"I was trying to figure out why I don't like a lot of paintings and why I do like the ones I like, and the only thing I could think of was that the painters I like all manage to make their paintings seem infused with light, which is rather an odd thing to say about Van Gogh since his technique is so heavy. Most of the others I like are Impressionists or post-Impr., but when you look at his work, even though he just slathers the paint on, they do just seem to almost glow from inside."
How true. Look at this beautiful study by the Italian Impressionist Federico Zandomeneghi (1841-1917), "In Bed."
It's not the subject matter that so draws us to the painting; certainly we have seen people sleeping. The face of the young girl is almost obscured, so it is not her personal beauty that attracts us. Rather it is the quality of the light that invites us to speculate about the sleeping figure, and her dreams.
5 comments:
Stunning. Morpheus captured.
Indeed. It's even more breathtaking in person. But you'll have to go to Florence.
I wouyldn't say that that's "corny." In fact I was reminded of the same thing when I saw the painting again this morning. It is as though the father (or mother) is standing just inside the door wondering whether to awken his child, or to let her drowze...and miss the first day of school.
And people say that European women don't shave their pits.
Okay, it is high time I commented on this topic. The truly amazing thing about the use of light you are commenting on is that white oil paint is really not that bright white. In fact, it is a little on the dingy side.
Watercolor artists can let the paper show through to acheive brightness, as paper is much brighter than paints these days, but an oil painting artist does not have that luxury.
I know the illusion of brightness is acheived by having adjacent dark colors to contrast, as you see in this painting.
But that is easier said than done.
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