reaches both the horizon line and ship's smoke. Shadows cast by the sun beyond the picture frame to the left of the scene present an hour which is a late afternoon.
The Garden of Sainte-Adresse picture is organized in three color bands dominated by the light blue sky, darker blue sea and green foreground. The seaside is created by a composition dominated by a three tier horizontal plane. It shows an elevated vantage point and relatively even sizes of the horizontal areas emphasize the two dimensionality of the painting. The three horizontal zones of the composition seem to rise parallel to the picture plane instead of receding into space.
The painting focuses mainly on the fashion worn by the figures at the water's edge than in their facial features and detail. For instance, a woman's face is left completely out of features as a male's face is barely hinted of eyes and a mouth. This painting portrays a leisure setting. This is illustrated by the white dresses worn by the women expressing a leisurely refined existence revealing a feminine ideal. Interpreting this, it is simply put that the wearer refrained from physical work and dirt.
In conclusion, as far as the two paintings were compared, they exhibited different styles with a barely striking resemblance. They are both from different periods of time, with different human form articulation, color, light handling and use of perspective in point of view.
Works Cited
Baillio, 2010, pp.57-59
Emile Zola. “Mon Salon, IV. Les Actualistes.” L’ Evenement Illustre (May 24, 1868) [reprinted in Emile Zola, “Salons,” ed. F.W.J Hemmings and Robert J. Neis, Geneva, 1959, p.132}
G. Hulin, p.302
Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulleting vol. 16 (May 1921), pp. 96-99, 102-3, ill.
Robert L. Bonn. Painting Life: The art of Pieter Bruegel, the Elder. New York, 2006, pp. 20-23,93
