Composition - examples of note

Mike McCarty · 11-12-2006, 04:13 PM

And a couple more for the heck of it ...

This first is obviously not the full composition. I would sure like to see the full image, this slice sure looks interesting.

The Magic Circle 72x50
Windswept 45x31

Allan Rahbek · 11-13-2006, 08:24 PM

Mike,
I think that Waterhouse's strength is his sense of decorative composition. He lived in the period when Art Nouveau was popular and I guess that was his luck. The persons are types, all young and beautiful, a sort of idealized, without too much personal character.

Mike McCarty · 11-13-2006, 08:48 PM

I think you're right about that Allan.

Quote:

He painted always like a scholar and a gentleman, though not like a great artist."

I still don't understand why they had to say such things in a man's obituary. In all my years I've seen a lot of good, bad and ugly people die, I've listened to many lives explained, and I don't remember hearing such harshness spoken in print after a person's death. When you're alive then all is fair game, but it just seems like a small thing to show a man's life work some respect on the occasion of his death.

Allan Rahbek · 11-13-2006, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike McCarty

I still don't understand why they had to say such things in a man's obituary. In all my years I've seen a lot of good, bad and ugly people die, I've listened to many lives explained, and I don't remember hearing such harshness spoken in print after a person's death. When you're alive then all is fair game, but it just seems like a small thing to show a man's life work some respect on the occasion of his death.

Mike,
Maybe it was jealousy. If one is popular in his own time he will experience both pro's and contra's. His supporters would buy his art as long as he lived even though new trends had taken over. The critics would be frustrated and forget the good manners.
One of our own fine artists, Kr

Mike McCarty · 11-17-2006, 11:01 PM

Here is "El Jaleo" by John Singer Sargent, 1882, 93" x 138"
With various studies of the same.

Tom Edgerton · 11-18-2006, 03:23 PM

Mike--

Leapfrogging backward, thanks for the Waterhouses (Waterhice?) (Waterhai?). He's always been a favorite though I disagree a little, respectfully, with Allan. For me, JWH's people are part of the style of the day, but a little less anonymous and stylistically codified than some of the other academic contemporaries like Alma-Tadema and Rosetti, et. al. Waterhouse's subjects look more like individuals to me, and less like types.

I can't quite find the words, but when I look at Waterhouse, I see a little looser approach to the technique, and a spirit that--for lack of a better term--I can only call "soul." He seems a little less constrained by the academic approach.

This is a really vague critique, I know.

As for "El Jaleo," well, Jeez, you gotta think Sargent tossed it off to needle every painter that would ever follow.

Thanks--TE

Enzie Shahmiri · 11-18-2006, 10:06 PM

Someone please explain why the lady in red in the back row. Why do you think he chose such a saturated red, rather then toning it down?
You think it has a purpose, if so what?

I love to see the sketches that precede the painting. It is always great to see how arrangements get changed to better a composition. Too bad there are not many color studies left behind.