Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin

For the 2008/2009 school year, I was assigned to research Jean Chardin and his painting "The Young Draftsman" for my ART GOES TO SCHOOL chapter. Well, I did my oral report for the other AGTS ladies as we enjoyed our pot luck desserts and munchies. Just as well put my report to work and publish it on my art blog...

Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin (1699-1779)

Chardin was born to a middle class family in Paris. His father was a cabinet maker who specialized in billiard tables, especially for the royal family and other nobles. His father wanted him to join the family business but Chardin wanted to be an artist.

The Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture was the dream school that received royal patronage and was the dictator of fashion for artists. The other place to study art was the Academie de Saint-Luc but it was an embarrassment to attend St. Luc’s, a place that was the butt of many jokes by the snobbish students from the Acadmie Royale. In 1724 Chardin’s father (unfortunately) enrolled him into Saint Luc’s. Chardin grumbled for years about his father’s choice of schools. Studying there gave Chardin a feeling of inadequecy that stayed with him the rest of his life.

Chardin received painting lessons from history painter Pierre-Jacques Cazes who, at the time, was little known and has been described as knowing very little about art. Cazes’ students never used real objects as subjects and Cazes did not have any money for hiring models so he made his students copy his own works. Luckily Chardin also took painting lessons from history painter Noel-Nicholas Coypel and eventually assisted him with details on his works. Working under Coypel was good for Chardin's development as an artist.

Four years later Chardin applied to the Academie Royale, presenting them with two paintings – “The Ray” and “The Buffet.” He was accepted into the Acedemie Royale as a “painter of animals and still lifes.”

In 1737, at the age of 38, Chardin started exhibiting at The Salon, regularly attending their meetings some 50 years, and eventually serving as counselor, treasurer, secretary and, in 1761, manager of exhibitions.

King Louis XV gave him a pension and invited him to live in the Louvre. In the 1770’s, Chardin’s eyesight started to fail. He switched to using pastels, mostly creating portraits of himself and his 2nd wife who was well-off financially and able to take good care of him in his final years.

World and Art History

With the 1715 death of King Louis XIV of France, the Duke of Orleans served as regent until young Louis XV was old enough to take over the crown. During this transition period the formalities of Louis XIV’s court were relaxed and the atmosphere become more casual. Social life was moved out of the court and into the salons and the “grand and formal” Baroque period of art died out.

Rococo (“rock and shell”) art took over starting in France and spreading to the rest of Europe. Having rejected the rigid lifestyle of Louis XIV’s rule, the French aristocracy entered into a life of personal amusement. This era became extreme and society was eventually condemned as being tasteless, frivolous and morally corrupt. Neoclassicism took over, timed with The French Revolution of 1789.

The essence of Rococo art is light and fanciful. This period of art featured fanciful curves, assymetry and lots of details in architecture, excess fabric and ornamentation in fashion, and soft colors, strong glaring highlights, and light-hearted emotions, sometimes erotic, in the subject matter of art.

Chardin the Artist

Although Chardin lived during the Rococo period he is not considered a Rococo artist. He was greatly influenced by the Flemish and Dutch painters and preferred subjects such as still lifes and genre paintings of people doing simple, everyday tasks as well as their style of laying down the paint. When he presented his two paintings to the Royal Academie, they thought the pictures were Flemish and that Chardin was a representative of their maker. The Flemish (and Chardin’s) style is characterized by the use of thickly-layered brush strokes and thin luminous glazes.

Chardin is considered a master of still life. He put a lot of thought into arranging his subjects and depicting them realistically. He uses just a few colors, usually earth colors and prefers a soft diffusion of light. The glazes on his paintings allow light to bounce within their layers and eventually out to create a glow.

Chardin started painting game/meat and fruit in a kitchen setting. His friends teased him by saying he was the “painter of dead animals.” He later added pots, pans and containers into his subject matter. Later in life he painted portraits (upon the dare of a fellow artist to give it a try). Some historians attribute the switch to painting children and mothers with children to the deaths of family members. (Chardin lost his 1st wife at a young age and later, their toddler daughter. Years later his adult son committed suicide. Chardin also lost a young daughter from his 2nd marriage).

One obstacle Chardin could never overcome was the snobbery from “grand genre” artists whose works were from literature, history or religion and considered superior and more moral over other subjects. This hampered recognition and lucrative commissions for Chardin. Despite the negative attitudes and occasional comments of the snobbish “grand genre” painters, Chardin’s friends and colleges supported and defended him as a great artist and he did receive patronage from high society and royalty (it just didn’t pay as well as the more respected “grand genre” works).

