Research : The Thames at Westminster

Turner

The burning of the house of Lords and commons 1834

Painted with Westminster Bridge in the foreground, Turner uses the bright yellows and oranges of the flames which reflect in the water and contrast against the dark foreground of the opposite bank of the river.Through these flowing colours reaching upwards in sparks of colour against the purple blues of the sky is the ghostly image of the golden towers of Parliament, and in the foreground an imposing tall cream bridge traverses the image reaching upwards and taking our eye above and beyond parliament to the red heart of the fire. In the shade where river changes from reflected oranges to deep brown greens, is a sketchy boat and in the foreground are the impressions of the crowd who stand and watch.

Albert Goodwin in the style of Turner

Westminster Sunset
Goodwin, Albert  London  1900  Sourced on line Dec 2014 from http://www.eastriding.gov.uk/culture/museums/collections/detail.php?t=objects&type=related&kv=903

Although this image was influenced by Turner’s paintings and captures the glowing sunset, the paint is applied in a much more controlled fashion. The image has only distant buildings and so loses the drama produced by the perspective of the foreground bridge in Turner’s image. It is a record of an evening rather than a representation of an exciting event. Goodwin was born in Kent in 1845, close to  the end of Turner’s life.

 

Monet

Claude Monet – The Thames Below Westminster 1871

sourced on line Nov 2014 from: http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/riverpedia/art-and-the-thames

Monet spent sometime in England and here paints Westminster bridge from a distance. He uses the embankment and jetty to give perspective and interest in the front of the image, the people drawing the eye which is then scooped into the imposing ghostly image of the houses of Parliament. The bridge stretches across the rest of the canvas just below the middle and our view of it is blocked by two tugs which provide further interest. The whole background buildings are painted in a warm pale blue and the sky in light oranges lilacs and blues in very Monet fashion, producing a feeling of mist. The water of the Thames has little activity a pale grey blue-green is broken here and there by grey waves, curves of paint, except close to the right side and embankment where there is more detail and colour, the browns and olives of the jetty reflecting in the water and producing perspective lines which reinforce those of the jetty itself as it points at the figure on the edge of the jetty and behind him to the smaller towers of parliament.

Whistler

Nocturne, 1875-1880

sourced on line from: http://impressionistsgallery.co.uk/artists/Artists/wxyz/Whistler/pictures/Nocturne,%201875-1880.jpg

Who knows if this is the Thames? but with its atmosphere of fog it has to be somewhere in the London of the late 1870s.

The two colours, a pale grey green-blue and a darker green grey blue blend softly into each other as the fog obliterates form and all that exists is a dark band of irregular shape running across the upper third of the canvas, with textured edges indicating its lower half is a reflection. From this band projects the impression of a tower and that of a dim yellow light or clock face –the colour being a very muted yellow which because of its difference to the blues greens and greys is prominent. There are several other patches of lighter areas, two so placed so as to remind us that this is water and another  gives the impression of a human being or something standing upright in the picture.

 

Oscar Kokoshka

reference :  http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kokoschka-view-of-the-thames-t01252

This is a very  busy and active view of the Thames and its bridges. Swirling paint produces activity, the direction of the strokes and the perspective of embankment and river take sus to the far bridge on the middle right upper third of the canvas. Here a crowd of forms, patches of coloured paints and darker lines give the impression of a crowd of buildings. The sky and river are overlayings of quite watery pinks blues lilacs and golden yellows (particularly in the foreground). A bridge runs across the lower third of the canvas from mid left to disappear at mid right. It is painted in heavy pinks and whites and has the impressions of cars on its surface produced by a dash of a brush of orange. The boats in the foreground of the river are painted amidst swirls of bright light colours. I can’t begin to describe the embankment on the left which is represented by multiple light blocks of colour coming together in places to give a perspective and divided by darker lines to produce images of windows, columns, doors and steeples. A flag pole rises high above the whole image helping to keep the perspective as viewed from a high point. The right embankment uses a red-brown chimney, reflecting the colour of the vehicles on the bridge,and a splash of yellow in the sky to hold the attention. The whole image is mainly lilacs pinks golds and whites but the edge of the left embankment is adorned by blue-green trees with hints of yellow in the foreground.

