Monet (C. Monet 1840-1926) [France]

For the author’s information and painting style, please see here:.com/space/?action_viewthread_tid_3664.html

< p>Oil painting is a foreign type of painting. It has gone through a long development process, but the complete art of oil painting was truly formed in the 15th century. Although China also produced the technology of using oil and pigments as early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, some Western scholars believe that the technology of vegetable oil-based pigments was passed from China to the West. However, Chinese oil painting did not develop, and the art of oil painting was finally formed in Europe.

Oil painting art had not yet appeared in Europe in the fourteenth century. At the beginning, wax and animal glue were used to paint. Because the wax needed to be heated to dissolve for painting, it was called "hot painting". By the time of the medieval handicraft industry With the development, painting technology has also been improved, resulting in the technology of "fresco". Later, it developed into the "tempora" painting method, which is called glue painting and egg powder painting. It was not until the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th century that the Dutch painters Van Eyck brothers discovered that linseed oil and walnut oil were an ideal blending agent based on the experience of their predecessors and after repeated trials and comparisons. Using this kind of oil to mix colors for painting can make the brush strokes smooth when painting, and the paint takes a moderate amount of time to dry on the picture. It is easy to cover and modify many times during the painting process. It is easy to connect when painting, forming rich color layers and gloss, and it dries thoroughly. The final pigment has strong adhesion, is not easy to peel off and fade, and has stable color. These advantages are the technical secrets that the predecessors longed for. As an ideal technique, this new method soon spread throughout the world and became an important painting type worldwide in modern times.

Oil painting uses transparent vegetable oil to mix pigments, and shapes artistic images on cloth, paper, wood boards and other materials that have been used to express the author's style through shapes, lines, light and shade, texture, space and color. Thoughts, Emotions and Aesthetics. Oil painting has extremely strong expressive power and artistic effect. Its rich color changes, transparent and thick layer contrast, the texture produced by endless changes in brushstrokes, and its solid durability make oil painting cover almost all painting genres.

How to appreciate an oil painting

Oil painting occupies an important position in Western painting art. Almost every painting master stands in the forest of art with his exquisite oil paintings. And these exquisite works are like bright stars in the long river of history, illuminating the course of human civilization.

How to appreciate oil paintings? This is a simple yet profound question.

First of all, you should have a general understanding of the development of oil painting. The origins of Western painting can be traced back to the prehistoric era of 30,000 BC. But it was the Italian Renaissance that had a huge impact. During the Italian Renaissance, an important painting school was formed in Florence, the economic and cultural center. This is the Florentine School of Painting. They were led by bourgeois humanistic ideas, applied the results of anatomy and perspective to painting, and changed the medieval flat decoration style into a painting method of concentrated perspective, with light and dark effects, and three-dimensional space. This is a huge of innovation. As a result, many famous painters were produced. The greatest painter of the early Italian Renaissance was undoubtedly Sandro Botticelli. His works are poetic and full of interesting curves. His famous works include "Spring" and "The Birth of Venus".

With the decline of Florence, talented apprentices trained in the workshops of the ancient Florentine school of painting flocked to Rome. Leonardo da Vinci is the eldest among them. His paintings focus on showing the inner spiritual world of the characters without clear outlines. The brilliance and trembling of the atmosphere, the vividness of the characters' expressions, and the softness of the characters' skin reproduced by the smooth method make him a master admired by the art world to this day. Raphael was able to create new and perfect expressions of traditional themes, and he painted each story to the point where it was difficult to make any modifications. Michelangelo's paintings have prominent images, and his desire to reach a frantic level of power fascinates the painters who came before him. Therefore, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo are known as the "Three Masters" of the Renaissance.

The only city in this period that developed its own style was Venice. Giorgione, Titian, and Tintore created a Venetian painting style full of passion, joy, and bright colors, which is in sharp contrast to the rational paintings of the three masters.

The great achievements and inventions of Italian artists during the Renaissance had a profound impact on the people north of the Alps. Dürer and Hans Holbein the Younger were the greatest German painters of this period. Dürer, like Leonardo da Vinci, was deeply interested in all aspects of the world, and the Germanic spirit was a central theme in his art.

El Greco is the first world-class master of Spanish painting. His paintings are full of mystical temperament and seem to indicate a certain impulse for change in the European painting world.

As the center of the European painting world, Italy has dominated Europe for hundreds of years, and academicism was her last contribution to the European painting world. The Bologna Academy founded by the Karachi brothers has formed a complete art education system with the purpose of "absolute rationality". Academic style is absolutely "classical style".

Since the 17th century, the French painting world began to rise and gradually became the dominant force in European painting. Poussin became the greatest French painter of this period with his classicist style.

