History & The Arts : Delacroix

Lesson plan :

Introduction

   1 Overview
   2 The Death of Sardanapalus
   3 Delacroix – classic or Romantic?
   4 The Romantic artist and the creative process
   5 Romantic themes and subjects in Delacroix’s art
   6 The Oriental and the exotic
   7 Conclusion

Hi,
For my introduction, I wanted to show you the famous "La liberté guidant le peuple" in 1830. In fact, when I think to Delacroix it's the first painting I imagine.

This morning, I wanted to send the image on the forum BUT I was surprised…..When I wrote the painting title, I found lot of parodies !!

So I'm going to introduce the subject with humour

The first I saw, was the Playmobil topic !


This one is more "romantic" with the "chiaroscuro".


The second was…for the Astérix lover.


My favourite is this one the Plantu's drawing…(After Charlie Hebdo….so sad...     )



With a Picasso's vision :


To finish this introduction with serious, I didn't know that Delacroix was always ill at ease with the "romantic perception" of him.

First, the lesson is going to establish how Delacroix developed his artistic practice. The objective is appreciate the impact on his art.

Interesting that Playmobil are more sexually discreet.

Admin wrote:Interesting that Playmobil are more sexually discreet.

Ya !!! In fact, a few years ago, Playmobil has published books about "real or famous" history fact or real painting with playmobil figurines.



For example, I love this one : "Les Menines" by Velasquez. (I saw this so wonderful painting in Prado museum in Madrid this last summer after my Erasmus and before to go back to France           )



But, Playmobil met some problems...when Adam and Eve were represented... Lots of people was "shocked" because it was not "normal" to show that.



Moreover, People was "shocked" when Playmobil created a pregnant woman....it's a representation too "sexual" according to the parents...

Hi,
In this course,
The plan is :
- identify those aspects of Delacroix’s art that qualify it as ‘Romantic’
- understand the interplay between classicism and Romanticism in Delacroix’s art
- appreciate the nature of Delacroix’s fascination with the Oriental and the exotic even before he visited Morocco

First, I was suprised because this article implied that Delacroix was not so clearly on the side of romanticism....for me Delacroix is a Romantic painter !!! It's what I find so difficult in the history and art... It's not "step by step" or "exact date", it's a little bit like this or like that....The main problem is that Néoclassical and Romantic movment began in the same period but with 2 differents approaches.

At the origin, neclassical born in reaction to the Rococo and recommend a style with noble  moral values like justice, honour and patriotism. The source are the classic Antiquity but the movment suffer from too much academicism. I think to JL David with his "Serment des Horaces".


At the opposite, romantic style try to find more modernity than Antiquity : more " impetuosity" than "strictness". Romantic painters didn't fixe "law" but wanted to be considerate like creative and inventive person.

The lesson remind us Delacroix’s work with specifically Romantic aspects like the "Oriental and exotic as a means of unleashing and expressing of his personal desire".
I like in this lesson because first, it try to establish how Delacroix developed his artistic thought and values to appreciate "better" the full impact on his art.

Next week next lesson !

Hi,
At first, I wanted to present the lesson like every week.....but today,.... I am so sad .....I have found the internship of my dream !!!!!!!....Work with a french association about my memory subject "revalorisation des centres villes" (sorry I don't know what the english for this). But it's not possible with the date march to august.        

So I don't want to give lesson today, all people said me....Delacroix ???....we don't care !!!!! Delacroix is not internet, our society, our daily......so "has been"....Here we do Marketing !! and you.. you chose Delacroix, so strange girl....you love this kind of art ????

I want to say "yes", I love the art in general, I feel intangible sensation like happiness or sadness....

For example, the first time I saw "Guernica", I felt so sadness in my brain....


Each time I see this painting, I think....all this suffering....for....what ? I think about all this dead person and people who lost person they loved.
In fact, in Spain I thank a lot to Picasso. In Madrid, I wanted to see Guernica but it was not in Prado museum...next time !!!! I learned that lot of town wanted to have Guernica (Guernica city because it's their story, Malaga city because it's where Picasso born and Madrid city because it's the capital !)
When I went to Almeria after my erasmus....I thank to Guernica because this town suffer a lot from the Spanish Civil War (the city was "bombed" 52 time !!!!) This city still has the "scar" of this massacre. Lot of poverty and kind of "slum".

