Renoir and Friends

Today I read parts of a book on Renoir to my art therapy client.

I learned that Renoir's circle of friends included the famous Impressionistic painters Monet, Baxille and Sisley. All of them attended the Gleyre Academy and spent time painting together. Imagine that master-mind group!

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Portrait of Claude Monet
1875
Oil
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Later in his life, Renoir developed a friendship with Cezanne and the two of them painted similar subjects together.

Montagne Sainte-Victoire
Oil
1889
Paul Cezanne
Montagne Sainte-Victoire
Oil
1889
Pierre-Auguste Renoir had already attained some measure of success as a portrait painter before exhibiting in the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris, 1974. He was only 33 years old at the time. Although Renoir's paintings have been classified as Impressionistic, he was always searching for new means of expression and his style during the period of the 1870's varies so much that Renoir's Impressionism, unlike Monet's, has no clear indisputable identity. Renoir quit showing with the Impressionists for several years until the seventh Impressionist show of 1882.

I cherish my artist friends and enjoy passionate discussion of art. I can only imagine how the friendships among these masters might have evolved.

Edgar Degas

I learned a few new interesting facts about Edgar Degas while reading Trewin Copplestone's book, Edgar Degas, to my art therapy client.

Edgar Degas who lived from 1834-1917, became a professional painter through a change in his family's fortunes. He grew up the privileged son of wealthy and cultured parents and despite his interest in art was destined for a career in law until the failure of the family back. Not the typical starving artist!

Rene-Hilaire De Gas
1857
Oil
Edgar Degas was 23 years old when he painted this portrait of his grandfather.

Degas, being the oldest grandson, spent a great deal of time with his grandfather who was the source of his financial security.

More than any of his famous contemporaries, while possibly excluding Manet, Degas was a traditionalist painter. He was dismissive of the Impressionist technique as a method, although he participated in most of the group's early exhibitions. As a result, he is more closely allied in popular understanding with Impressionism than he himself ever wished to be.

Best know for his paintings of ballet dancers, Degas was an urbane and savagely witty man, choosing his subjects from the cultured society life of Paris in which he was a well known figure.

The Green Dancers
1877-9
Pastel and Gouache

Gauguin and Friends

Recently I have been reading Robert Goldwater's book Gauguin to my art therapy client as she is not able to paint.

The color plates and descriptions are exceptional. We are learning about the personal side of Gauguin and his challenges with life as well as fellow artists.

Can you imagine hanging out with Monet, Van Gogh, Pissarro and Cezanne? Not only did they have personality clashes, but shared painting techniques. I noticed some of Gauguin's painting techniques resemble Van Gogh's without the heavy applications of paint.

In Gauguin's Intimate Journals, he says, "The Impressionists study color exclusively, but without freedom, always shackled by the need of probability. For them the ideal landscape, created from many entities does not exist.......They heed only the eye, and neglect the mysterious centers of thought, so falling into merely scientific reasoning."

One of my favorite paintings:


Still Life With Three Puppies
Paul Gauguin
1888

Gauguin wrote about the time this picture was painted, "I have sacrificed everything - execution and color - for style, wishing to impose upon myself something else than what I [already] know how to do." This painting is filled with the most brilliant color, but it is color determined by a conception so original, and in many ways so much ahead of its time that one understands how Gauguin could feel that he was forcing himself toward a style he had not previously imagined, subordinating all else in the effort.

I can relate to feeling like a sacrifice to try something new in the realm of art, but excitingly so. I seem to be in that place and time.

Gauguin in Portland, Oregon

Gauguin is one of my favorite artists and interestingly ambitious before he so famously found his way to the south pacific and his most iconic works. In 1884 he was busy trying to ingratiate himself amongst the impressionists, then the most vanguard artists at the time. In 1883 Gauguin had decided to become a professional painter, before that having been a stockbroker with a real talent for art. You can see how Gauguin makes even a winter scene look exotic.


Gauguin's Vue d’un jardin, Rouen (1884)

Longtime Portland arts patron Melvin Mark has given the Portland Art Museum Gauguin's Vue d’un jardin, Rouen (Garden View, Rouen) in memory of his recently departed wife, Mary.