 

Julian Trevelyan 1975

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/trevelyan-tower-bridge-p06599

An abstract collection of angular forms in greys, black brown and a lilac grey put together to represent the two sides of the river on which stand two representational figures amongst the lines of cranes and boat hooks. Boats represented by white surrounds with a black central hollow sit in the very narrowed waterway. The river is lilac grey but a white tree like form runs down its middle representative of the water and its reflections. The river leads to a block of brown which produces a sky line in which St Paul’s is obviously visible and imposed on that brown is the black image of tower bridge. Beyond the brown band of buildings is a white band of low sky and then a grey purple and white blend of forms overdrawn in fine black lines representing the sky. The image is very contemporary, simple and pleasing but without the drama of the other paintings.

 

Victor Passmore

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/pasmore-the-hanging-gardens-of-hammersmith-no-1-t12615

Another misty view of the Thames but abstracted and devoid of human life or buildings. A grey horizontally brushed in several shades is broken by the very light hint of a pink grey sun. Just above the middle of the canvas runs a horizon with a hint of a darker brownish colour.On the right of the image the sky blends without break into the river but on the right below the sun there is a colour change as overlaid pale pinks and yellow reflect the light. The shore runs from lower right to the horizon at the left once again demarcated by a subtle colour change and the speckles of a dark purple-brown and an acidy yellow-green which are arranged perhaps to express the trees but also a jetty and patches on the floor in the lower part of the image. Fine lines in a dark brown draw out delicate winter twigs of stunted trees or bushes which overlap the river’s edge. These lines become straight in the foreground where they demarcate what could be paving stones and the sides of the jetty. Patches of white in the lower left once again reflect the sun and give an impression of damp under foot. To increase the interest three birds, hints of their image, rest on the fine branches of the tree in the right lower mid of the canvas. The image is peaceful , cold and eerie.

Michael Andrews  source of the Thames 1995

http://www.jameshymangallery.com/artists/25/1886/michael-andrews/source-of-the-thames

A purely abstract image of part of the edge of the Thames as it mixes with the sand. Colours of sand and mud, in ochres,blue-greens , greys textured by the flow of the paint and possible oil water interactions, blend into the blues and whites of the reflecting water.

Andre Derain  1880-1954 Expressionist image of the Thames

Barges on the Thames 1906   sourced on line Dec 2014 from: http://www.leedsartgallery.co.uk/gallery/listings/l0083.php

An image which is dependent on bright almost primary colours and a composition involving the overlapping of shapes representing the bridges over the river, ships masts and curled sails, cranes, railings and the shapes of boats. The river is a mixture of light turquoise and contrasting lemon yellow, the bridges a bright ultramarine,the boats and sky shades of a russet-brown with overlying lines in black and greys. The image crowds up on you with the dominant boats and their masts in the foreground disappearing off the bottom of the picture and stretching to the top. The hear bridge stretches across the image in a curved and descending manner from right to left, giving the image a “dizzy” arrangement. The paint is applied with irregular textured brush strokes which add to the feeling of vertigo. I like it because of its power and bravado.

 

 

Research point -portraits that convey mood

Picasso

The old guitarist   ref:http://www.pablopicasso.org/old-guitarist.jsp

The bent position of this emaciated blind old man who seems totally engrossed in the music of his guitar as he sits cross-legged, his upper torso and legs producing a painful distortion as though he is stretched, the colour blue adding to the feeling of desperation and depression and giving the feel of a mournful air emanating from the guitar.

Means by which I feel  this mood is generated:

the colour

the eyes and hence the feeling that the image concentrates on the ears, the prominent ear being directly above the blind eye.

the bent figure , head down in  a state of defeat against the outside but an intense absorption in the music of his life.

The long emaciated fingers which are delicate and precise in their representation

His tattered clothes

The intense light on the old man’s head –does this give him almost a religious feel in his humility.

 

 Rembrandt

The old man with a gold chain: sourced on line September 2014 from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_with_a_Gold_Chain

What mood is produced by this image?

The velvet clothes and gold chain : importance.

The large hat with feather: flamboyance (although may just have been fashion -I bet not many men would wear a hat like that these days)

The dark background against the dark figure makes him seem to be alone, even lonely perhaps in his position of authority, he is cold and seems to emanate little warmth.

