Art and design

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24.09.15 01:41

“So small, she’s clearly overrated!” grunt some tourists who specially came to the Louvre to see the local shrine, the Mona Lisa... The Louvre is the Louvre, but we shouldn’t forget that many famous painters were born in France itself. Let's take a short excursion into the past of this country and remember the best French artists.

The best French artists

Great classicist

Born at the end of the 16th century, Nicolas Poussin enthusiastically adopted the techniques of the masters of the High Renaissance, including the author of La Gioconda da Vinci and Raphael. His paintings often feature biblical characters and mythological subjects (even a cycle of landscapes dedicated to the seasons, which is inspired by the Bible). The Norman Poussin stood at the origins of classicism; his contribution to French art cannot be overestimated. His painting “Rest on the Flight to Egypt” is kept in our Hermitage.

Singer of the gallant era

Antoine Watteau, who was born almost two decades after the death of Poussin, firmly reigned on the “Olympus” of French artists. In his time there was not a single painter in Europe who could compete with him in skill. He lived only 36 years, but managed to leave many masterpieces. Everyday scenes, landscapes, and portraits of Watteau are charming and elegant; he is called the forerunner of the Rococo style. To enter the Academy of Arts, the young man painted two versions of the painting “Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera” (one is kept in Berlin, the other in the Louvre in Paris). The Hermitage acquired several works by the French artist, including the painting “Actors of the French Comedy”.

Gifted landscape painter

A first-class marine and landscape painter, Claude Joseph Vernet, worked in Italy for a long time. The coast of Naples and the mighty Tiber left their mark on his work. The Louvre collection includes “View of the Bridge and Castel Sant’Angelo” and “View of Naples with Vesuvius”, and the Hermitage exhibits “Rocks by the Seashore”, “Morning in Castellamare” and some other masterpieces of the master.

Romantic colleagues

A representative of the romantic movement in art, Eugene Delacroix was born at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries and received a good education. He loved to copy the masterpieces of old masters - and honed his art on them. Eugene was friends with Alexandre Dumas and admired the works of Géricault. Some of Delacroix’s most famous paintings (he often chose historical subjects) are “Freedom on the Barricades” and “The Death of Sardanapalus”.

Another romantic, Theodore Gericault, was only a few years older than Delacroix, but was a great authority for his colleague. Alas, fate gave him a very short life - at the age of 32, the painter fell from his horse and was killed. Theodore preferred large-scale battle scenes, copied Rubens, being a passionate admirer of the Fleming. Even if you haven’t heard the name of this French artist, you’ve probably seen reproductions of Géricault’s masterpiece “The Raft of the Medusa” (this work is the pride of the Louvre).

Eternal Wanderer

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin is better known among us. The post-impressionist saw the onset of the twentieth century, but left quite early: he died at 54 in 1903 in French Polynesia. They say that the genius was ruined by illnesses (the worst of them was incurable leprosy). In his youth, he traveled a lot: Paul served as a simple sailor on a warship, and was a fireman on ships of the merchant fleet. Those impressions, of course, were reflected in the painter’s works. He almost devoted his life to brokerage, but stopped in time and devoted himself to creativity. Even uninitiated people are familiar with the vivid images created by Gauguin, for example, “Woman Holding a Fruit.”

Flying silhouettes

Any of you have heard the expression “Degas Ballerinas”. This French artist, indeed, drew inspiration from ballet schools and rehearsals. His light pastel strokes managed to capture graceful light tilts of the head, pirouettes, bows, jumps - we see this in the impressionist paintings “Dancing Lesson” or “Blue Dancers”. His everyday scenes are also widely known: “Absinthe”, “Ironers”.

Father of Impressionism

Another classic of European painting, Edouard Manet (one of the “fathers” of impressionism), like Degas, loved to depict the life of city dwellers: their walks in the garden or picnics in nature. His portraits are distinguished by their simplicity and artlessness, and at the end of his life he suddenly became interested in still lifes. “Olympia”, “Railway”, “Breakfast on the Grass” are considered world-class masterpieces.

Sentimental and pearlescent

Pierre Auguste Renoir's favorite genre was portraiture. Socialite primps, young innocent maidens, couples in love come to life under the confident brush strokes of the master. Having started as an impressionist, Pierre gradually became disillusioned with him and joined the classicists. His art is sentimental and pearlescent. Look at “Girls at the Piano” or “Spring Bouquet”, the canvases seem to glow from within.

Either a peasant or a thinker...

Paul Cézanne, with his silhouettes in portraits seemingly carved from stone and slightly “smeared” landscapes, is a prominent representative of post-impressionism. Both in his work and in life, he was stingy with emotions, laconic and not very emotional - there was something in him from a peasant, something from a scientist-thinker. It is interesting that his masterpiece “Card Players” is one of the most expensive paintings in the world (in 2012 it was purchased for the collection of the Emir of Qatar for $250 million).

