The Stolen Kiss by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1760) is an oil on canvas painting depicting a young man attempting to steal a kiss from a young woman to her own dismay while another young woman holds her hands and watches the scene unfold. Once belonged to Bailli de Bréteuil, this painting is a great example of the Rococo style of art.
The bodies of the three figures in the painting are in correct proportion and are very naturalistic, a hierarchy of scale is not present. A sense of weight is seen in each figure; the girl getting kissed has a sense of weight in relation to the boy holding her, the boy has a sense of weight in how he leans in and on the girl for a kiss and lastly the other girl has a sense of weight in how she leans on the table.
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Underneath the drapery of the clothes, the arms and shoulders of the figures can be seen, along with the curvature of the body of the girl not being kissed. By doing this, the artist is attempting to give the three figures a very realistic feeling to them as they are all three dimensional. Through chiaroscuro, the use of light and dark to create an illusion of form in space on a flat surface, the artist is able to make the figures three dimensional. An interest in human nature, especially love, lust and pleasure are seen in this painting. Staying true to the Rococo style, the artist makes the face of the figures express these feelings of love and lust along with shock and curiosity. The girl being kissed feels very shocked that this boy is trying to kiss her and this is especially seen in the side eye she is giving him; the other girl has a slight aspect of shock but more so is excited and curious to see what will unfold between the young lovers. On the other hand, the boy is filled with passion, love, and lust and this is seen in how he holds the girl he’s about to kiss and also in how red his face is from excitement. Through the use of foreshortening and linear perspective, the artist created an illusion of space very well. It is clear that the wooden table is in the foreground of the painting, the three figures are slightly behind the table on what appears to be a bed and in the background is a cluttered mess of items. The artist uses light in an interesting way as there seems to be a light, almost similar to light coming directly from a flashlight, that is shining directly onto the figures while the rest of the scene is quite dark. The illumination of the figures creates slight shadows coming from them. Modeling, a technique where shading is used to create depth and volume in a two-dimensional piece of art, is seen in the face and garments of the figures and adds to this illusion of space. A primary horizontal line is present in the painting as all three figures are lined up together. This draws the viewer’s eye directly to the figures and then onto the kiss portion of the painting. A sense of movement is seen between the boy and the girl he is trying to steal a kiss from. Based of the ruling aristocracy in France of the time, Rococo artwork is characterized by lightness, elegance, and grandiose scenes of nature.
Themes of Rococo artwork deal with easygoing and light scenes of mythical places and courtship. Rich but delicate brushwork, lighter pastel colors and sensuous coloring are central to Rococo artwork. The Stolen Kiss by Jean-Honoré Fragonard is most definitely a piece of the Rococo period because it has many of these characteristics. The painting portrays a light scene involving love between young people of the aristocracy. Love and lust are the main themes of the painting and the artist uses delicate brushwork, lighter pastel colors, and a sensuous feel to accomplish this. Another piece that is similar to The Stolen Kiss is a piece called Pilgrimage to Cythera by Antoine Watteau (1717). In this painting, a representation of the mythical love island of Cythera is portrayed. A statue of the goddess of love is present along with scenes of courtship, mythical cupid and gorgeous nature scenes all with delicate brushwork, pastel colors and a sensuous feeling. All things central to Rococo artwork. Another oil on canvas titled The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1767) depicts a lustful and in love man hiding in the bushes to look up the skirt of the women he loves. The woman is portrayed very light, free and in love and she swings in the air on a red velvet and gold seat with a fabulous hat, white stockings and a very flowing and free dress. This Rococo painting centers on the theme of courtship, nature and the opulence the aristocracy created for themselves. Lastly, The Progress of Love: The Meeting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1771-1773) is one part of a many paneled piece depicting young lovers meeting in an extremely overgrown, yet fabulous nature scene being overlooked by a statue of the mythical symbols of love- Venus and Cupid. This indulgent piece with uncontrolled nature, a love theme, delicate brushwork and sensuous coloring
is another great example of the Rococo style. Rococo style of art began in Paris in the early 18th century and soon after was adopted throughout all of France as the final expression of baroque movement. The word Rococo is derived from the French word rocaille which is the artistic style of decorating rock-work with elaborate ornamentation which is then put in grottos and fountains. Pleasure, satisfying oneself, uncontrolled nature, indulgence, and love were some of the common themes of the Rococo style. The main subjects of Rococo paintings were the aristocracy also called the Ancien Regime. Ancien Regime is a term used to describe the rule of the nobility and monarchy before the French Revolution. Fête Galante, a scene depicting outdoor entertainment for the aristocracy, was created by Antoine Watteau during this time which became very popular during the Rococo period. Antoine Watteau began painting in the Rococo style and was continued on with François Boucher and ended with Jean-Honoré Fragonard. In the 1750s, the Rococo style began to decline as it became under attack by the philosophers of the enlightenment for its triviality. These philosophers condemned Rococo art for being immoral and indecent. The austere movement of Neoclassicism began in the 1760s and pushed out the Rococo style. 1789 brought the beginning of the French Revolution and then later on a period of remorseless bloodshed called the Reign of Terror- all which ushered in the modern world as we know it today.
