SUBJECT MATTER
In this painting, the artist is portraying the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The painting is very bright and uses a lot of warm, vibrant colours. I get a feeling of joy and vibrancy of the city of Paris. I think that this painting is trying to portray the way Paris is seen through his eyes as a vibrant and exciting city full of life. He does this by using one of the most recognizable key structures of Paris, the Eiffel Tower.
TECHNIQUE
The artwork is painted using very thin washes of oil paints and uses very precise lines, all with a specific thickness and curve to them. The brushstrokes look to have been done very precisely with a smooth, fluid movement with the paintbrush. The paint seems quite watery yet bold, and it doesn’t seem to seep through the layers of different colours of paints. The subject has been portrayed form an angle that makes it seem very slender and tall. Although the painting is portrayed from a high angle, it doesn’t seem very obvious and there is no way to differentiate the different levels through tone and shading. This makes it seem very flat, but in a positive way. The colours are very vibrant, warm and unrealistic, but this adds a quirky feel to it. There are minimal uses of tonal work in this painting and even so the transition from dark to light is not blended or mixed to create a smooth transition.
ARTIST’S CAREER
Delaunay was born on 12th April 1885 in France. As a young child his parents divorced and he was raised by his uncle who lived near Bourges. He took up painting early in his childhood and by the age of 8 was producing works that were very mature for his age, showing early signs of impressionism. He served a term in the military in 1908 as a regimental librarian, where he met the then-married Sonia Terk, his future wife, who would divorce her husband soon after. In 1909 he travelled to Paris where he created a series of paintings of the Eiffel Tower. A year later he married Terk, they settled in a studio apartment in Paris. They had a son together named Charles Delaunay, who would grow up to be a famous jazz expert.
In this painting, the artist is portraying the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The painting is very bright and uses a lot of warm, vibrant colours. I get a feeling of joy and vibrancy of the city of Paris. I think that this painting is trying to portray the way Paris is seen through his eyes as a vibrant and exciting city full of life. He does this by using one of the most recognizable key structures of Paris, the Eiffel Tower.
TECHNIQUE
The artwork is painted using very thin washes of oil paints and uses very precise lines, all with a specific thickness and curve to them. The brushstrokes look to have been done very precisely with a smooth, fluid movement with the paintbrush. The paint seems quite watery yet bold, and it doesn’t seem to seep through the layers of different colours of paints. The subject has been portrayed form an angle that makes it seem very slender and tall. Although the painting is portrayed from a high angle, it doesn’t seem very obvious and there is no way to differentiate the different levels through tone and shading. This makes it seem very flat, but in a positive way. The colours are very vibrant, warm and unrealistic, but this adds a quirky feel to it. There are minimal uses of tonal work in this painting and even so the transition from dark to light is not blended or mixed to create a smooth transition.
ARTIST’S CAREER
Delaunay was born on 12th April 1885 in France. As a young child his parents divorced and he was raised by his uncle who lived near Bourges. He took up painting early in his childhood and by the age of 8 was producing works that were very mature for his age, showing early signs of impressionism. He served a term in the military in 1908 as a regimental librarian, where he met the then-married Sonia Terk, his future wife, who would divorce her husband soon after. In 1909 he travelled to Paris where he created a series of paintings of the Eiffel Tower. A year later he married Terk, they settled in a studio apartment in Paris. They had a son together named Charles Delaunay, who would grow up to be a famous jazz expert.
In 1914, when World War I caught up to the Delaunay’s they were holidaying in Spain and went to live in Portugal with friends until the end of the war in 1921; they then moved back to Paris. During the WWI period they worked for the Madrid Opera creating costumes. In 1937 at the World Fair in Paris, Delaunay participated in the designs of the railway and air travel pavilions. Two years later World War II began and in an effort to avoid the German forces, the Delaunay’s moved to Auvergne, central France. During this time Delaunay was diagnosed with cancer and as a result of constantly being moved around, his heath deteriorated. He lost his battle to cancer 25th October 1941 in Montpellier, France.
Delaunay’s work throughout his life concentrated on Orphism, whereas his later works showed elements of an abstract influence. His most distinctive methods are using bold colours and an enthusiastic experimentation of depth and tone. He joined a Munich-based group of abstract artists called “The Blue Rider” (Der Blaue Reiter) by the invitation of fellow artist Wassily Kandinsky.
LINKS WITH OWN WORK
I like this artist’s work because he used vibrant bold colours that are very un-naturalistic. This is something that I would like to attempt for my work as it’s a key feature of what I am trying to create. I admire the way Delaunay has made his painting appear flat in a positive way that works for him. I would also like to use the idea of replacing the colours of the subject with un-realistic colours, something that I have seen being used repeatedly in other Fauvist artists I have looked at, e.g. Maurice de Vlaminck.
QUOTES
“Direct observation of the luminous essence of nature is for me indispensable. I do not necessarily mean observation with palette in hand, although I am not opposed to notations taken from nature itself. I do much of my work from nature, "before the subject," as it is commonly called. But what is of great importance to me is observation of the movement of colours.”[1]
[1] http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/delaunay.html
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