The evil fate of an aristocrat

Last on our list of the very best French artists is poor fellow Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse Lautrec. Why poor guy? Yes, he belonged to an ancient count family, but at the age of 13 and 14 the young man managed to break first the femur of one leg, then the other, because of this they stopped growing. Henri remained a disabled semi-dwarf. The impossibility of making a military career shocked the whole family, and Henri himself was pushed to take up painting. He studied with the masters (he was very fond of the work of Degas and Cezanne), and when he arrived in Paris, he became a regular at cabarets and pubs, became an alcoholic, became infected with syphilis, and died at the age of 37. His graphic works and paintings received recognition after his death. Portraits of the Moulin Rouge artists and prostitutes, to whose services Toulouse Lautrec was forced to resort, are now considered masterpieces.

These are more than pretty pictures, they are a reflection of reality. In the works of great artists you can see how the world and the consciousness of people changed.

Art is also an attempt to create an alternative reality where you can hide from the horrors of your time, or a desire to change the world. The art of the 20th century rightfully occupies a special place in history. The people who lived and worked in those times experienced social upheavals, wars, and unprecedented developments in science; and all this found its mark on their canvases. 20th century artists took part in creating the modern vision of the world.

Some names are still pronounced with aspiration, while others are unfairly forgotten. Someone had such a controversial creative path that we still cannot give him an unambiguous assessment. This review is dedicated to the 20 greatest artists of the 20th century. Camille Pizarro- French painter. An outstanding representative of impressionism. The artist’s work was influenced by John Constable, Camille Corot, Jean Francois Millet.
Born July 10, 1830 in St. Thomas, died November 13, 1903 in Paris.

Hermitage at Pontoise, 1868

Opera passage in Paris, 1898

Sunset at Varengeville, 1899

Edgar Degas - French artist, one of the greatest impressionists. Degas' work was influenced by Japanese graphics. Born on July 19, 1834 in Paris, he died on September 27, 1917 in Paris.

Absinthe, 1876

Star, 1877

Woman combing her hair, 1885

Paul Cezanne - French artist, one of the greatest representatives of post-impressionism. In his work he strove to reveal the harmony and balance of nature. His work had a tremendous influence on the worldview of artists of the 20th century.
Born January 19, 1839 in Aix-en-Provence, France, died October 22, 1906 in Aix-en-Provence.

Gamblers, 1893

Modern Olympia, 1873

Still life with skulls, 1900

Claude Monet- an outstanding French painter. One of the founders of impressionism. In his works, Monet sought to convey the richness and richness of the surrounding world. Its late period is characterized by decorativeism and
The late period of Monet's work was characterized by decorativism, an increasing dissolution of object forms in sophisticated combinations of color spots.
Born November 14, 1840 in Paris, died December 5, 1926 in Jverny.

Welk Rock at Pourville, 1882

After Lunch, 1873-1876

Etretat, sunset, 1883

Arkhip Kuindzhi – famous Russian artist, master of landscape painting. Lost his parents early. From an early age, a love for painting began to manifest itself. The work of Arkhip Kuindzhi had a huge influence on Nicholas Roerich.
Born on January 15, 1841 in Mariupol, died on July 11, 1910 in St. Petersburg.

"Volga", 1890-1895

"North", 1879

"View of the Kremlin from Zamoskvorechye", 1882

Pierre Auguste Renoir - French artist, graphic artist, sculptor, one of the outstanding representatives of impressionism. He was also known as a master of secular portraiture. Auguste Rodin was the first impressionist to become popular among wealthy Parisians.
Born on February 25, 1841 in Limoges, France, died on December 2, 1919 in Paris.

Pont des Arts in Paris, 1867

Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, 1876

Jeanne Samary, 1877

Paul Gauguin- French artist, sculptor, ceramicist, graphic artist. Along with Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh, he is one of the most prominent representatives of post-impressionism. The artist lived in poverty because his paintings were not in demand.
Born June 7, 1848 in Paris, died May 8, 1903 on the island of Hiva Oa, French Polynesia.

Breton landscape, 1894

Breton village in snow, 1888

Are you jealous? 1892

Saints' Day, 1894

Wassily Kandinsky - Russian and German artist, poet, art theorist. Considered one of the leaders of the avant-garde of the 1st half of the 20th century. He is one of the founders of abstract art.
Born on November 22, 1866 in Moscow, died on December 13, 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

Couple riding on horseback, 1918

A colorful life, 1907

Moscow 1, 1916

In grey, 1919

Henri Matisse - one of the greatest French painters and sculptors. One of the founders of the Fauvist movement. In his work, he strived to convey emotions through color. In his work he was influenced by the Islamic culture of the Western Maghreb. Born on December 31, 1869 in the city of Le Cateau, he died on November 3, 1954 in the town of Cimiez.

Square in Saint-Tropez, 1904

Outline of Notre Dame at night, 1902

Woman with a Hat, 1905

Dance, 1909

Italian, 1919

Portrait of Delectorskaya, 1934

Nicholas Roerich- Russian artist, writer, scientist, mystic. During his life he painted more than 7,000 paintings. One of the outstanding cultural figures of the 20th century, founder of the “Peace through Culture” movement.
Born on October 27, 1874 in St. Petersburg, died on December 13, 1947 in the city of Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Overseas guests, 1901

The Great Spirit of the Himalayas, 1923

Message from Shambhala, 1933

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin – Russian artist, graphic artist, theorist, writer, teacher. He was one of the ideologists of the reorganization of art education in the USSR.
Born on November 5, 1878 in the city of Khvalynsk, Saratov province, died on February 15, 1939 in Leningrad.

