Edouard Manet, A Matador, Realism, 1866-67, Oil on Canvas
IDENTIFY & DESCRIBE
This is the first full-length painting done by Edouard Manet
in France after he saw bullfighters on a recent trip to Spain. He displayed
this painting along with about 20 other Spanish-themed works at a solo
exhibition in 1867 in Paris. The painting is now located in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York City.
ANALYZE
The painting has a very nice balance to it. The bullfighter
is standing tall and straight and is in the middle of the painting. The hat in
the top left and the red cape in the bottom right balance out the piece
beautifully. The eye moves effortlessly through the painting starting first
with the sincere face of the bullfighter. The features of his face are very
pleasant and warm. You then notice the gold inside the cap in his right hand
and the way it highlights the direction he is looking in. The eye then moves
down towards the soft pink sash around his waist and right down to the bold red
of the cape in his left hand. The cape drapes down past his bright white
stockings and your eye ends with his black shoes. You notice every detail of
his clothing along the way as see how the artist added beautiful and delicate
touches. The proportions in the painting are very well done and the overall
unity of the piece is exquisite. Nothing seems out of place or like it does not
belong there. The bullfighter himself seems an average height and the cape he
holds is in proportion with the rest of him, so it looks like it belongs. He
seems to be standing in natural light as a shadow is cast behind him. The
background fades to the back and so there is no need for immense details there,
the bullfighter alone is extremely detailed and so the background can be plain
like it is. Manet uses light and dark very well in the background to create
dimension. He uses white highlights on the jacket of the bullfighter to create
the illusion that the jacket is possibly adorned by shiny beads and gems. His
use of color is very nice as the main suit is a soft grey with hints of blue.
He adds a blue tie and compliments the ensemble with a soft pink sash. The
shoes and hat are a solid black which would be traditional wear but then the
inside of the cap has an intense gold coloring to it for some pizzaz. The
bright red cape, while also traditional, is an additional pop of color on the
opposite side of the painting to again balance out the entire work of art.
INTERPRET
Edouard was fascinated with Spanish art. Since he painted
this when he was back in France again after his trip to Spain, he had someone
pose for him while he painted what he remembered from his trip. The matador is
supposed to be Cayetano Sanz, a famous bullfighter he saw on his trip. Manet
was influenced by other artists around this time like Diego Velazquez and
Fransisco de Goya. The entire bullfight collection he painted stemmed from
seeing “La Tauromaquia” by de Goya. He is quoted as saying: “One of the most
beautiful, most curious, and most terrible spectacles one can see is a bull
hunt. On my return, I hope to put on canvas the brilliant, flickering, and at
the same time dramatic appearance of the corrida I attended.”
JUDGEMENT
I really liked this particular painting. As I was scrolling
through all 4 different art collections to find the perfect piece, this one
stood out to me. I love its simplicity and how the artist was able to make the
bullfighter look like a man who was confident in his abilities. His clothing
and appearance are very realistic to the actual bullfighters I have seen on tv
or in images. From the beautifully adorned jackets with their hand-sewn
sequins, to the finely polished black shoes that he wears. The confidence shown
on the bullfighter looks very genuine as he is greeting his audience. He seems
to revel in his surrounding him as he stands tall and listens to the roaring
crowd ready to see him take action. I love the simplicity of the sfumato
background as nothing more is needed. The bullfighter alone is so beautiful
already that adding to the background would have distracted from the detail of
the man himself. As I researched Edouard Manet, I was impressed to find out
that he rubbed shoulders with Monet and Degas.
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William Johnson, Cagnes-Sur-Mer, Harlem Renaissance, 1928-29, Oil on Canvas
IDENTIFY & DESCRIBE
This painting was created by African American artist William
Johnson while he lived in Paris. Johnson is best known for landscapes and
portraits and the way he moved through different styles of painting during his
career. “My aim is to express in a natural way what I feel, what is in me, both
rhythmically and spiritually, all that which in time has been saved up in my
family of primitiveness and tradition, and which is now concentrated in me.”
Johnson lived in Denmark and Norway as well as France and painted a lot of the
beauty that surrounded him. 60 works of art have been attributed to him and
after scrolling through all the available art for this assignment, this one
stood out to me.
