HEEELP with my art paper, check out the pic!

[BluegrassSeramas]

I could use a peer edit!

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

I hate to make you read, but I need someone to check out my essay on analysis on this work...

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Julien Dupré was an artist who devoted his artistic career to the depiction of realistic scenes in the French countryside in the last half of the 19th century. According to Hollister Sturges on www.askart.com,
“Julien Dupré was an artist, considered by most, to be one of the leading exponents of the second generation of Realist painters; a group that also includes Leon Lhermitte, Jules Bastien-Lepage and Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret. Like J.F. Millet and J. Breton, before them, these artists devoted their artistic careers to the depiction of the toils of the French peasant - often seen hard at work in the fields.”
“Realism”, as stated in the book Gardner’s Art for the Ages, is “a movement that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in France. Realist artists represented the subject matter of everyday life in a realistic mode” (1154). I believe that Dupré’s work could mostly be considered Realist, but there are some more approaches used in his work that are bit more idealized and Romantic.
The work entitled In the Pasture that is on display at the University of Kentucky Art Museum is no different. The painting is very large, 53 by 78 inches and hangs right at eye level in the art museum. It’s convincingly representational and you feel as if you could step right into the work. The perspective is of one who is standing in front of this scene and actually viewing it as it happens. It depicts a milkmaid pulling on the rope attached to the worn leather halter of a large shaggy black and white milk cow that is very intent on leaving the scene and rejoining the cattle herd that is clearly visible in the background, across a small stream. It’s a wonderfully sunny day in spring or early summer and you can see the green rolling hills and blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds in the horizon past the farm and its red roofed buildings.
In this closed composition, everything is naturalistic and well represented. I feel that it is more like a picture than a painting, which may have been the artist’s intent as photography was gaining popularity at the time. He chose a very photographic point of view in capturing this scene with things in relative size perspective. The leaves in the foreground are large, along with the stake and hammer used for tying milk cattle. Objects in the work get smaller as they recede into the painting making it seem like a real scene with atmospheric perspective. You also get the feeling that the girl’s worn outfit has real texture and that the shaggy, unruly hair on the cow is coarse if you were to touch it. Dupré does an excellent job of making you feel like you were there at that moment viewing the struggle that is front of you.
Dupré paid close attention to directional lines and color. The background of this scene has many horizontal lines to create stillness. The flat backs of the laying cattle herd, the long red roof tops on each side of the painting, the tops of the tall bushes in the landscaping, the distant hills on the horizon and the rows and rows of white clouds drifting in the blue sky. The real action is in the foreground and supplied by the diagonal lines of the girls body and cow’s legs. The girl, pulling so hard that she is coming out of her wooden shoes, is leaning heavily on the rope with her body and legs at a distinct angle away from the pulling cow’s head, while the cow’s legs are at varying diagonal angles showing their persistent movement. This creates more interest in the foreground and brings attention to the focal point of the work—the struggle between milkmaid and obstinate cow in this work, In the Pasture. The color in the work is an open palette, with lots of use of color. There are many descriptive colors; the shades of greens in the fields and trees, the red of the rooftops and the bright blue of the girls tattered woolen outfit and the bright orange of her headdress. Generally this work is mostly secondary colors at first glance. There are many shades of green used and many blended colors to make the shades of the leaves in the foreground. Primary colors were mainly used to create visual paths in the work and are highly saturated. The blue of her woolen outfit is front and center of the work, and then the red roofs on opposing sides make your eye move. The black of the cow and the greens in the foreground are highly saturated. There is great use throughout of local colors. I find that the center of the picture would be the girl’s bright orange head dress; it keeps bringing back my eye with its bright near-yellow color. There are colors similar to her head scarf in the foreground on the leaves, and although less saturated and maybe a shade darker, they are similar enough and contrast with the green to bring your eye below. Dupré used the complementary colors orange and blue on the girl to make her stand out and the red of the roofs against the green of the trees to draw your eye to the difference. I believe that the colors are well balanced in both the foreground and the background.
There are many organic shapes in this work that are more true to life and not regular or even with smooth lines. It helps that this is done on such a large scale. There is more crowding in the background with lots of things that create visual path to move your eye back and forth, but the foreground is mainly dominated by the struggles of the girl with the cow. The girl’s body is realistic in its movement and curves, how an actual person would move or stand, the halter of the cow is hanging off at a natural angle where it does not fit, and the trees are more individualistic and not uniform. He shows a real interest in more three dimensional masses and the objects in the picture are painted to represent that. If you stand back a bit and let the lines blur it is a very convincing work in matters of line and depth. The work is more painterly, with the edges of objects being blurry and there being visible brush strokes when you are close. The artist uses impasto on the central figured cow to show the unruly bits of hair on the top line and hide with more visible paint in the foreground. It seems that he was attempting to reproduce the texture of actual living things. This painting is a little less painterly in the background to give it more of a sense of depth and being farther away and less “touchable” than the cow and grasses in the foreground. It is very illusionary, the clouds look so fluffy and it all seems very touchable with the most impastoed part being the foregrounds grass. It seems the “closer” it is to you the more texture this painting has.
The light in the painting is naturalistic and directed from above; it seems to be nearing mid-morning. There is not a strong contrast between the light and shadows in the foreground, so the light has a more diffuse feel rather than being strong and bright. It gives you a sense that the scene is one of being cool and not hot. The light, or lack of, creates part of the visual path in the dark shading of the deep woods behind the red roofed building on the right half of the painting and it is opposed by clear blue skies and white fluffy clouds on the left. This makes you look back and forth between dark and light. The well lit orange head dress of the girl is in the middle and brings your eye back to the foreground.
All in all, this work is well balanced and has lots of visual paths to follow. Julien Dupré shows us the reasons why he was a popular artist of his time and still today.

 

[SeramaLife]

I am not an artist and have no clue what you are talking about, but

Edit: Making it clear that I am most definitely NOT an artist!

 

[1stepcloser]

Here is a neat trick to evaluate your own writing:

Divide a paper into 4 columns.

Column 1: For each sentence, write the first 4 words.
Column 2: Count the number of words used in each sentence.
Coumn 3: Write the word you use for the subject (ie: it, the painting, etc.)
Column 4: Write the verb or adjective.

You will start to see a pattern emerge. Looking critically at that chart will allow you to break up your wording and avoid repetious phrases like "It is..." over and over again. It will also help you to identify if you need to combine sentences or break them down. Additionally, you will notice if you over use subjects or boring verbs/adjectives.

(Guess what subject I teach...lol).

ETA: Hint to help you get started. Rather than use "this", "the painting" or "it" at the beginning of each sentence, mix up the subject/verb. Example:

Instead of The light in the painting is naturalistic and directed from above; it seems to be nearing mid-morning. try saying "Naturalistic light shines from above, leading the viewer to appreciate the mid-morning scene."

 

[bwebb7]

I love the piece you chose. It was easy to follow what you wrote and if you go back to look at the painting, you have described very cleverly and completely.
I (ignorant) would never have thought to describe it as being done mostly in secondary colors (as opposed to primary)
It was very interesting to me.
I hope you do well with it.
It is plain to see that you have put allot into it.

1step can really help-I can encourage!

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Thanks everyone! 1step, I'm definitely going to use your HINT, I was feeling like I repeated myself quite a bit and that is going to help fix some of it! THANK YOU!

Ive been out of school too long to remember all this stuff! lol And Im only 28!

 

[1stepcloser]

Happy to help!! It take a little time but it is a great way to revise your own stuff!

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Fixing all that now! Its sooooo much better!
Thanks for reading all that!

 

[insiderart]

How soon do you need it? I'll try to get to it later.