“1918 in Petrograd”, 1920

"Boys at Play", 1911

Bathing the Red Horse, 1912

Portrait of Anna Akhmatova

Kazimir Malevich- Russian artist, founder of Suprematism - a movement in abstract art, teacher, art theorist and philosopher
Born on February 23, 1879 in Kyiv, died on May 15, 1935 in Moscow.

Rest (Society in Top Hat), 1908

"Peasant women with buckets", 1912-1913

Black Suprematist Square, 1915

Suprematist painting, 1916

On the boulevard, 1903

Pablo Picasso- Spanish artist, sculptor, sculptor, ceramic designer. One of the founders of Cubism. The work of Pablo Picasso had a significant influence on the development of painting in the 20th century. According to a survey of Time magazine readers
Born October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain, died April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France.

Girl on a ball, 1905

Portrait of Ambroise Vallors, 1910

Three Graces

Portrait of Olga

Dance, 1919

Woman with a flower, 1930

Amadeo Modigliani- Italian artist, sculptor. One of the brightest representatives of expressionism. During his lifetime he had only one exhibition in December 1917 in Paris. Born July 12, 1884 in Livorno, Italy, died January 24, 1920 from tuberculosis. Received world recognition posthumously Received world recognition posthumously.

Cellist, 1909

The couple, 1917

Joan Hebuterne, 1918

Mediterranean landscape, 1918

Diego Rivera- Mexican painter, muralist, politician. He was the husband of Frida Kahlo. Leon Trotsky found shelter in their house for a short time.
Born December 8, 1886 in Guanajuato, died December 21, 1957 in Mexico City.

Notre Dame de Paris in the rain, 1909

Woman at the Well, 1913

Union of Peasant and Worker, 1924

Detroit Industry, 1932

Marc Chagall– Russian and French painter, graphic artist, illustrator, theater artist. One of the greatest representatives of the avant-garde.
Born on June 24, 1887 in the city of Liozno, Mogilev province, died on March 28, 1985 in Saint-Paul-de-Provence.

Anyuta (Portrait of a Sister), 1910

Bride with a Fan, 1911

Me and the Village, 1911

Adam and Eve, 1912

Mark Rothko(present Mark Rothkovich) - American artist, one of the founders of abstract expressionism and the founder of color field painting.
The artist's first works were created in a realistic spirit, however, then by the mid-40s, Mark Rothko turned to surrealism. By 1947, a major turning point occurred in the work of Mark Rothko; he created his own style - abstract expressionism, in which he moved away from objective elements.
Born on September 25, 1903 in the city of Dvinsk (now Daugavpils), died on February 25, 1970 in New York.

Untitled

Number 7 or 11

Orange and yellow

Salvador Dali– painter, graphic artist, sculptor, writer, designer, director. Perhaps the most famous representative of surrealism and one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.
Designed by Chupa Chups.
Born May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Spain, died January 23, 1989 in Spain.

Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1946

Last Supper, 1955

Woman with a Head of Roses, 1935

My wife Gala, naked, looking at her body, 1945

Frida Kahlo - Mexican artist and graphic artist, one of the brightest representatives of surrealism.
Frida Kahlo began painting after a car accident, which left her bedridden for a year.
She was married to the famous Mexican communist artist Diego Rivera. Leon Trotsky found refuge in their house for a short time.
Born July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico, died July 13, 1954 in Coyoacan.

Embrace of Universal Love, Earth, Me, Diego and Coatl, 1949

Moses (Core of Creation), 1945

Two Fridas, 1939

Andy Warhole(present Andrei Varhola) - American artist, designer, director, producer, publisher, writer, collector. The founder of pop art, is one of the most controversial personalities in the history of culture. Several films have been made based on the artist’s life.
Born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, died in 1963 in New York.

Art of painting end XIX - XX century

Impressionism

(fr. impressionnisme , from impression - impression)

- The direction in painting appeared in the last third of the 19th century. in France and then spread throughout the world.

Representatives of which sought to develop methods and techniques that made it possible to most naturally and vividly capture the real world in its mobility and variability, and to convey their fleeting impressions.

Representatives: Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Frédéric Bazille and Berthe Morisot.

Claude Monet « Impression, soleil levant ", 1872-73

Symbolism

- appeared at the end of the 19th century as a protest against naturalism and realism.

Gustave Moreau « Hésiode et la Muse », 1891

Features of symbolism

• - rejection of reality;
• - departure from real life, depiction of the mystical, unknown;
• - the problem of personality in the conditions of bourgeois civilization;
• - thirst for inner peace and mental balance;
• - exotic, decorative, symbolic;
• - nostalgia for past times;
• - immersion in an unreal, fantastic world.
• Representatives: Gustave Moreau, Henri Fantel-Latour, Odilon Redon, Puvis de Chavannes, Eugene Carriere, Edgar Maxence, Elisabeth Sonrel.

Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes "The Shepherd's Song" , 1891

Elizabeth Sonrel « Jeune femme aux hortensians ", 1900

Pointillism

• (fr. Pointillism , literally "point", point - dot) is a stylistic movement in neo-impressionism painting that arose in France around 1885, which is based on the manner of painting with separate strokes of a regular, dotted or rectangular shape. It is characterized by a refusal to physically mix colors for the sake of an optical effect (“mixing” on the retina of the viewer’s eye).

Representatives: Paul Signac, Henri Cross, Lucien Pissarro.

Georges Seurat Un dimanche après-midi à l"Île de la Grande Jatte.

Albert Dubois-Pillet « La Merne a laube Sun » , 1899-90

Maximilien Luce Le quai Saint-Michel et Notre-Dameen 1901

Fauvism

style les Fauves (French for "wild animals"), a loose group of the early twentieth century, the artists' canvases were distinguished by seemingly wild brushwork and creaky colors, while their subject matter had a high degree of simplification and abstraction.

Anri Matisse Madame Matisse 1907

André Derain "Barges on the Seine", 1903

Futurism

Literary and artistic movements in art of the 1910s. Calling itself the art of the future, futurism destroyed cultural stereotypes and offered instead an apology for technology and urbanism as the main signs of the present and the future.

Gino Severini « Souvenir de voyage »

Vladimir Evgrafovich Tatlin "Portrait of an Artist", 1914

Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov "Drummers", 1935

Expressionism

(from the French expression - expressiveness) - a movement of Western European art, mainly widespread in Germany and formed on the eve of the First World War. The ideological basis was an individualistic protest against an ugly world, the increasing alienation of a person of collapse, the collapse of those principles on which European culture seemed to stand so firmly.

Artistic techniques: rejection of illusory space, desire for a flat interpretation of objects, deformation of objects, love of sharp colorful dissonances, a special coloring containing apocalyptic drama.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner "Two Women in the Street" 1914

There are two periods in expressionism: before the First World War and after.

• First or early period. The first period includes the work of German artists Paul Klee, Alfred Kubin and Oskar Kokoschka, the associations “Bridge”, “Blue Rider”.
• Second period: expressionism of the period of the First World War and in the post-war years.

OTTO DIX . PORTRAIT OF SYLVIA VON HARDEN , 1926

PAUL KLEE . WARNING SHIPS, .1917

Cubism

• the most influential artistic movement of the 20th century.

Cubism launched the avant-garde and revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and infused related movements into music, literature, and architecture.

The founders were Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Later Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris joined.

Pablo Picasso "Avignon girls", 1907. The first work of cubism

Georges Braque The Park at Carrières-Saint-Denis, 1909

Cubism. Sculpture

Raymond

Duchamp-Villon Le chat , 1913

Cubism Orphism or Orphic

(a term coined by the French poet Guillaume Apolinaire in 1912) an offshoot of Cubism, which focused on pure abstraction and bright colors, influenced by Fauvism.

Frantisek Kupka " MADAME KUPKA BETWEEN VERTICALS ", 1911

Robert Delaunay Femme Portugaise 1915

Cubofuturism

– a local trend in Russian art (painting and poetry), which arose under the influence of cubism. The main works were written in the period 1911-15.

The works presented are semi-objective compositions made up of cylindrical, cone-, flask-, shell-shaped hollow volumetric colored forms, often having a metallic sheen.

Lentulov A.V. "St. Basil's Cathedral", 1913

Kazimir Malevich "Cow and Violin", 1913“Logic has always put a barrier to new subconscious movements, and in order to free oneself from prejudices, the current of alogism was put forward,” the author wrote about this picture

Suprematism

- (from Latin supremus - highest, highest) - a direction of avant-garde art, the creator, main representative and theorist of which was Kazimir Malevich.

In Malevich’s understanding, Suprematism is the highest stage in the development of art on the path of liberation from everything extra-artistic, on the path of the ultimate identification of the non-objective as the essence of any art. In this sense, Malevich considered primitive ornamental art to be suprematist (or “supremacist”).

Kazimir Malevich

"Peasant Women in Church", 1913

"Suprematism", 1915

Purism

(Latin purus - pure) - a movement in French painting of the 1910-20s.

Purists strove for a rationalistically ordered transfer of stable and laconic objective forms, as if “cleansed” of details, to the depiction of “primary” elements. The works of purists are characterized by flatness, smooth rhythm of light silhouettes and contours of similar objects.

Amédée Ozanfan " LE PICHET BLANC ", 1926

Amédée Ozanfan " MATERNITY ", 1941

Amédée Ozanfan " VOILIER ", 1963

Neoplasticism

• a type of abstract art.

Created in the late 20s. Dutch painter Piet Mondrian and other artists of the “Style” association.

The main feature of neoplasticism was the use of expressive means. To construct a form, only horizontal and vertical lines are allowed. Intersection at right angles is the first principle. Later, a second one was added to it, which, by removing the brushstroke and emphasizing the plane, limits the colors to red, blue and yellow, i.e. three primary colors to which you can only add white and black.

Piet Mondrian

“Composition with a lattice”, 1919

"Composition with red and blue", 1938

One of the most ardent admirers of his talent was the great Yves Saint Laurent, it was him who created the fall-winter collection of 1965-1966. This collection included famous Mondrian dresses- simple dresses

without a collar and sleeves made of knitted fabric, which had a decor in the form of large colored cells - “quotes” from the paintings of the famous artist who in the 1960s. came back into fashion again.