Yet his facial expression is sad and distant as though he is cold because he has lost a lot in life??? He wears part of a piece of armour –perhaps an old soldier with memories he has to hide?

 

Fauvist portraits

The Fauvists were a group of artists (whose name means wild animals) who used bright colours applied thickly or in daubs to express both the emotion of the artist and his sitter.  ref:http://www.theartstory.org/movement-fauvism.htm

 Andre  Derain

Title: Portrait of Henri Matisse (1905)  Artist: André Derain    sourced on line September 2014 from:http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/derain-henri-matisse-t00165

Bright primary colours applied in thick short paint laden brush strokes. The image of Matisse with head slightly tilted, smoking a curved pipe uses colour to depict light and form, contrasting the shades of blue purples with yellows and greens and blues with oranges. It does not convey a lot of emotion to me –the colours, being bright could indicate a happiness or vitality but the face of the sitter is relaxed and perhaps slightly smiling.

Means by which I feel  a mood is generated in this picture:

Primarily the softness of the eyes which must be related to the relaxation in the facial muscles as well as the relaxed smoking of his pipe(which is always a symbol of a relaxed individual in my eyes–(having grown up with (mostly) men smoking pipes –they always seemed to fall asleep with them in their mouths and wake when the hot ashes and pipe fell onto their chests–so perhaps the relaxed feel of a pipe comes from my subconscious–it brings back memories of “Hamlet” the tune of “Air on  g-string ” by Bach in the background)

The colours speak of a warm summer evening…hence a good reason to feel relaxed but, by themselves I would have put them more into the opposite mood to relaxation, although they do have a harmony and none are too strident.

 Matisse

The Young Sailor 1906 Henri Matisse

sourced on line September 2014 from : http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1999.363.41

This painting by Matisse in Fauvist colours depicts a wide-eyed young sailor seated nonchalantly on a chair, staring straight at the viewer with one hand behind his head and one on his thigh, almost as if dancing or in a mocking pause. His dark green trousers and blue top and hat are contrasted against a light pink background and the orange brown chair with yellow cushion. His feet resting on the rungs of the chair leave the bottom of the picture. He looks agitated and keen to be on his way perhaps posing for Matisse only to earn a bob or two? His facial features  are quite piercing adding to a certain agitation in  the picture enhanced by  his twisted sinuous pose, which is a typical pattern used by Matisse. The pink background adds to the intensity of his stare as it clashes against his clothes.

The mood of agitation in this picture says “Ive things to do places to go” is thus produced

By the angle and pose, particularly the feet being off the picture

and the clashing colours

 

 German Expressionism

Portrait of a Man   by Erich Heckel  1919    ref:http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/themes/portraits#slide08

This was painted immediately post first world war. The painter used very dull and depressing dissonant colours, black, an olive-green, a grey blue and a dark ochre. The head and shoulders painting depicts a large-headed man who glances out of the picture to the left and clasps his long thin fingers nervously under his chin in an anxious and underconfident fashion. His face is long and haunt, his head oversized reflecting malnutrition and the colours give a feeling of nausea to the image. It clearly reflects how people felt after the first world war.

 

George Grosz

   George Grosz The Poet Hermann neisse 1927

sourced on line Sept. 2014 from: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/george-grosz-the-poet-max-herrmann-neisse-1927

Grosz’s paintings must be those that I dislike more than any other–his distorted, evil people who seem so be crude , images disrespectful of the human condition in a similar manner to Lucien Freud’s.

This twisted man with gnarled fingers locked together on his lap sits at the front of the image  his legs disappearing off the picture, his shoulder hunched as though squeezed into this position, his bald head looking too large for his body and his pouting lips abutting a grey tie making you look twice to see if he is dribbling.

I like the distorted perspective of the background but not the twisted perspective of the figure. The colours are mixtures of grey greens, muted mustards and a bluish brown all of which give a cold dead feeling to the image.

Having said all that the photograph of the poet Herman Neisse does seem to indicate that he did have the physical and psychological characteristics as depicted by Grosz and did sit in a hunched manner in his chair.

Max Herfmann Neisse phot sourced on line from:http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Herrmann-Nei%C3%9Fe