Painting of Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay

When I walked up to Eiffel Tower, by Robert Delaunay, I started creating illusions in my mind. Illusions of traveling around the globe. Far and wide across the world exploring everything. The wonderful piece of artwork is titled Eiffel Tower and was carefully planned and created by Robert Delaunay. Mr. Delaunay created this piece in 1924, in the great city of Paris, France. To create his Eiffel Tower, his medium was oil on canvas. Looking at this piece of art inspires me to travel the world and see everything first hand.

With-in Robert Delaunay’s Eiffel Tower, he uses cool colors to create the Eiffel Tower and the ground beneath it. It creates this soothing feel that brings your eyes throughout the work. This oil on canvas painting is very well made, with plenty of colors to keep your eyes moving throughout as well. This art work was made to be looked at and studied. The subject cannot only get a glimpse of it without getting the full idea around it. The work of art is viewed slightly above the actual Eiffel Tower and the landscape in the background. The foreground is mostly consumed by the tower itself. With-in the piece, the dark steel of the tower has been changed into tones of yellow, orange, and purple. Robert Delaunay was influenced by Fauvism. Fauvism was an art form where separating color from its descriptive, representational purpose and allowing it to exist on the canvas as an independent element (The Art Story). With this, Color could project a mood and establish a structure within the work of art without having to be true to the natural world (The Art Story). Delaunay affirmed that “everything is color in nature.”

The quality of this piece of art looks very nice and almost new even though it was created almost a century ago. The Eiffel Tower looks as if the sun is reflecting right off the front of it. Also, variations of line weight and curved and straight lines are used quite well throughout the piece. All of the lines are at an angle and none of them are horizontal, nor vertical. The paint that is used are variations of yellow, red, orange, purple, and green tones. All throughout the painting, space is used quite well, allowing one’s eyes to move throughout the page, and colors circle your vision from one part of the piece to the other. Along with color, a strong sense of light is found on the tower itself, as if the sun is rising, or setting. The play on the light is happy, causing me to imaging the start of a fresh new day or the end of a really good one. The tones are interesting, with the dark purples right up against the light greens and yellows.

There are many textures giving illusions of space and grass in the work of art. Textures of the tower show support beams and the basic shape of the tower. I feel like I could climb around it and be a part of the work itself. There are not very many repeated shapes. Because of this, it holds your interest within the work of art.

There is variety all around this piece of art. Shapes vary throughout it, with long and short beams on the tower and the long gardens in the background, giving the illusion of depth and shows value and tone. The colors are exquisite and give off a cool vibe wanting to relax and enjoy the day. Textures are clean and give off a rushed brush stroke. The tower looks clean and almost reflective of the direct light from the sun. Robert Delaunay arranged the visual weight of the Eiffel Tower to be heavy as if it is stuck into the background. The work is asymmetrical, without feeling too heavy on one side, but balanced well with color. Although the piece is asymmetrical, the perspective looks off set and the tower looks to be leaning one side, pulling away from the viewer. The tower looks much smaller than it is compared to the space Robert used for his background. The piece overall is very pleasing, and in the art museum drew a lot of attention.

One of the reasons I picked this piece out of all of the wonderful works in the St. Louis Art Museum was because it inspired me to travel the world. One day I would love to travel to Paris to experience the Eiffel Tower with my own eyes. Maybe even sketch my own version of the Eiffel Tower. The Earth is full of beautiful man-made and organic beautiful sightings. Someday, I would like to have visited and captured every amazing sight in the world.

Art can be inspired by all kinds of Delaunay paintings. This gives me ideas on how to use colors differently in my paintings and drawings with pastels. Art is a glorious thing that I feel some people ignore. The Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay is a glorious painting. Inspiring me to explore new things and new places. I hope that it does the same to everyone who views it. Even though one might find different meanings in this painting, I love the excitement and pleasure seen in every brush stroke.  

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