Dadaism is an artistic movement of the European avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century.

Georg Grosz later recalled that his Dada art was intended as a protest "against this world of mutual destruction."

According to Hans Richter, Dada was not art: it was “anti-art.”

Francis Picabia Dance at the source (1912)

1921 – Jean Crotty held the first exhibition of Dada works at the Salon des Indépedants in Paris. Jean Crotti « A ttentive aux voix interieures" 1920

Surrealism

A cultural movement that began in the early 1920s and is best known for its visual artwork and writings. The goal was to "resolve the previously conflicting conditions of dream and reality."

André-Aimé-René Masson Pedestal Table in the Studio , 1922

Man Ray La Fortune , 1938

René Magritte La Voix des airs, 1931

In 1947, the International Surrealist Exhibition took place at Galerie Maeght, Paris - the main post-war exhibition of surrealist artists One of the works: Jacques Herold Personnages surrealistes-1947

Abstract expressionism

The current arose in the USA in the 1940s. and represented mainly by the work of artists of the so-called New York School.

Following surrealism, abstract expressionism continued the “liberation” of art from any control of reason and logical laws, setting as its goal the spontaneous expression of the artist’s inner world

In a fast-paced environment, artists often resorted to dripping. This expressive method of painting was considered as important as the work itself, so the process of creating a painting often took place in public.

Jackson Pollock "Autumn Landscape", 1950

Willem de Kooning: STILL LIFE, 1945

Mark Rothko "White Center", 1955

Tachisme

(French Tachisme, from Tache - stain) - French style of abstract painting of the 1940s-60s. It is painting with spots that do not recreate images of reality, but express the unconscious activity of the artist.

Jean Dubuffet “Arab palm trees” 1948 . Louvre

Nicolas de Stael "Improvisation", 1948

Lyrical abstraction – an artistic movement born in Paris after World War II.

Pierre Souiages

« LITHOGRAPHIE », 1957

Camille Bryen « Heperile ", 1951. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Center Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Some art critics looked at the new abstraction as an attempt to try to restore the image of artistic Paris.

The 20th century is the era of the establishment of avant-garde values.

Jean Dubuffet actively supports "outsider art"(literally raw art): which is divided into several directions:

• art of the mentally ill;
• folk art - any product of practical craftsmanship and decorative skill, as a rule, embodies traditional forms and social values;
• Intuitive Art/Ghost Art - Images of a spiritual nature or religious nature.
• extreme art - refers to artists on the edges of the art world;
• naïve art: the term usually referred to untrained artists who aspire to "normal" artistic status, i.e. they have a much more conscious interaction with the mainstream art world than outsider artists do.

Pierre Vuitton (1880 - 1962), French artist. Shell-shocked in the First World War, Vuitton abandoned his previous life. After several stays in sanatoriums and mental hospitals, he moved to Paris in 1920, making the acquaintance of several artists in the Parisian bohemian scene, including Dubuffet, Cocteau, Picasso, de Chiricot, Picabia.

Op art or optical art

(a term coined in 1964 by Time magazine) is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions. Op art works are abstract with many more familiar pieces.

When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrations, patterns, or alternatively, swelling or deformation.

Victor Vasarly- founder of op art

Neo-expressionism is a style of late modernist or early postmodernist painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s. Neo-Expressionists were sometimes called Neue Wilden("The New Wild"). It is characterized by intense subjectivity and rough handling of materials.

Neo-expressionism developed as a reaction against conceptual art and minimal art.

Robert Combas » Saint-Sébastien » , 1991

Hervé Di Rosa « Concerto Media », 1984.

Pop Art -(English abbreviation for popular art) - a movement in the fine arts of Western Europe and the USA in the late 50s-60s. In fact, this direction replaced traditional fine art with the demonstration of certain objects of mass culture or the material world.

Richard Hamilton “What makes our homes today so different, so attractive?” (1956) - one of the very first works of pop art

Hyperrealism

(English: Hyperrealism - super-realism; other names - superrealism, photorealism, cold realism, radical realism) is an artistic movement in painting and sculpture that arose in the USA in the 1960s and spread in the 1970s.

A style in painting and sculpture based on a photo-realization of an object.

Don Eddie

Richard Estes

Chuck Close "Linda", 1976

Ralph Goings "Ralph's Lunch", 1982

The French art school at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries can be called the leading European school; it was in France at that time that such art styles as Rococo, Romanticism, Classicism, Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism originated.

Rococo (French rococo, from rocaille - a decorative motif in the shape of a shell) - a style in European art of the 1st half of the 18th century. Rococo is characterized by hedonism, a retreat into the world of idyllic theatrical play, and a predilection for pastoral and sensual-erotic subjects. The character of Rococo decor acquired emphatically elegant, sophisticated forms.

François Boucher, Antoine Watteau, and Jean Honoré Fragonard worked in the Rococo style.

Classicism - a style in European art of the 17th - early 19th centuries, a characteristic feature of which was an appeal to the forms of ancient art as an ideal aesthetic and ethical standard.

