Pierre-Auguste Renoir's The Luncheon Of The Boating Party
2228 Words9 Pages
Throughout the history of art, techniques have developed to make the era of modern art the most Avant Garde period. Both Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Georges Seurat demonstrate an evolving style and technique in their paintings “The Luncheon of the Boating Party” and “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”. The subject matter of each of the pieces is made concise, the artists’ intentions are clear, the elements and principles of design are present and the style and technique are unique to each artist and their intended vision.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir created The Luncheon of the Boating Party depicting a group of his friends enjoying brunch and stimulating banter on the veranda at the Maison Fournaise in Chatou, France. Renoir utilized his comrades in a multitude…show more content… While the impressionist movement consisted of mixing the right color on a palette, Seurat’s Neo-Impressionistic style consisted of using pure hues next to each other to evoke optical mixture. This adds a unique feel as through the optical mixture, the eye creates a “perfect” color. For example, the purple tone of the woman’s skirt on the right foreground. Many artists find creating the perfect shade of purple extremely difficult. By placing a pure spot of red within very close proximity to a pure spot of blue, the eye blends them together on its own mimicking the perfect purple. The trees in the back look similar to the effect of spray paint due to the spacing of the various hues. This technique originally named divisionism is now referred to as pointillism. This also gives the painting an interesting texture depending on the distance you are viewing it at. The closer you go, the more textured it looks, similar to TV static when positioned directly in front of it. The form in this painting is very important; the people are very stiff and statue like, and they don’t interact with each other making them appear even more stiff. This is one of the things that prevents this piece from being unified. The lack of communication between characters. However, something that does redeem this, is the use of blues and reds throughout the painting, even in places where they are not usually seen, such as the grass. The use of a…show more content… Although the pointillism technique is very impressive, it is the only thing about this painting that is. The colors are so muted it appears sort of drowsy, and there is no likeness to actual humans. The abstract look is definitely very difficult for many to accept and enjoy, while Seurat’s was interestingly put, it falls short of the impressive techniques used in The Luncheon of the Boating party. Renoir used color and composition to create a piece that is an idealized version of his everyday life with real, everyday people. They have this attractive dewy glow to their faces that entices the viewer into looking for just a bit longer each time. The color palette for this piece although rather neutral, had pops of unexpected color to add visual interest and likeness to real life. The impressive brush stroke techniques are used everywhere possible to add form and texture to make this piece even more appealing. Seurat’s piece was much too plain and grey-toned, which holds the viewer’s gaze for a significantly shorter time. The Luncheon of the Boating Party also has a more relaxed lackadaisical feel because everybody depicted is very natural. No posing, or stiff up-right posture. Sunday a la Grande Jatte is extremely stiff in comparison to the characters at the Luncheon, this makes it less welcoming. The stiffness also makes the painting also appear more organized and