In the early 18th century, due to the promotion of French King Louis XIV, a relaxed, sensual and hedonistic Rococo style became mainstream in the painting world and had an important influence on painting throughout Europe. The main representative of this genre is Boucher. With the advent of the French Revolution, neoclassicism and romanticism began to rise. Neoclassicism is an effective form used by the revolutionary government to express its political ideals. As the Great Revolution deepened, the need for contemporary themes became increasingly urgent, and the ancient themes that had previously dominated the painting scene naturally gradually withdrew from the painting world. Beginning in the 1830s, realism began to appear, represented by Courbet and Millet, especially Gainsborough's "lyrical landscape paintings", which are fresh, poetic, romantic and unforgettable.

From 1860 onwards, European art began a very subtle period, and many new arts began to appear. The most eye-catching and decisive influence on the subsequent development of Western art is the French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism art. The light and color of Impressionism brought a breath of fresh air to the painting world at that time. If you don’t understand the general situation of the Western painting world at that time, you will not be able to understand why Impressionism has such a great influence, nor can you properly interpret the rough brushwork of Impressionist painters. appreciate. Post-Impressionism also produced famous masters such as Cezanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh, and had a profound impact on later Picasso, Dali, and modern painting art.

The development of Western painting is a vast history, and it will take time to fully understand it. Here, we just give a brief review of the development of Western painting, hoping to start your appreciation. To a little auxiliary effect.

Secondly, have a general understanding of the author himself. The work can be said to be the author's visual autobiography and a concrete expression of the author's attitude towards life and aesthetic values, which is the so-called "painting is like the person". Raphael was one of the three masters of the Renaissance. His father was a court painter, and he had been in the court since childhood. This special background made him highly sensitive to formal beauty. His "School of Athens" almost represents his All humanist ideas, Western art historians believe that it was Raphael who gave the Renaissance art form the most classic, thorough and perfect expression; David was born and grew up in the most turbulent era in France, and the influence of his family made him He was initially inclined to the Rococo style and showed extreme enthusiasm for politics. His "Death of Marat" and "The Coronation of Napoleon" all express David's political orientation; and the well-known Van Gogh went through twists and turns. His "Starry Night" brought out the artist's inner mania. The expression is vivid and vivid; there are also some painters who integrate their love for their wives, children, and families into their brushstrokes... Without an understanding of the author's life, it is difficult to have a correct understanding of the work.

Third, have a basic understanding of the background of the work’s creation. We found that many famous works may not seem special today; many craftsmen's copies of the master's works even surpass the master's original work. But the master is a master, and the craftsman is a craftsman. There is a huge difference between the two. The reason why Leonardo da Vinci is great is that all the characters painted by painters before him had stiff movements and blunt lines. However, only Da Vinci humanized the characters and created a soft atmosphere in his works that even later painters could not produce. On the right; Millet and Courbet are both representatives of realism. They both deliberately depicted peasants, because they lived in the era of great turmoil in France, and their depictions of peasants were in line with the times. Require. But even so, their peasant-themed works are very different, which is also determined by their different personalities and growing environments. The Impressionist works seem to have nothing special today, but at that time At that time, the painting world was dominated by the academic classics, and any works that did not meet the requirements of the "Salon" were rejected. The Western painting world was lifeless. It was the light and color of the Impressionists that blew a breath of fresh air into the painting world and touched people. The active thinking of people inspired the emergence of many schools in the future; Seurat's innovation in painting techniques also gave him a place among modern painting masters... Without an understanding of the background of the creation of the work, it is impossible to deeply appreciate the uniqueness of the work. of subtlety.

Fourth, reading more is a key process to improve your appreciation ability. In art, beauty comes first. Without beauty, everything in the world will become haggard and withered. Therefore, no matter how you understand a work, you must first be able to see its beauty. Grasping "beauty" is indeed a difficult problem when appreciating art, but it is precisely because "beauty" is infinite and rich that art becomes extraordinary. Full and charming. While improving your own artistic accomplishment, looking at more works is a simple way to improve your appreciation ability. Only by comparing can one know the advantages and disadvantages. The more you read, the more you will naturally have your own experiences. Just like a gourmet, who eats all over the world, the more he eats, the more he becomes a gourmet.

Appreciating a painting is a seemingly simple process. The knowledge possessed by the appreciator makes the oil painting itself an elegant art. In the palace of art, beauty is the most important thing. As long as you see the beauty in the painting and feel excited, you will appreciate it. Appreciation is a matter of benevolence and wisdom, and cannot be unified and standardized. It is individual differences that allow hundreds of competing artists to flourish. Therefore, go see it with all your heart and appreciate it with all your eyes, as long as you discover the beauty. In fact, this is the most important thing.