Renoirs Depection Of Women In 19th Century Art Essay Example For Students

Renoirs Depection Of Women In 19th Century Art Essay The societal view of men verses women depicted in artwork during the nineteenth century differs from todays view on the same subject. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), an impressionist painter in the European Arts, began his career in the early 1860s. Many of the impressionistic painters of this time focused their paintings on landscapes, flower pieces and still-life works. Renoirs work was mainly focused on portraits, largely female portraits. Renoirs chosen subject matter, this being women, was odd and difficult for other artists and art critics to grasp at the time due to the lack of importance and significance women held in societal roles. Society continued to be male dominated during Renoirs time in history. The ways Renoir depicted the concept of a woman through portraits and everyday genres, showed how he placed women on a higher physical and primitive level beyond where culture held the rights of women at the time. In Renoirs painted works of the female nude, the idea of an ideal image of fantasy is shown. After 1886, Renoir stopped including males as subjects in his paintings. Realizing the overwhelming fact that the century continued to be male dominated, Renoir wanted to show women as his subjects giving them their own sense of individuality. Women of the nineteenth century were viewed as homemakers, not able to perform in society with men. Compared to men, women were seen as being worth almost nothing and were only worthy of bearing children. Stepping out of the norm once again during his time as a painter, Renoir decided to paint a subject that other impressionist artists rejected at the time stating that the idea was too academic: the female nude. After experimenting with the idea of painting the female nude, Renoir decided to make it his new main theme. Renoir chose to use models that he knew in real life. Each of the models was shown as their true self which Renoir showed through his personal relationships he had with each individually. There were two main models which reoccurred in Renoirs paintings; one being his wife and the other being a family member. When the models were not painted in the nude showing their natural beauty, Renoir placed the ladies in feminine clothing which accented their womanly features. During the Renaissance time period, the positioning of a nude woman had progressed changing the naturalistic view of the female nude to a more erotic feel. The reclined positioning of the female nude copies that of the past images created of Venus. Images of reclining Venus were viewed in a sexual manner and the idea originated from Greek mythology. Renoir justified the positioning of the female nude as its not her person but her spirit that stands in the nude, this being the reason he continued to paint women in this position and not have any erotic ideas attached with it. Renoirs idea behind painting the female nude was not one deliberately created to be erotic in character; they were painted for the sake of art itself, and no other reason. The idea of knowing one of Renoirs models could have been viewed as an erotic piece would have interfered with the ideals he had set for himself. Showing his models in an erotic fashion would take away from the naturalism which Renoir was trying to achieve. If Renoir truly wanted to show an erotic feel through his paintings, he would have created a conscious attitude seen in his work and he wanted his art to be free of all literary elements. Not following in the ideas held by other artists, Renoir chose not to show literary works through his paintings. He wanted to paint an image and not have it tell a story, because cinema and television were taking away from the literary ideas of the past shown through paintings. Art Analysis: Claude Monet EssayShowing both the direct and objective observations of nature, Renoir created a shared experience in art ignoring the ideas behind having a piece which tells a story; other artists had not accomplished this idea during this time. Emperor Napoleon III suggested that all artwork not accepted by the Paris Salon should be shown in vacant rooms in the palace and it would be called Salon des Refuses. Napoleon suggested the rejected works be shown separately, thus emphasizing by comparison the superiority of the main Paris Salon. Of the controversial works Renoir painted during this time, his depiction of the female nude received the most criticism. Wanting to show his paintings to the public and not just to critics and Salon members, Renoir entered some of his paintings in the Salon des Refuses. Reputations of artists not accepted into the Salon were broken and the chances for them to succeed in the art world were trivial. Highlighting the selection process of the Paris Salon, the artwork shown in the Salon des Refuses was viewed differently because each artist showed their own unique themes and styles not parallel with the ideals of the time. Through out Renoirs time as an accomplished artist, he was seen as a decorative painter. Being a decorative painter helped him to accurately paint the female nude body showing the different pigments in the bodys skin tone. As a painter, Renoir favored models with pale skin and the voluptuous body style- this showed a womans true form. Many observers of Renoirs work were not pleased with how he chose to show the female as his main subject, especially the models shown in the nude. The skin covering the bodies of the nude female models have been said to have taken the light of the painting. In each of the pieces showcasing the nude female body, Renoir chose to illuminate their bodies highlighting them and making them stand out to the viewer as the center of attention. In the painting titled, La Loge (1874), there is a man and a woman seated observing a musical production from balcony seats. The womans eyes gaze out to the viewer showing her distraction from the show. The man and woman are at the show together, but they do not look as though they are connected emotionally as a couple. Through the womans blank stare a sense of emptiness is portrayed. Renoir wanted his models to be immune to tact, or any other attitude of the mind which is shown in her empty gaze out to the viewer. Although Renoir lived through times of war, poverty and the death of family members, an observer would never know what life was like for this artist. His pieces were all painted in an optimistic manner, leaving the viewer no signs of strain or trauma in the artists life. Reproducing his female subjects, which sat literally in front of him, Renoir wanted his female models to represent the living and the natural. A quote by Renoir explains why he chose to paint real life subjects rather than fantasies. The artist who uses the least of what is called imagination will be the greatest. Through Renoirs work, his image of a woman is seen in the context as pervasive, dominant and reactionary within the nineteenth-century construction of womanhood. Heated debates over his work left his paintings to reinforce the non-verbal message he was sharing concerning his identifiable political position on his subjects. Renoir wanted to capture the beauty in his many female subjects, not for the sake of showing the nude body but to create truthful and naturalistic art for all to view even if he was painting out of his time.