An Analysis of Edgar Degas’ the Russian Dancer, Gustave Caillebotte’s the Orange Tree, and Lovis Corinth’s Walchensee in Moonlight

As a student t of art appreciation, going to museum is a part of the course. I had a chance to visit the Museum of Fine Arts Houston last month and looked at the artworks there. There are many interesting artworks that displayed from painting, drawing to sculpture, piece of architecture, etc. However, the three most interesting me are the drawing of Edgar Degas The Russian Dancer, the painting of Gustave Caillebotte The Orange Tree, and Walchensee in Moonlight by Lovis Corinth.

Edgar Degas drew The Russian Dancer in 1895 on pastel and charcoal on jointed paper mounted on board. This artwork is from the series drawing of dancer from Ukraine who performed in Paris in the late of 1890s (mfah). It is very representational that this pastel is about a female dancer is dancing. Her head tilts to the right, her left hand places in her head while the right leg raises high above the floor and the right hand retains the right leg. She looks toward the direction of her right leg is pointing. The dancer wears a white milky blouse and a long red orange skirt. Her dress seems to make from sheer nylon or silky because it looks very soft and soaring. On her head, there is a headband with two flowers in light blue and red orange. Around her body from the hip to the legs has a blue border that implied for her movement. The figure of dancer covers over the drawing.

Three main colors in this drawing are orange, blue, and white. They are all the lightness color. Degas uses thin contour lines surrounds and established the figure of the dancer. It also has blue implied lines around dancer's body which present for the direction of her movement. The viewer is positioned into dancer's forefeet so it could be said that this pastel is one point linear perspective. This artwork also expresses the actual texture through feeling of smooth, windy in dancer's movement combines with the softy and flying of her dresses.

Degas was known as the painter of dancer with the artworks about dancers form over half of his artworks (Nancollas). He showed his fascination toward their strange, rhythmic movements, and colorful costumes, and The Russian Dancer was not an exception from this meaning. Through this artwork, he was trying to show the unique movement in dancing and convince people into understanding the beauty and attract of dancers. By using very lightness colors in his drawing, orange in dancer's skirt and blue border implied her movement depicts for the happiness and joyful. Besides, the red orange in the drawing related to the red color which is one of the color codes of Russian outfit that symbolizes for young woman and the energy flow between nature and human being (Traditional Russian Costume).

I believe Degas was successful in trying to express to the audiences his passion the dancer's movement and her custom. Just through the lines and colors, the artist not only portray the movement's direction but also brought the rhythm of the movement into his artwork.

Another artwork that I was interested in is The Orange Tree by Gustave Caillebotte, a French artist in nineteenth century. It was painted in 1878 with oil on canvas. The painting was classified as Impressionist painting (mfah). There are two central human figures in a formal garden in which two orange trees are planted in sculpted boxes on the left side. A young male in the foreground on the left side is the artist's brother, Marital (mfah); he wears a straw hat, white shirt, black pant, and purple shoes; and he is reading a newspaper under the shade of a large orange tree, his back to the artist, and his head bent over the reading material. In the background is the artist's cousin, Zoe, who wears a straw hat, a blue and white striped dress, and red boots and she is leaning on the box base of another orange tree. In the very background on the right side is a big cat in brown and white which is basking in the greensward. Presenting in the picture are four formal, wrought iron garden chairs and one table that are put in the winding path. The pathway winds from where Marital sits, past Zoe, and into a forested area in the background. A behind the boxed orange trees is a part of flower bed with red flowers at its center, while being bordered by a small collection of white flowers.

The two main colors in this painting are purple and green. The color of sculptured boxes, the winding path and the cloth is very light purple and peach, it covers two third of the artworks. Along with that is the dark color of orange trees and immature green of greensward. There are also the yellow bronze of chairs and table. This artwork is representational with the combination of lightness colors and the specific texture of a midday summer.

Caillebotte was born into an upper-class Parisian family, so "allowed him to paint without the pressure to sell his work" (Wikipedia). Without doubt, Caillebotte wants to portray the leisure time of an upper-class family in nineteen century by The Orange Trees. The brightness of the sunlight on both shaded and non-shaded area depicts it is in the middle of an early summer day. The purple color in this artwork symbolizes for luxury and sophistication. Besides, the action of reading newspapers of Marital could be considered as a royalty hobby of upper-class people in the society in the 1870s. Furthermore, the scenery in a formal garden also suggests the peaceful and relaxation. All of those details are fitted for what the artist was trying to communicate.

The last artwork which impressed me is Walchensee in Moonlight by Lovis Corinth from Germany, is one of his artwork on On the Walchensee series. With its medium etching, the work appears abstract. It divided into four sections by the horizontal curve in the middle and the vertical light line. It appears to show four main objects in the work. In the upper right corner, the moon with its imperfectly rough shape was covered with the highly black lines. The lower right corner is the moon's reflection. The other side of the vertical strike is where two mountains and their reflection are placed, as the others two objects.

Corinth seemed to make some comparisons between those; for instance, if the moon is sparking in the upper right corner, the mountains are the darkness covered in the dark atmosphere in the upper left. The two shadows of the mountains caused of the moon's light seemed to be created by the artist's high pressure on his pencil. They met up at the edge of the picture, where the rich black was placed, "In this etching, a brooding moon rises over the mountains as it reflects across the lake the swirling motion of his strokes in the sky and the rich blacks on the edge of the paper enhance the drama of the picture" (mfah).

Lovis Corinth grew up in a farming family, and he began his career as an artist when he was a child. Throughout his career, he reflected several styles, however, after the suffering of the stroke in 1911 (Wikipedia) that made his right hand shaking, the content of his work changed from emotional to psychological. And in this art work Walchensee in Moonlight not only expressed his impression with Walchensee but also the struggle to appear between the light from the moon and the darkness, it's as the Corinth's physical struggle to control his shaking right hand in art-working.

Each artwork has its own significant and content, and unique way to express thing the artists mean. Moreover, by looking at the color, the shape, lines, etc I can be able to read and understand the meanings behinds each artwork.

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