Sunday, June 15, 2014

Paintings Of Mary Cassatt And Andrew Wyeth

By Darren Hartley


Mary Cassatt paintings were products of the Impressionist movement in the later part of the 1800s. They were the outcome of a study of the works of the old masters of Europe. Mary left for Paris in 1866 and began her private art lessons in the Louvre.

Mary Cassatt paintings are declarations of modernity and demonstrations of her rejection of several traditional artistic conventions, despite their conservative and tasteful surroundings. Mary denies the usual compositional primacy given to human forms. She gives inanimate objects equal priority with her figures.

Later on, Mary Cassatt paintings became artistic experimentations with its bright colors and unflattering accuracy of its subjects. They became famous for their portraits of women in everyday domestic settings, particularly of mothers with their children. They were unconventional in their direct and honest nature, in contrast to the Madonnas and cherubs of the Renaissance.

The medium for Andrew Wyeth paintings was the less forgiving watercolours instead of oils. His early wet brush works were made up of quickly executed, broad strokes, full of color. Shown to Robert Macbeth, a New York art dealer, these paintings formed the first solo exhibition of Andrew.

Throughout the 1920s, Andrew Wyeth paintings were drawn in a much slower pace, with greater attention given to detail and composition, and less emphasis on color. They were alternately done using two mediums, i.e., egg tempura and dry brush watercolour.

Andrew Wyeth paintings took a dramatic shift in 1945. The landscapes became more barren, the palettes muted and the occasional figures that appeared were enigmatic, poignant and sentimental. The death of Andrew's father was the cause of this shifting. The grief caused Andrew to focus intensely and paint with deep emotion going forward to the late 1940s.




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