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| The Park (1910), Klimt |
My first pic is a good transition from my last 'interview' post about the style of Robert Milaschewski, though meant to be posted for St. Patrick's Day. Here we see what could be described as a landscape, although dominated by tree crowns, with only a hint of tree trunks at the bottom. Instead, Gustav Klimt has used primarily a mosaic of green dots forming an abstract composition. It comes on the heels of the late nineteenth century movement, called Pointillism, which was developed by French artists, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.
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| Green Wheat Fields, Auvers (1890), Van Gogh |
Here is a closeup taken from (the lower left corner of) Van Gogh's Green Wheat Fields, Auvers (1890), which was painted during the last months of the artist's life. When viewed without the upper half containing the sky and clouds, his green and white brushstrokes become abstracted, much like the dots in Klimt's leaves.
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| The Green Wave (1866-67), Monet |
Unlike other happier Impressionist paintings (from his gardens), Monet's The Green Wave (1866-67) is painted in monochromatic teal green and black. Boats and the seaside were common themes for Monet, though usually calmer depictions of couples enjoying a leisurely outing. I would not have guessed this was his work!
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| Green Still Life (1914), Picasso |
Although the green in Picasso's Green Still Life (1914) encompasses the entire background, it fits the theme of my post. I enjoy the patterned shapes on the wall and tabletop, giving life to the flat green shapes above which the objects would be floating without the black lines and suggested picture frame.
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| The Allure (1939), O'Keeffe |
I was intending to show Georgia O'Keefe's Green Tree (1953), but it was almost too light for this category of green artwork. Then I found The Allure (1939), which is also known as Waterfall, No. I, Iao Valley, Maui. Her paintings of the Hawaiian landscape are reminiscent of her closeup paintings of flowers. The layers of the lush green mountains seem to be opening up to reveal the thin waterfall, as though it's the stamen of a flower.
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| The Green Dancer (1879), Degas |
Degas' The Green Dancer (1879) is complemented by the bright-orange clad dancers in the background. This isn't quite the green I was looking to highlight, though there's enough of the hue to warrant both the title of the painting and my subject. Degas does like to use diagonal lines in his composition and arrangement of the dancers' limbs. He has intentionally left the floor unadorned and in shadow.
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| The Green Christ (1889), Gauguin |
The last painting, The Green Christ (1889), is by Paul Gauguin. It depicts a Brenton woman seated beneath a green-tinted statue of Christ's crucifixion. It represents a combination of several different 'calvaires' from various locations. Gauguin lived for a time in Brittany, a peninsula of northwestern France.
Like many of Gaugin's works, the subject stands out from the backgrounds, which he decorates with more lively colors. Green is sprinkled throughout. Even the other figures are green, and the woman's face has a green tint as if she is an ogress (from the movie Shrek!).
The black lamb she's holding in the bottom right corner is balanced by the dark water in the distance.