Chardin liked to work with oil paints and pastels. If a work was popular, he’d paint duplicates and also had assistants make affordable engraving copies for sale. Middle class people were moving up in society and buying art. The middle class class was a great market for Chardin.


Chardin's works were not dated so it is difficult to place them on a timeline. Historians have to use references from diaries of others and exhibition information to date them as well as chronicle Chardin’s life. Contrary to what the academies taught, Chardin did not make numerous sketches before doing the final painting. He liked to jump right into the painting process.

Historians say that Chardin’s work was a great influence upon Manet, Cezanne, Soutine, Braque, Morandi and Lucien Freud. Matisse once said he greatly admired Chardin’s work. One of his more famous students is Jean-Honore Fragonard who later became a famous Rococo artist.

Today Chardin’s works are in the Louvre and other major museums. His paintings have always been highly valued. Although not worth much originally, his pastel works are now also highly valued.




The Painting - "The Young Draftsman" aka "Young Man Sharpening Pencil"

I searched a database that tells where original works of art are located. I found that this picture is in The Louvre. The database info is in French so I translated it using babelfish.yahoo.com. The real title of this picture is “Le jeune dissinateur” which translates literally into “The Young Draftsman.” (I do not know why some sources are calling it “Young Man Sharpening Pencil”). The subject is a young man/teen using a knife to sharpen his pencil. Pencil sharpeners weren't invented about 10 years after this picture was created. If you turn the painting sideways counter clockwise you can see that he is drawing a profile of a man with a long beard. The draftsman has his hair pulled back into a long ponytail with a bow and is wearing a tricorner hat, popular throughout Western Europe and The American Colonies during the 18th century. It later fell out of favor, timed with the American and French Revolutions. The painting is about 31.5 inches high by 25.6 inches wide. The estimated painting date is 1737 when Chardin was 38 years old. Above is the actual picture in its frame at The Louvre.

Joan Miro, Catalan Artist

Today I attended a lecture by Dr. Nancy Heller at the Philadelphia Museum of Art about Joan Miro. Dr. Heller was a great speaker - she shared alot of knowledge, slides of Miro's works and her wonderful sense of humor with us. Here is a recap of my notes plus some images I found on the internet:

First, Joan Miro is a man, not a woman named "Joan." Miro is from the Catalan region of Spain and his first name is a variation of Juan or John. It is pronounced zhu (long u)-on (just like the word). The accent is on the second syllable. It almost sounds like saying "shoe on."

Miro grew in in Barcelona which was one of the art centers of the world, Paris and New York being the others. Although he took business classes to please his practical parents, he took art classes at night for himself. He did have a job in the business field but he was miserable, took some time off, and never went back. His mind was made up and no one was going to change it. He was going to be an artist!

Those who knew him described him as quiet and genial. This was quite the contrast to his works of art which are "wild and crazy." Miro once said he was better at emotionally reacting to his subject matter, than at depicting it realistically. He enjoyed avant garde art and experimental poetry. Going against convention appealed to him.




Miro was a "modernist" artist ahead of his time. His works were surreal and cubist before these styles became "movements." He was a painter, sculptor and illustrator. He also worked with bronze, ceramics and tapestries as well as designed sets and costumes for theater and ballet with Max Ernst. He literally has thousands of works to his credit. Miro's Spanish contemporaries were Salvadore Dali and Pablo Picasso. He was befriended by Ernest Hemingway.




Some people refer to his work as being "abstract" but he argued otherwise, stating every single subject and detail is derived from nature. That being said, "surrealism" is a better word for his works. It might be hard to figure out what something is sometimes, but everything exists in our world - it's just very distorted in form and color.

Most of Miro's works can be described as surreal or cubist. Sometimes he combined both styles in one picture. Sometimes he even threw in a little realism. Miro was consistently inconsistent. He loved to mix things up. He also loved to fill pictures with lots of detail and sometimes letters or words.




Miro's works were mostly fun and playful but during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's his works are a little bit scary, even monsterous looking. When this war broke out, Miro was visiting Paris. He was unable to return home for several years. During the 1960's he went through a "minimalist" phase and, in the late 1970's, he worked with the theater designing sets, costumes, brochures and posters.



Because Miro owned cats, they appear quite often as subjects or details within a picture. There are also alot of dogs and birds in his works. His Catalan heritage also shows up in his pictures - the landscape, the barretina, a droopy-topped hat popular in Catalan, shows up sometimes as a hat, sometimes as a design. Miro also liked to depict the Sardana dance - just look for a circle of people holding hands somewhere in a painting. The bright yellow painting (above) has the letters "Sard."





Here is a nice video of Miro's works plus some wonderful music. Sit back and enjoy!




