I went up to the D’Amour Museum of Fine Art in Springfield MA yesterday with a friend and one of my favorites was a French impressionist painting by Antoine Blanchard of a street scene in Paris. It caught eye because of its composition and color and I liked it better than the painting by Claude Monet that they had there, it was more alive. This isn’t the painting but it is almost same streetscape, but you can see what I mean.
There were a number of other exhibits of contemporary art along with a Currier & Ives exhibit of their prints. It was like walking through one big calendar of their prints. I like most art, however, I’m not a fan of 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish artists, the paintings are too stoic and dark. They had a few Hudson River School paintngs which I love for their style and I am also a sucker for landscapes.
Overall, it was a good break from studying.
I had never paid much attention to Blanchard before your post. Now I will. I agree with what you say about the painting you linked: It makes me want to see more from him.
ReplyDeleteMonet certainly helped to change painting, but some of his paintings seem rather solipsistic to me: If you don't "get" what he's doing in them, the painting won't mean so much to you. I think he has the kind of reputation he has for two reasons. First, he was a favorite of the academy in France. They have had enormous influence on the post mortem reputation of painters. Second, because his paintings are so easy to print, reproductions of his paintings are found in dining and reception rooms all across the social spectrum. I'm not saying that Monet is bad or that I don't like his work; I just think that at times he can be impersonal and stylized.