Cathy's Art Diary

Last session of a six week course at the Bishopsgate Institute looking at the art of the 19th century, a period of great changes in art and society. The course is led by James Heard and this session looked at symbolism at the end of the period. We began by looking at the growth of Art Nouveau and its influence throughout Europe and in all genres. I particularly interested to be introduced to the idea of the difference working in bronze made to sculpture because it was a string material than stone and more able to support itself so artists could achieve more innovative works without incorporating a contrived support structure. In the second half we concentrated on paintings including Gaughin’s, Klimt’s and Rossetti’s. This was an excellent course and really made me look at 19th century art with a fresh eye. I have taken a lot away from it.    

Fifth session of a six week course at the Bishopsgate Institute looking at the art of the 19th century, a period of great changes in art and society. The course is led by James Heard and this session looked at Post-Impressionists and was fascinating. The first part acknowledged that this was not really a conscious group of artists but a term applied to a movement in art after it had happened. We then talked about the two intellectual post-impressionists Cezanne and Seurat. I must admit I’d always assumed that Cezanne had painted very quickly so was fascinated to hear how slowly and carefully he pitched colours against each other to form shapes. In part two we looked at the mad men, Gaugin and Van Gogh. Who both painted with emotion and symbolism. I have always been fascinated by the period when they lived together in Arles in the Yellow House. We looked slightly more at Van Gogh then Gaugin as I think we are due to spend more time on the later next week.

Fourth session of a six week course at the Bishopsgate Institute looking at the art of the 19th century, a period of great changes in art and society. The course is led by James Heard and this session looked at Impressionism. We tried to look at the pictures in comparison to what audiences at the time were used to so we could see how revolutionary their style was. We discussed their influences such as the cartoonist Daumier and how they used the latest technology such as factory produced brushes and paint in tubes. We also looked at differences in their styles, although we think of them as one groups each artists work was very different from the clear almost realist style of Calliebotte to Monet’s technique of painting light.

Third session of a six week course at the Bishopsgate Institute looking at the art of the 19th century, a period of great changes in art and society. The course is led by James Heard and this session looked at Realism comparing the French and English versions of it. We started by looking at Delaroche's "Executing of Lady Jane Grey" and comparing it to Courbet's "After Diner at Ornans”. The latter being in a more rugged loose style. We talked about how revolutionary it was for audiences to see real life depicted in art and how badly they reacted to this. On the English side we focused on the realist pictures of the Pre-Raphaelites such as Ford Maddox Brown's "Work" showing men at work building the London sewers and the other work going on around them. I must admit we did end up laughing rather at August Egg's "Past and Present" with it’s rather heavy handed symbolism.

Second session of a six week course at the Bishopsgate Institute looking at the art of the 19th century, a period of great changes in art and society. The course is led by James Heard and this session looked at Romanticism in art and architecture. We compared the David which we’d studied last week with Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa” to work out what he difference was between neo-classism and romanticism seeing that the later was more emotional, has less colour, was more muddle and disordered in style and had a great concentration on nature. We then went on to look at other pictures and building which reflected the style and discussed the difference between the beautiful, the sublime and the picturesque. We finished my looking in detail at Constable’s “The Cornfield”. I don’t think I’d ever looked properly at a Constable and it was fascinating to see what was real and what was heightened for effect. I was particularly interested that he didn’t use green paint all the...

First session of a six week course at the Bishopsgate Institute looking at the art of the 19th century, a period of great changes in art and society. The course is led by James Heard and this first session looked at Neo-Classicism.   We began by looking at what is was and how it started with the discover of Pompeii and the influence of Rome and Greece on art. It led to a simplification of vision across the western world and a across genres. In the second half of the session we analysed “The Oath of Horati” by David using it to look at the first part of David’s life and looking at it in the context of the French Revolution. OK this picture was actually 18th century but it sets up the period we are going to study well. Looking forward to next week.