Modern Art, Day 3January 25, 2013

18th Century Genre, Landscape, and Still Life

John Singleton Copley, “Mr. and Mrs. Ezekiel Goldthwaite,” 1771o Artist shows their prosperity but doesn’t idealize them (see

wart and fat folds on the woman’s face)

Copley, “Boy with a Squirrel (Portrait of Henry Pelham)”, 1765o characterization of sitter, great demonstration of artist’s

abilityo artist sent painting to Royal Academy to get a show

Copley, “Watson and the Shark,” 1778o May have a political dimension (artist was a Tory):

demonstrates that lack of order or responsibility will lead to bad consequences

o At this point, Copley had moved from Boston to Londono wanted to emphasize contemporary aspects of painting: in

the distance we see Havana harbor, figures wear contemporary clothes, includes a black man to show he is a man of America and part of the New World

o quotes from past art: figure of Watson in the water is based on statue of “Borghese Warrior,” people in boat similar to Raphael’s “Miraculous Draught of Fishes”

o shows meticulous attention to detail in the surface of the shark, but also includes some painterly brushstrokes

Genre Painting

Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, “Blowing Soap Bubbles,” 1739o celebration of ordinary people in their ordinary lives

o genre paintings gained popularity during the 18th century due to the Enlightenment emphasis on ordinary people and the value in them

o not a portrait because we don’t know the name of the sitter, and he’s doing something, not just sitting and looking at us

Chardin, “Saying Grace,” 1740o hard to tell SES of figureso repetition of colors bring your eye all through the compositiono evokes a sense of brightness and order

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, “Broken Eggs,” 1756o pyramid composition—gives picture stabilityo corners, center of pyramid, and its bottom margin have

important clues as to the story o young woman with eggs makes a sub-pyramido broken items signified broken chastityo similarity between oval form of egg basket and oval shape

made by young woman’s armso little boy is like a cupid figure; there’s a bow near him and

he’s trying to put a broken egg back together

o not exactly Rococo, but still shares many Rococo elements (image of pretty, dainty girl)

Greuze, “Village Bride,” 1761o Denis Diderot: first art critic

called painting an answer to his own interest in painting that “would no longer depict debauchery and vice, but rather lead us to virtue”

o mother and sister hangs onto bride’s hand, father casts out his arms to welcome groom, girl in corner has a lapful of grain to feed chickens

o shows strength, stability and goodness of family unit

Greuze, “Emperor Severus Reproaches his son Caracalla for Having Attempted to Assassinate Him,” 1769

o artist got a lot of criticism for trying to paint a non-genre painting

William Hogarth, “Marriage Contract,” 1743-5o first in series called “Marriage a la Mode” that deals with

mismatch in social classes in marriage; merchant class man marries daughter of aristocrat who needs more money

o aristocrat dad has gout due to his rich living, holds parchment with his family tree, window shows construction of a new palatial home for him, but construction has been delayed due to lack of money

o bride and groom aren’t paying any attention to each other; instead, bride is listening to her lawyer Silvertongue

o bride is toying with her ring to suggest she’s not taking the marriage seriously

o artist was strongly nationalistic, and very anti-French: shows groom with mark of syphilis on his face because that disease was known as the French pox

Hogarth, “Tete a tete”o part of “Marriage a la Mode” serieso man on left is household retainer who’s leaving aghast over

the piled up bills

Strong interest in narrative present in British painting