Moma Visit – Compare and Contrast Paintings

In the bottom one third of the painting, Rhone town at midnight is peaceful in blue. The clearest part we can see at this town is the church and its bell tower. Although the church only consists of simple sketches, it seems to be the most complicated fragment in the painting. The bell tower points up to the sky and draws attention of the viewers to the spirals once again. Secondly, the next painting I would like to mention is “The Empire of Light ii” (1950) of Rene Magritte. Its dimensions are of 78. 8 x 99. 1 cm. Magritte wants to demonstrate a nocturnal scene under a daytime sky.

When I first saw the painting, the initial thought that came through my mind was to admire the peaceful scenery of an ordinary small town. Then I noticed the paradox in the painting. The upper half of the painting is the light blue sky of a peaceful day with floating white clouds. However, the bottom half is a small town at midnight. Houses and trees are all covered with dark hue as if it is late at night. The town looks as if it has already gone to sleep. The thin and precise brush strokes that Magritte adroitly use make the picture look as real as aphoto. The closer and longer I look at the painting, the more confused I become.

They just merge with one another and create a beautiful “Starry Night. ” However, the thin brush strokes in “The Empire of Light” identify all objects distinctively. Edges are clear between houses; clouds and sky are clearly recognized. Thirdly, although both painters use blue, the hue, value and intensity are different. Blue is the spiritual color in “The starry night,” and Van Gogh uses blue that varies from the darkest in the town to the lightest in the inside of the spirals. Blue is also diverse in the sky, together with yellow to make a sky lively.

Magritte, however, uses just one value of light blue to paint his sky in a sunny day and the sky looks serene. Last but not least, even though both paintings depict the same subject of a small town at midnight, each painting represents a different style. While “the starry night” of Van Gogh follows post-impressionism – a style that combines the elements of Impressionism with those of non-Europe to create their own way – “The Empire of Light, ii” of Magritte is surrealist, whose purposes are to describe the irrational, to examine perception and to create the word and image relationship.

Finally, 19th century marked the emergence of photography, which had a major effect on Modern Art. In the first half of the century, cameras were introduced continuously and rapidly improved. For example, in 1814, Joseph Niepce used his camera obscura to take picture, but the image required eight hours of light exposure and later faded. In 1851, Frederick Scott Archer invented the Collodion process, in which images required only two or three seconds of light exposure. Thus, painters were in need of seeking new techniques to innovate their painting. They had to prove that paintings might not be replaced by photos.

Thus, Monet sought a way to break the old rules of traditional painting. His brush strokes became thinner; the closed shape in traditional painting became more open as the boundaries between objects were more obscure, as we can see in his “Impression, Sunrise. ” According to the contemporary critics, the painting was rather a sketch than a complete work of art. However, this painting was the first impressionist to be presented. In conclusion, the political circumstances and developing technique are two crucial factors that affect the style of Monet Claude.