The most "scheming" for me, it's that Spanish people "use" Picasso a lot as "celebrity". All a business was developped with his renowned where Picasso is a "spanish figure". But in fact, Picasso spent 3/4 of this life in France !!! He discovered Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, Degas and Gauguin and created (so important) the "cubism" movement with Braque.

I wanted to speak about my favorite.....Monet... and about Vermeer....but next week !!!!

Marion, you are like a box of chocolates.

Hi !!!!
This day it's LESSON !!

I know....boring.....BUT this time I try to do a new approach ; before it was one week lesson and one week personal topic. But, this week it's one part lesson and the other part personal experience. I know that I have only one student and reader. Don't worry Mister Admin (don't tell to the other) you are my favourite !

In this part, "The romantic and artist process" :
I prefered to quote the lesson part that seems for me important and compare with my french approach about Delacroix. Someting important for me, we have to know that Delacroix (like Géricault) had a classic formation...

First, I realise that I didn't speak about "La mort de Sardanapale", (sorry, I can't write french painting title in english because it's so weird for me). It was destabilizing for me to read "Liberty Leading the People", to be honest the first time I saw the title, I didn't real understand...

The quote part :
"Delacroix speaks of the fact that the soul is inevitably trapped within the physical body. But there was another force that Delacroix found to be of essential importance to the artist : intelligence or reason."
"Delacroix does not abandon the notion of intelligence or reason so dear to the Enlightenment. The Romantics broke some of the boundaries"
"The moral clarity and certitudes of Neoclassicism, born of the Enlightenment and perpetuated in revolutionary ideology, have given way to a futile, self-defeating hedonism."

For me, Delacroix is characterised more by the notion of romantic lyrism than the notion of intelligence and reason. It's more, for me, an "action painter" : like an excess of theatricality, communicative enthusiasm and his virtuosity (I am sorry if I am not clear but it's difficult to explain).

[i]
The term "ennui" had been used in medieval French to signify profound sadness, disgust and personal anguish from the seventeenth century onwards it was used to describe a vaguer, less powerful form of melancholy or listlessness.
= very funny ! Because nowaday the term "ennui" it's less important or strong. it's interesting that english people note that a medieval French could be different.

His ‘spleen’, another word used by the Romantics to suggest a lack of interest in life, or melancholy humour....
= Ya, I advice you to read "Les fleurs du Mal" by Baudelaire, a particular "description" about the spleen feeling.

Delacroix was always proud of the daring approach he adopted in Sardanapalus
= Next lesson topic !

Personal part :
I wanted to speak about all painter !! Magritte, Monet, Vermeer, Géricault, but today it's Schiele !!!
Why Schiele ? because the last week I bought a book not about Schiele but by Schiele. (Don't tell to mister Rampnoux that I prefer read art book whereas I have so many articles, books, magazines about marketing...only marketing....semiotic.....only semiotic and packaging...only packaging to read for the master !!)

About Schiele : the beautiful title is "Je peins la lumière qui vient de tous les corps", I try to translate "I am painting the light which comes from all body".
It's a small book, very touching and sincere, so human, it's letter and poems written by the artist (who dead very young). We can feel all his "unease". Each time I see a Schiele painting, I am very sad, because we can see a young boy feel ill at ease with yourself ony made by skin and bone.


Only sad thing !! the last week Guernica, the week Schiele...the next subject will more funny !![/i][/i][/i]

Heavy for a poor uneducated English teacher

Hi !!!!
Don't panic Mister Admin !!!!
It's hard for me too, there are lots of specifics words in art. In fact, I took this topic because it was written "level 1 introductory". But, I realise that we have to have art knowlegde to follow this lesson....I help me with a wonderful book by Sister Wendy Beckett, a British nun and art critic.

I will not speak about La mort de Sardanapale, it's complicated for me, I admit, I don't like so much this painting. I am surprised because, in history of art, we spoke more about "La liberté guidant le peuple" painting more than "La mort de Sardanapale" painting. And in this lesson is the opposite ! I asked for my mom if she known "La mort de Sardanapale" painting, but, in fact, she didn't know.

Delacroix, "broke free from the constraints of the morally" : with the gothic style, a tast for the grotesque, like "the satanism of the painting". This caracteristics made Delacroix an avant-garde artist, a modern artist in its historical context. (the context is very important). According to this lesson, Delacroix made satirical drawings to criticize the monarchy and a reaction to the bourgeois establishment.