Jean Baptiste Greuze, Nicolas Poussin, Jean Baptiste Chardin, Jean Dominique Ingres, and Jacques-Louis David worked in the style of classicism.

Romanticism - a style of European art in the 18th-19th centuries, the characteristic features of which were the affirmation of the intrinsic value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the depiction of strong and often rebellious passions and characters.

Francisco de Goya, Eugene Delacroix, Theodore Gericault, and William Blake worked in the style of romanticism.

Edouard Manet. Breakfast in the workshop. 1868

Realism - a style of art whose task is to capture reality as accurately and objectively as possible. Stylistically, realism has many faces and many options. Various aspects of realism in painting are the baroque illusionism of Caravaggio and Velazquez, the impressionism of Manet and Degas, and the Nynen works of Van Gogh.

The birth of realism in painting is most often associated with the work of the French artist Gustave Courbet, who opened his personal exhibition “Pavilion of Realism” in Paris in 1855, although even before him, artists of the Barbizon school Theodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, and Jules Breton worked in a realistic manner . In the 1870s. realism was divided into two main directions - naturalism and impressionism.

Realistic painting has become widespread throughout the world. The Itinerants worked in the style of realism with a strong social orientation in Russia in the 19th century.

Impressionism (from the French impression - impression) - a style in art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, a characteristic feature of which was the desire to most naturally capture the real world in its mobility and variability, to convey one’s fleeting impressions. Impressionism did not raise philosophical issues, but focused on the fluidity of the moment, mood and lighting. The subjects of the impressionists are life itself, as a series of small holidays, parties, pleasant picnics in nature in a friendly environment. The Impressionists were among the first to paint en plein air, without finishing their work in the studio.

Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Georges Seurat, Alfred Sisley and others worked in the style of impressionism.

Post-Impressionism is an art style that emerged in the late 19th century. Post-Impressionists sought to freely and generally convey the materiality of the world, resorting to decorative stylization.

Post-Impressionism gave rise to such art movements as expressionism, symbolism and modernism.

Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, and Toulouse-Lautrec worked in the post-impressionist style.

Let's take a closer look at impressionism and post-impressionism using the example of the work of individual masters of France in the 19th century.

Edgar Degas. Self-portrait. 1854-1855

Edgar Degas (years of life 1834-1917) - French painter, graphic artist and sculptor.

Starting with historical paintings and portraits that were strict in composition, in the 1870s Degas became close to representatives of impressionism and turned to depicting modern city life - streets, cafes, theatrical performances.

In Degas's paintings, a dynamic, often asymmetrical composition, precise flexible drawing, unexpected angles, and active interaction between figure and space are carefully thought out and verified.

E. Degas. Bathroom. 1885

In many works, Edgar Degas shows the characteristic behavior and appearance of people, generated by the peculiarities of their life, reveals the mechanism of professional gesture, posture, human movement, his plastic beauty. Degas's art is characterized by a combination of the beautiful and the prosaic; the artist, as a sober and subtle observer, simultaneously captures the tedious everyday work hidden behind the elegant showmanship.

The favorite pastel technique allowed Edgar Degas to fully demonstrate his talent as a draftsman. Rich tones and “shimmering” strokes of pastel helped the artist create that special colorful atmosphere, that iridescent airiness that so distinguishes all his works.

In his mature years, Degas often turned to the theme of ballet. Fragile and weightless figures of ballerinas appear before the viewer either in the twilight of dance classes, or in the spotlight on the stage, or in short minutes of rest. The apparent randomness of the composition and the impartial position of the author create the impression of spying on someone else's life; the artist shows us a world of grace and beauty, without falling into excessive sentimentality.

Edgar Degas can be called a subtle colorist; his pastels are surprisingly harmonious, sometimes gentle and light, sometimes built on sharp color contrasts. Degas's style was remarkable for its amazing freedom; he applied pastels with bold, broken strokes, sometimes leaving the tone of the paper showing through the pastel or adding strokes in oil or watercolor. Color in Degas's paintings arises from an iridescent radiance, from a flowing stream of rainbow lines that give birth to form.

Degas's late works are distinguished by the intensity and richness of color, which are complemented by the effects of artificial lighting, enlarged, almost flat forms, and cramped space, giving them an intensely dramatic character. In that

period Degas wrote one of his best works - “The Blue Dancers”. The artist works here with large patches of color, giving primary importance to the decorative organization of the surface of the painting. In terms of the beauty of color harmony and compositional design, the painting “Blue Dancers” can be considered the best embodiment of the theme of ballet by Degas, who achieved in this painting the utmost richness of texture and color combinations.

P. O. Renoir. Self-portrait. 1875

Pierre Auguste Renoir (life 1841-1919) - French painter, graphic artist and sculptor, one of the main representatives of impressionism. Renoir is known primarily as a master of secular portraiture, not devoid of sentimentality. In the mid-1880s. actually broke with impressionism, returning to the linearity of classicism during the Ingres period of creativity. A remarkable colorist, Renoir often achieves the impression of monochrome painting with the help of subtle combinations of values, similar in color tones.

P.O. Renoir.

