Art Essay Example: Description of Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec Art - At the Moulin Rouge

The piece of art on page 384 is a painting of oil on canvas which was painted between 1892 and 1895. Measuring 4 x 4 7 the painting by Henri De Toulouse depicts the Moulin Rouge Cabaret found in Paris which was built in 1889. In the painting, there are three men seated in a group accompanied by two women sitting around a table. The Moulin Rouge which was a famous club was one of the places that the painter frequented, and in the painting, he showed some of his closest friends and entertainers. From left to right, the people occupying the table are photographer Maurice Guibert, photographer Paul Secau, dancer La Macarona and Edouard Dujardin. An English dance named May Milton was also featured in the right foreground. In the left background is Gabriel Tapie De Celeyran and Toulouse the artist.

At the background of the picture, La Goulue, the Moulin Rouges leading dancer is adjusting her hair while other two men, the artist and his dwarf cousin walk toward the left. Toulouse has depicted a post-impressionist style that combined his impressionist interests in a contemporary situation while still maintaining his favorite line and color. The interior has an eerie green light which invokes an uncomfortable atmosphere. The painting has used different lines to depict visual drama including the outline of Miltons sleeve, the collar of Avrils coat and the La goulue curving silhouette fixing her hair. The contrast between the strong diagonal lines and the straight lines which run forward toward the viewer improves the view of the floorboards and the banister by improving the energetic mood of the distinctly worldly setting

Description of the artwork A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by George Seurat

The painting is an oil on canvas which was influenced by the Impressionists color experimentation. On page 385, the painting is by Georges Seurat, a Post-Impressionist painter who employed innovative techniques to paint it. The painting is on an enormous canvas; 81 3/4 x 121 1/4 inch (207.5 x 308.1 cm), the artist showed city dwellers congregated at a park on La Grande Jatte. It is an island in the River Seine where all types of people fish, sail, lounge, and stroll. It was done between 1884 and 1886.

The painting uses the color and optical theories where subjects are rendered by placing tiny, precise brushstrokes of different colors adjacent to each other for them to blend at a distance. According to art critics, the technique is called pointillism or divisionism. The definite painting method and technique convinced by Seurat can be termed as a reform of Impressionism. The painting has precise measure proportions, geometric shape, and contours, to make it a masterpiece especially after considering its large size. It cannot be compared with other small unprompted canvases of Impressionism. The painting can be said to depict the growing middle class at leisure or to show the social tensions represented by the modern city residents possessing diverse social classes but who meet in the same public space but do not interact or communicate.

I choose these two works because they feature different technique of art although they were painted in the same time frame. For this reason, they depict a diverse challenge to the current artist where I can learn more. They can be contrasted in different ways such as size, color use, technique, subject matter and even clarity. The fact that such masterpieces were made in the 19th century makes them appealing. For Moulin Rouge caught my eyes regarding its use of colors and lines while A Sunday on La Grande Jatte caught my eye due to its clarity and size. Such paintings are priceless and timeless where the art movement challenge the current artist even to produce such masterpiece works.