Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Music in the Tuileries Gardens




The painting I have chosen is The Music in the Tuileries Gardens by Édouart Manet. It was painted in 1862 on oil on canvas. Its dimensions are 76.2 x 118.1 cm. Now, it’s located in the National Gallery, London.

Description 

This painting represents many people in a garden, listening to a band playing music. Manet painted some authors, musicians and he included some friends, like Charles Baudelaire, Theophile Gautier, Henri Fantin-Latour, Jacques Offenbach, Manet’s brother Eugène, and he also painted his self-portrait. They are not workers, but bourgeois and members of the Parisian well-off society.

Men show that they are having a good time and women show elegance. Most of the people are standing up talking to each other. There are some women sitting down, taking care of their children, drinking coffee, etc. In the background you can see dark colours such as dark green, brown, black and some details with light green. The brush-strokes build some big trees that create a cosy milieu.

This painting is a little dark, but there are some colors like the blue hats of the women who are sitting down in the foreground. People are real and there are some objects like chairs, which are in clear colours. Manet used colour stains and this technique shocked the society of his time. He tried to represent the clothes and the hair-dresses of the time. This painting shows a little of movement in men, because women are not showing any movement.

Meaning of the work art

Manet’s painting depicts an everyday scene of the modern life.

This key provides a guide to who’s who and an insight into Manet’s social world.



1. Édouard Manet

2. Champfleury

3. Comte Albert de Balleroy

4. Eugène-Cyrille Brunet

5. Possibly Auguste Manet

6. Caroline Brunet

7. Zacharie Astruc

8. Henri Fantin-Latour

9. Valentine Thérèse Lejosne

10. Charles Baudelaire

11. Théophile Gautier

12. Baron Isidore Justin Séverin Taylor

13. Marianne Offenbach

14. Frédéric Bazille

15. Possibly Suzanne Manet

16. Léon Koëlla leenhoff

17. Eugénie-Désirée Manet

18. Eugène Manet

19. Jacques Offenbach

20. Charles Monginot


Why it can be considered a work of art included in this style?

Manet’s paintings show the influence of Frans Hals and Diego Velázquez. He also admired Goya. Manet was the precursor of impressionism and this type of painting required small brush-strokes. The use of light and the theme marked the beginning of modern art. This painting has common features with Renoir, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings.

Bal du Moulin de la Galette is a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He drew inspiration from Manet. He tried to represent a Sunday evening at the Moulin de la Galette, in the district of Montmartre in Paris. The working class’ Parisians are dancing, drinking and eating galettes.



Afternoon in the Tuileries Gardens, by Adolph Menzel, was inspired by Manet when he visited the National Gallery and saw Music in the Tuileries Gardens.




Manet’s painting is considered to be the first impressionist painting. Impressionist artists tried to capture the moment in their paintings, reflect reality not as it was, but as they watched it at a specific moment. Painters used loose brush-strokes and fast colour stains in the background, colour dominated over drawing and they painted mainly in the open air, in a garden, not in the studio.

Comparison other Manet’s works of art 
If I compare this picture with other Manet’s works of art like The Grand Canal of Venice, I can say that my painting has darker colours than the other one. The grand canal of Venice has live colours like blue and white lines of the columns and the blue water and some details with white colour in it. It also represented one boy and my painting has a lot of people. There is one similar feature and it’s that both were paintings in the nature and not inside the studio.



Personal opinion
I like this painting because I like nature and a good milieu. I also like this painting, because I’m a sociable person and I love talking with people and going out with friends.

Sources:

- http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/manets-music-in-the-tuileries-gardens.html

- http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/manet/events-and-resources/key-to-music-in-the-tuileries-gardens-1862,979,MA.html

- http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/edouard-manet/music-in-the-tuileries-garden-1862-1

- http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_m%C3%BAsica_en_las_Tuller%C3%ADas#Estilo

- http://www.wordreference.com

- https://www.google.es/imghp?hl=es&tab=ii

- The class notebook

2 comments:

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Hello Paloma,

Your final mark is 7.5. See you!

Unknown said...

Good painting, origin of impressionism in russian