Like most impressionists, Renoir chooses fleeting episodes of life as the subjects of his paintings, giving preference to festive city scenes - balls, dances, walks (“New Bridge”, “Splash Pool”, “Moulin da la Galette” and others). On these canvases we will not see either black or dark brown. Only a range of clear and bright colors that merge together when you look at the paintings from a certain distance. The human figures in these paintings are painted in the same impressionistic technique as the landscape around them, with which they often merge.

P. O. Renoir. Portrait of actress Zhanna Samary. 1877

A special place in Renoir’s work is occupied by poetic and charming female images: internally different, but externally slightly similar to each other, they seem to be marked by the common stamp of the era. Renoir painted three different portraits of the actress Jeanne Samary. In one of them, the actress is depicted in an exquisite green-blue dress against a pink background. In this portrait, Renoir managed to emphasize the best features of his model: beauty, lively mind, open gaze, radiant smile. The artist’s style of work is very free, in places to the point of carelessness, but this creates an atmosphere of extraordinary freshness, spiritual clarity and serenity. In the depiction of nudes, Renoir achieves the rare sophistication of carnations (painting in the color of human skin), built on a combination of warm flesh tones with sliding light greenish and gray -blue reflections, giving a smooth and matte surface to the canvas. In the painting “Nude in Sunlight,” Renoir uses primarily primary and secondary colors, completely excluding black. Color spots obtained using small colored strokes give a characteristic merging effect as the viewer moves away from the picture.

It should be noted that the use of green, yellow, ocher, pink and red tones to depict skin shocked the public of that time, unprepared to perceive the fact that shadows should be colored, filled with light.

In the 1880s, the so-called “Ingres period” began in Renoir’s work. The most famous work of this period is “The Great Bathers.” To build a composition, Renoir began to use sketches and sketches for the first time, the lines of the drawing became clear and defined, the colors lost their former brightness and saturation, the painting as a whole began to look more restrained and colder.

In the early 1890s, new changes took place in Renoir's art. In a painterly manner, an iridescence of color appears, which is why this period is sometimes called “pearl”, then this period gives way to “red”, so named because of the preference for shades of reddish and pink colors.

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin (life 1848-1903) - French painter, sculptor and graphic artist. Along with Cezanne and Van Gogh, he was the largest representative of post-impressionism. He began painting in adulthood; his early period of creativity is associated with impressionism. Gauguin's best works were written on the islands of Tahiti and Hiva Oa in Oceania, where Gauguin left the “vicious civilization.” The characteristic features of Gauguin's style include the creation on large flat canvases of static and contrasting color compositions, deeply emotional and at the same time decorative.

In the painting “Yellow Christ,” Gauguin depicted the crucifixion against the background of a typical French rural landscape, the suffering Jesus is surrounded by three Breton peasant women. The peace in the air, the calm submissive poses of women, the landscape saturated with sunny yellow color with trees in red autumn foliage, the peasant busy with his business in the distance, cannot but come into conflict with what is happening on the cross. The environment is in sharp contrast to Jesus, whose face displays that stage of suffering that borders on apathy, indifference to everything around him. The contradiction between the boundless torment accepted by Christ and the “unnoticedness” of this sacrifice by people is the main theme of this work by Gauguin.

P. Gauguin. Are you jealous? 1892

Painting “Oh, are you jealous?” belongs to the Polynesian period of the artist’s work. The painting is based on a scene from life, observed by the artist:

on the shore, two sisters - they have just swam, and now their bodies are stretched out on the sand in casual voluptuous poses - talking about love, one memory causes discord: “How? Are you jealous!".

In painting the lush full-blooded beauty of tropical nature, natural people unspoiled by civilization, Gauguin depicted a utopian dream of an earthly paradise, of human life in harmony with nature. Gauguin's Polynesian paintings resemble panels in their decorative color, flatness and monumentality of composition, and generality of the stylized design.

P. Gauguin. Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? 1897-1898

The painting “Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?" Gauguin considered it the sublime culmination of his reflections. According to the artist’s plan, the painting should be read from right to left: three main groups of figures illustrate the questions posed in the title. The group of women with a child on the right side of the picture represents the beginning of life; the middle group symbolizes the daily existence of maturity; in the extreme left group, Gauguin depicted human old age, approaching death; the blue idol in the background symbolizes the other world. This painting is the pinnacle of Gauguin's innovative post-impressionist style; his style combined a clear use of colors, decorative color and composition, flatness and monumentality of the image with emotional expressiveness.

Gauguin's work anticipated many features of the Art Nouveau style that was emerging during this period and influenced the development of the masters of the “Nabi” group and other painters of the early 20th century.