Be brave Mister Admin, the next week is the last lesson, title 6 "The Oriental and the exotic".

My personal experience, today is "Impression soleil levant" by Monet :
I thank about this painting because in my drawing lesson, I have just finish my last drawing (I can't show it, because it's too personal , and I draw badly). And I would like to reproduce the Monet's painting with the pastel sec technical.



In fact, I think the painting is my favourite painting of the world !!!
I saw it when I was in Paris at Musée Marmottan Monet. It was a small painting but when I came in the room ; I saw only this painting ! I don't remember of this other. The sunlight of this painting has totally "capture" my attention ! I know it's stupid.....but, I stayed a long moment just looking this painting, it was a so beautiful moment..

See you next week !

Although I too can see the beauty of this painting, I am only a simple man and I prefer scenes that more directly reproduce "reality". My love is oil paintings of the sea, particularly sea with movement, waves even stormy seas. I don't particularly like still-life or even portraits and impressionism is not my cup of tea, even though I admit to liking some surrealist paintings and "futuristic" paintings.

Admin wrote:Although I too can see the beauty of this painting, I am only a simple man and I prefer scenes that more directly reproduce "reality". My love is oil paintings of the sea, particularly sea with movement, waves even stormy seas. I don't  particularly like still-life or even portraits and impressionism is not my cup of tea, even though I admit to liking some surrealist paintings and "futuristic" paintings.

Thank for sharing with me this informations
I can advise you the realistic painter G.Courbet, I love this artiste. (He painted the famous "L'Origine du monde" but I am not going to show this painting, I don't want to create a polemic!).
I tried the last year to draw a sea scene, but in fact, it's very difficult to reproduce !! especially sea with movement and waves ! For me, "undelimit" things or areas like sky and things with movement like flame (fire) or waves are the most difficult things to reproduce.
A friend said me that, in our life, it exists things that we never get bored : clouds in the sky, stars in the night, waves in the beach and snowflakes falling. We have to just watch and enjoy this simple moment.

Gustave Courbet, La mer orageuse, (1870)

Hi !!!
Today is last lesson !!!
I'am not going to explain in detail because there are lots of repetitive things and that I have already said or evoke in this lesson.
I will speak about a new topic that, I think, I don't approach : the animal representation on Delacroix' painting. Like this article says, "Delacroix characterised his genius as that of a wild animal, as the energy and exoticism of such creatures ". When I read this, the first animal I imagine is the lion (Don't ask me why, I don't know !)....and also the horse :
And I found this on internet !


We can feel the "sublime terror" of the scene, for me Delacroix sublimes the kind of situation.

Marion.LM wrote:Hi !!!
Today is last lesson !!!
I'am not going to explain in detail because there are lots of repetitive things and that I have already said or evoke in this lesson.
I will speak about a new topic that, I think, I don't approach : the animal representation on Delacroix' painting. Like this article says, "Delacroix characterised his genius as that of a wild animal, as the energy and exoticism of such creatures ". When I read this, the first animal I imagine is the lion (Don't ask me why, I don't know !)....and also the horse :
And I found this on internet !


We can feel the "sublime terror" of the scene, for me Delacroix sublimes the kind of situation.

I am sorry, I had not the time to finish my lesson because we had to go to the english course.
In the painting we can feel all the energy that the tiger give to attack the horse and also all the energy that the horse give to save its life "the Romantic fury" We can see on the tiger face that it has to kill the horse to have its dinner. The difference between this two proportions (big horse and small tiger) is very frightenning.

I'm sorry, I don't have conclusion..... I advise you the "glossary" for more informations about art terms. I don't have personal experience for this end of lesson.....yes...I can only advise you : don't afraid of seeing exhibitions that you don't want to see and go ! It's the best way to stay in the same spirit...and "closed minded". (I am the first to do that !)
I will tell you somthing : a few year ago, there was the "Vermeer exhibition in Paris". First, I said me...Vermeer....it's old....I don't like....it's not the impressionism.... (I remember of this exhibition because it was in my M1 interview, I spoke about my personal interests and the last exhibition I saw (Vermeer): and Mrs De La Ville had the reaction as me...Vermeer...old.... see and see again....well...I was agree with her... In fact I went to the musuem to see this exhibition : It was.....so....wonderful !!! And the term is not up to the power of this painting....

I think is very important to be open....but I know it's also difficult.....

Have a nice holidays !!!!