Large and medium sizes of the forms dominate over small in the painting. The arrangement of the objects in this art piece is mostly centric. However, even though it is central, it is not symmetrical. The painter also touched the left edge of the burlap and the right bottom corner of it; this helps viewer’s eye to enter the painting smoothly, move around and escape from it. The asymmetry of the arrangement creates the sense of imbalance. Lam uses basic lines and shapes in the composition. Nevertheless, the painter creates wonderful light movement inside the figure with wavy shapes, which directs viewer’s eye from the top to the
The view of the painting brings to mind the all the senses. Smell is the first to come to mind as the smoke from the candle billows up, the burning smell reaches the noise as well as the burning cigar. The fruity smell overshadows that of the smell of chicken and peas. The noise of a dropped tray and the breaking of glass as it hits the floor makes everyone turn to the right. People talking over each other to be heard. All of the senses are realized as the painting is viewed.
Contextual Theory: This painting depicts a portrait of life during the late 1800’s. The women’s clothing and hair style represent that era. Gorgeous landscape and a leisurely moment are captured by the artist in this work of
The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...
The painting has an order and there are different shapes and angles. Rectangular shape is main trend around this piece, including the wooden chest, the leg rest and the canvass. Also things overlap, creating the illusion of the shape look closer to viewer than the shape behind it. The example in this piece would be the chair on which Adelaide Labille Guiard sits be close to viewer than the girls behind it. This adds depth to the space. Also due to linear perspective girls behind the chair are smaller due to being farther away.
...elationship between the people in the composition and their feelings in each other’s company. The viewer is forced to think critically about the people in the painting and their feelings and body language.
The painting’s canvas has been exploited perfectly. All the space on the canvas had been used. However, space was not used to create depth, and there was no layering or recession present. The painting does not feel that it has motion, apart from what it looks like the creatures eating from the tree of life. The eating motion was depicted by the posture of the creatures, with arms extending towards the plants – in the case of creatures – or beaks being wide open – in the case of birds. All these factors 'accord' the painting with a unique
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
The Interpretation/Meaning (III) will be written without any guideline points, the aim of this part will be to determine what the painter wanted to express with his piece of work and what it tells us in a symbolic or not instantly clear way. This part will also handle why the artist drew the painting the way he did it and why he chose various techniques or tools.
Fragonard was a product of the late Rococo period in the early eighteenth century a period that consisted of pastoral images of both men and women participating in games, having lunch together or a passionate scene between two people. Rococo created for the rich of France, consisted mainly of two types gallant and libertines. Fragonard’s paintings were mostly gallant which represented love as a playful game. This can be seen in his two paintings Blindmans Buff (fig. 1) and The Swing (fig. 2). These included interactions with figures in the paintings that suggested courtship; in this case it would be the pastel colors that he used which created a more playful look for the figures. In his 1775 version of The Swing (fig. 2) Fragonard presented a vision of nature and shows tremendous growth from his previous work painted during his second trip to Italy. This version is less erotic compared to his previous version of The Swing (fig. 3). The Swing (fig. 2) bares many similarities to some of his other works none more than Blindmans Buff (fig. 1) that was painted at the same time as The Swing. Both paintings shared various similarities and featured playful scenes of love.
Corvi shows a soft smile on both the face of Cupid and the face of Psyche, hinting at the fact that they were both happy in their relationship, however, Psyche needed an answer to the burning question in her mind of her lover’s identity. Corvi does a magnificent job of creating a look of admiration in the expression of Psyche as she gazes at the man she has loved for the first time. While making this painting more monochromatic than polychromatic, the artist uses high value contrast to create a focus on both Psyche and Cupid, which helps to portray the use of a candle by Psyche. Although the creation date of this painting seems to be during the Rococo art movement, the dark and dull colors and slightly melancholy theme do not quite seem to match the average Rococo elements, meaning that it could have been created during the transition from the Rococo movement to the Neoclassicism
One of the paintings done by Rococo was that of a girl in a field, in the presence of string wind that blowing up her dress and hair. This painting uses a wide range of pastel colors and has graceful curves that embellish the lady’s figure (Adams, & Adams, 2010).
The French 1884 oil on canvas painting The Song of the Lark by Jules-Adolphe Breton draws grasps a viewer’s attention. It draws an observer in by its intense but subtle subject matter and by the luminous sun in the background. Without the incandescent sun and the thoughtful look of the young woman, it would just be a bland earth-toned farm landscape. However, Breton understood what to add to his painting in order to give it drama that would instantly grab an onlooker’s interest.
“Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.” Art is just that, one of many ways that people can express love. LOVE by Robert Indiana and The Kiss, by the French sculptor, Auguste Rodin are just two sculptures that demonstrate love. LOVE is a structure of the word love in red with the first two letters above with the “O” slanted, and the last two letters bellow the first two, that is displayed publicly in New York City. The Kiss can now be found in the Musée Rodin in Paris, France. The sculpture is of two characters of the opposite sex kissing. The materials and colors used in the two sculptures, as well as the aspect of love that they represent and the history behind the sculptures, The Kiss seems to be more romantic.
In 1668, King Charles II had a painter, Peter Lely, create a piece of Venus and Cupid, but by taking a closer look the viewer can see that it’s actually a portrait of Charles II’s mistress Nell Gwynn. The girl in the portrait looks benignly at the viewers and showed “her submission to the owner’s feeling and demand.” (Ways of Seeing 52). The king hung the painting behind another landscape so he could unveil it and make “his guest envied him.” (Ways of Seeing 52).