ANALYZE
Johnson uses his entire canvas brilliantly by leading your
eye along the path that starts in the bottom corner all the way to the lone
tree on the hill in the top left. He balances the piece out perfectly that way
as he tries to keep everything in perspective but has painted the scene as
almost viewed through a fish-eye lens which distorts the reality a little. You
can clearly make out the homes, streets, and trees, but they are slightly bent
to create a more whimsical animated look. Nothing is really out of proportion,
and everything seems to fit perfectly like a normal small town in the
countryside. The individuals walking the long road into town seem to belong
there and don’t look out of place. The warped homes in the small town are all
slightly different, which gives a nice variety to an otherwise boring
landscape. The coloring has stayed consistent which brings unity to the whole
piece. He uses natural light to give the buildings and street shadows to have a
more 3D effect as well. His soft use of color gives the painting a dreamy
vacation feel and the look of a place you would want to take a walk to. Even
though the painting style is a little more animated, it is very recognizable as
a small town with trees and bushes and people living there.
INTERPRET
The painting of this idyllic town in the French Riviera is a
scene that has been painted many times by many different artists and yet they
are all so different. Johnson actually painted this scene multiple times as he
lived in that town and each time it has been different. He enjoyed living there
and is quoted as saying: “Here the sun is everything… I am not afraid to
exaggerate a contour, a form, or anything that gives more character and
movement to the canvas.” To be able to paint what he saw but add his own twist
makes him progressive in my mind, he was not afraid to make his work his own.
He took in images of a beautiful, picturesque fishing village and added his own
modern touch to it. He created his own style of painting by adding some
futurism and expressionism to his work.
JUDGEMENT
The reason I chose this painting over all the other ones
that were available (and I scrolled through them all until this one finally
caught my eye) is that the scene is familiar to me. I grew up in Europe and
scenes such as these remind me of summer vacations. Walking along paths that
lead to small towns in the countryside, simply adorable homes on the side of
the road, the smell of the ocean not far away. The added whimsy to the painting
is what makes me smile. The distorted homes with the gentile curves and the
animated feeling of the whole painting. I am reminded of a simple life away
from the hustle and bustle, the chaos that is all around us, and how easy it
would be to get lost there and to not have a care in the world. The simple
colors that he used create a calming effect with the light touches of orange to
compliment the blue sky and ocean in the distance. This is a place I would love
to visit and get lost in.
COMPARISON:
COMPARATIVE IDENTIFICATION/DESCRIPTION
These 2 paintings were created by 2 different artists who
saw the world completely differently. One is realism and could easily be a
photograph with the amount of detail the artist put into his work, and the
other is a skewed version of reality and with more loose brushstrokes. Both
works of art were created with passion as both artists really enjoyed the type
of art they put out. The matador was an obsession of Manet and so he painted
anything related to this with passion. Johnson lived in a beautiful small
fishing village and so his landscape art was influenced by the beauty he saw
around him each day. They both used the same medium of Oil on canvas even
though Johnson had painted this particular scene before but on burlap before.
He painted the scenery around his home often and each time it was slightly
different. The colors of both paintings are muted and not too vivid and bright.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Both pieces of art are beautifully balanced but in two
different ways. The landscape scene covers the entire painting nicely while the
matador is just a single figure that still looks balanced in its space. My eye
moves seamlessly through both paintings as both artists add small details that
keep you enthralled and looking for more. The small pops of color in the
Matador and the 2 figures walking along the road in the landscape both make me
want to explore more of each of the paintings. The colors in both paintings are
soft and muted which is probably what attracted me to them in the first place.
The lighting as well in both pieces is done beautifully to make the matador
look realistic and the landscape look dreamy.
COMPARATIVE INTERPRETATION
Both these pieces are very different when it comes to their
interpretation. The Matador piece to me shows power, sophistication, and
grandeur while the landscape is softer, muted, and simple. The portrait is
perfect in the sense that the artist wanted to convey the awesomeness of this
matador in all his glory, and he totally achieved that. Landscapes are supposed
to be calming and so Johnson achieved that in this painting even with his
whimsical skewed view of the city.
COMPARATIVE JUDGEMENT
The complexity and amount of detail put into the Matador is
amazing and brilliant. The tiniest details were not overlooked as you can tell
that Manet put everything into this painting. You can see just by looking at it
that he was very passionate about this subject matter and that makes it even
more pleasing to look at. The simplicity of the landscape by Johnson is what
draws my eye. The relaxing notion that I am seeing a small town far away from
trouble and stress is what draws me in and wants me to hang this on my wall. I
am one that looks outside of the box and so the distorted fish-eye view attracts
me to it more. I am a minimalist with a small number of things in my home, but
I could possibly find a place on my wall to hang this. It evokes strong
emotions in me and brings me back to my childhood when life was simpler and
meant more.
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Man_(Manet)
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mane/hd_mane.htm
http://www.artnet.com/artists/william-henry-johnson/
https://www.nysun.com/arts/unpolished-expression/88627/
https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/49444/cagnessurmer;jsessionid=D466ADDA225242F68B04A5AAA47F6B77
