Hodler’s Parallelist paintings, and more than 30 of the paintings of Paul CĂ©zanne depart from the basic optical principles of reflections. Why?
reflections
Optical principles are straightforward, but can become extremely complex in practice. Examples from Jan van Eyck to Hodler and Signac.
Before photography, the only opportunity to see your face, painters took advantage of the Venus Effect to break optical rules and show faces that couldn’t have been seen in the mirror.
The hard road to realism: development and propagation of knowledge, how to apply it in paintings, and its benefit on visual art.
An unusual pastel, a couple of fine nocturnes, then some reflections of figures from Caravaggio and Bonnard, concluded by coy self-portraits.
Reflections seen in landscapes from DĂĽrer’s pioneering watercolour, through Poussin and Turner to Monet, Sisley and Neo-Impressionists.
From DĂĽrer and Poussin to CĂ©zanne and Hodler, reflections have been important in many landscape paintings.
Live models for figures, landscape oil sketching in front of the motif, the sensuous nude, narratives with multiple readings, incredibly loose brushwork, and so much more than portraits.
Not his last great painting by any means, but his greatest and most thought-provoking. Where are the royal couple, seen only in reflection, and who is everyone looking at?
Is it just a quirky re-telling of the myth of Arachne and her weaving contest? What do the foreground and background have in common? A superb visual riddle, perhaps.
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