V. Van Gogh. Self-portrait. 1889

Vincent van Gogh (life 1853-1890) - French and Dutch post-impressionist artist, began painting, like Paul Gauguin, already in adulthood, in the 1880s. Until this time, Van Gogh successfully worked as a dealer, then as a teacher in a boarding school, and later studied at a Protestant missionary school and worked for six months as a missionary in a poor mining quarter in Belgium. In the early 1880s, Van Gogh turned to art, attending the Academy of Arts in Brussels (1880-1881) and Antwerp (1885-1886). In the early period of his work, Van Gogh wrote sketches and paintings in a dark, painterly palette, choosing as subjects scenes from the life of miners, peasants, and artisans. Van Gogh's works of this period (“The Potato Eaters”, “The Old Church Tower in Nynen”, “Shoes”) mark a painfully acute perception of human suffering and feelings of depression, an oppressive atmosphere of psychological tension. In his letters to his brother Theo, the artist wrote the following about one of the paintings of this period, “The Potato Eaters”: “In it, I tried to emphasize that these people, eating their potatoes by the light of a lamp, were digging the ground with the same hands that they extended to the dish; Thus, the painting speaks of hard work and the fact that the characters honestly earned their food." In 1886-1888. Van Gogh lived in Paris, visited the prestigious private art studio of the famous teacher P. Cormon throughout Europe, studied impressionist painting, Japanese engraving, and synthetic works by Paul Gauguin. During this period, Van Gogh’s palette became light, the earthy shade of paint disappeared, pure blue, golden yellow, red tones appeared, his characteristic dynamic, flowing brush stroke (“Agostina Segatori in the Tambourine Cafe,” “Bridge over the Seine,” "Père Tanguy", "View of Paris from Theo's apartment on Rue Lepic").

In 1888, Van Gogh moved to Arles, where the originality of his creative style was finally determined. Fiery artistic temperament, a painful impulse towards harmony, beauty and happiness and, at the same time, fear of forces hostile to man, are embodied either in landscapes shining with sunny colors of the south (“The Yellow House”, “The Harvest. La Croe Valley”), or in ominous , images reminiscent of a nightmare (“Cafe Terrace at Night”); dynamics of color and stroke

V. Van Gogh. Night cafe terrace. 1888

fills with spiritual life and movement not only nature and the people inhabiting it (“Red Vineyards in Arles”), but also inanimate objects (“Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles”).

Van Gogh's intense work in recent years was accompanied by bouts of mental illness, which led him to a mental hospital in Arles, then to Saint-Rémy (1889–1890) and to Auvers-sur-Oise (1890), where he committed suicide. The work of the last two years of the artist’s life is marked by ecstatic obsession, extremely heightened expression of color combinations, sudden changes in mood - from frenzied despair and gloomy visionary (“Road with Cypresses and Stars”) to a tremulous feeling of enlightenment and peace (“Landscape in Auvers after the rain”) .

V. Van Gogh. Irises. 1889

During the period of treatment at the Saint-Rémy clinic, Van Gogh painted the cycle of paintings “Irises”. His flower painting lacks high tension and shows the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e prints. This similarity is manifested in the highlighting of the contours of objects, unusual angles, the presence of detailed areas and areas filled with a solid color that does not correspond to reality.

V. Van Gogh. Wheat field with crows. 1890

“Wheat Field with Crows” is a painting by Van Gogh, painted by the artist in July 1890 and is one of his most famous works. The painting was supposedly completed on July 10, 1890, 19 days before his death in Auvers-sur-Oise. There is a version that Van Gogh committed suicide in the process of painting this painting (going out into the open air with materials for painting, he shot himself in the heart area with a pistol purchased to scare away flocks of birds, then independently reached the hospital, where he died from the loss blood).

French artists are the greatest names in world culture. Moreover, it was the French masters who broke all records for prices for works of art at the best auctions. It’s only a pity that their authors received only posthumous fame, but such are the vicissitudes of the fate of many creators of beauty.

Artists of France: the phenomenon of French impressionism

So, the most expensively sold, and therefore the most famous and recognized in the world, were the French artists of the 20th century. Even people completely inexperienced in the fine arts know their names. First of all, these are impressionist artists. France was unfriendly to them during their lifetime, but after death they became real national pride.

The greatest artists of France, who have received worldwide recognition, fame and fame in wide circles, are Pierre Renoir, Edouard Manet, ‎Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet And Paul Gauguin. All of them are representatives of the most famous and best-selling movement in painting of the twentieth century - impressionism. Needless to say, this movement originated in France, and it most fully reveals its place and significance in the history of world art. The amazing combination of original technique and great emotional expressiveness fascinated and continues to fascinate connoisseurs of beauty around the world in impressionism.

Artists of France: the formation of French painting

But French artists are not only about impressionism. As elsewhere in Europe, painting here flourished during the Renaissance. Of course, France cannot boast of giants like Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael, but it still made its contribution to the common cause. But Italian influences were too strong for the formation of an original national school.

The first great French artist who completely freed himself from external influences was Jacques Louis David, who is rightfully considered the founder of the national pictorial tradition. The artist’s most famous painting was the famous equestrian portrait of Emperor Napoleon entitled “Napoleon at the Saint Bernard Pass” (1801).

Artists of 19th century France working in a realistic direction are, of course, less famous than the Impressionists, but they still made a tangible contribution to the development of world painting. But the 20th century became a triumph of French art, and Paris became the center of the muses. The famous district of the French capital Montmartre, which gave shelter to dozens of poor artists who later became part of the golden fund of the heritage of mankind, including the names Renoir, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Picasso And Modigliani, became a center of fine arts, and still attracts crowds of tourists. Famous contemporary French artists also traditionally live in Montmartre.