Here's a video of the Sardana dance, a popular folk dance:



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ART VS.CRAFT

Which is it?

Art and Craft are two different things! What some people call their "art" program is really a craft program and is misleading if you are looking for a way to express yourself where there are no rules, no wrong answers, where you can be free and creative. Most projects are somewhere between the two, in that shade of gray area.

Pure art lets you do whatever you want. In not-so-pure art you might be told what media to use (clay, canvas and paint, a pile of misc stuff and some glue) but you can do whatever you want with these items. If you are told what the finished item must resemble, then you are moving even closer toward that blurry line that separates art from craft. Hey, everyone- lets make flowers out of colored construction paper! (but how the flowers look are up to each person's imagination).

If you are told the steps to follow and what your project must look like (and everyone else's will look just like yours) than it's definitely a craft. Reimagine the flower project where you are told how many stems and what their sizes are, to follow a pattern for the leaves and petals and what colors to use for the petals - now it's 100% craft which leaves absolutely no room for imagination or creativity.

To cover all bases, most classes or teachers call their program "Arts and Crafts." If you are okay with either then sign up. If you are definitely looking for a more pure art or pure craft, then ask questions before signing on with the program!

If a child has difficulty with following directions and steps, then put them in a pure art program where they can do no wrong. Success is guarenteed! Self-esteem shall soar! AND NEVER EVER ask "what is it?" Just gush on about how cool the end result is, compliment the colors chosen, the shapes that evolved. This is best for the younger kids as well as anyone who has difficulty making something look the way it's "supposed" to look.

Alot of us have it drilled into our heads that our art has to "look" like something. That's why we have problems with abstract art. And many of us have it in our heads that the item has to look photo realistic. Freud would allow you to blame this on your parents, grandparents and society as a whole. I can blame my brainwashing on my dad. I'm all grown up now but he still looks over my shoulder (figuratively).

Just remember that before cameras, portrait painting ruled the earth. Kings and Queeens wanted to be remembered. Realism was demanded. It took society quite awhile to accept landscapes and still lifes, let alone the craziness of abstract art. It's gonna take some time for some of us to snap out of that mindset.

CELEBRITY ARTISTS

Alot of celebrities (actors, singers, musicians, athletes, rich people with nothing better to do) have tried their hands at photography, painting and drawing. Some are very good! And some, well, let's just say their work isn't my cup of tea. Some of their art is very serious and straightforward, some is very modern and perhaps even downright strange, and some is cute and whimsical.

Anyway, I am very impressed with Jane Seymour as an impressionist artist. She even did a scene from one of my favorite movies, "Somewhere in Time." I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a print or two from her collection. I am also impressed with the works by Eve Plumb (Brady Bunch's middle sister) and Grace Slick.

Check out http://www.poplifeart.com/ for a listing of celebrities and you can view some of their works.

Let me know who you like and who tanks.

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STYLES AND ERAS IN ART HISTORY

There are so many different periods and styles of art!

It started with the cave paintings from the Stone Age. Yep, those Geico guys had a soft side! Did you know cavemen invented the first airbrush? They blew powdered earth of various colors through reeds to make stencils of their hands. Cool, huh! The caves of Alta Mira, Spain are impressive. You can visit but there's a 3-year waiting list! Check the caves out at http://www.showcaves.com/english/es/showcaves/Altamira.html

My daughter is big-time into Japanese animation. Back when hubby and I were little ones Gigantor, Kimba and Astro Boy were all the rage. Now the tv's constantly showing Naruto and we've been renting Digi Carat from Netflix. I believe the BIG EYES were originally inspired by Disney's style. Nowadays we think of Japan when we see cartoons with big eyes. Here's some basic info on "anime" (an-im-may): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime Any of you experienced Bobobo? OMG is all I can say about that one!

Click on this link to get a list of all the periods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_periods

How to Make it Look 3D

Okay - here are a few tricks to put up your sleeve:

Overlapping & Shadows- set up a group of objects that are close together and overlap each other. Pick out where the light will be coming from and then put in some shadows. See the Cezanne example below.

Atmosperic Perspective - as objects get farther away try this: their colors become pale/less strong and start to resemble to background color (bluish mountains against the sky, reddish mountains during the sunset). There is also less of a dark/light contrast between the fartherest away objects and the background. Finally - closer items will have definite details. Farther items have less detail. There's a photo of mountians below.

Vanishing Point - parallel lines get closer together to form a V way out in the distance/horizon. This can be the lines of a street, railroad tracks, any object that is both close and far. Check out the photo below of railroad tracks.

Perspective - make far away objects smaller than like objects that are close.