National Gallery
The National Gallery is located in Trafalgar Square it is a large museum with some 2,300 different pieces from various artists in its midsts. It was founded in 1824. I picked the two pieces I wanted to write about before I even went to London and all I had to do was look throughout the museum and find those two paintings. Seeing as it was a museum with delicate paintings there was no photography allowed so the images below were found of the National Gallery's website.
Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas 'Miss La La At Cirque Fernando'
Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando
By: Hilarie-Germain-Edgar Degas
I chose this painting before I left because I love the colors and I was intrigued by the way the artist painted this. Miss La La was an actual acrobat an preformed in the Cirque Fernando in Paris. She was a sensation, I really like that she is hanging from the rafters with a rope between her teeth. This is painted from a position where you are looking up to view Miss La La which for a normal person in the audience who is looking up at her, is dangerous and terrifying. Her grace and fearlessness almost gives you the motivation it would take to suspended hundreds of feet in the air. Degas focused a lot on painting figures in arresting poses in modern subjects. When I finally found this painting in the National Gallery I was overwhelmed with it's beauty. I sat and stared at this painting for quite sometime examining the detail and the use of color.
Renoir 'At The Theatre'
At the Theatre
By: Renoir
Renoir is one of my favorite artists, he is known to be the leading painter in the development of the impressionist style. I picked this painting because I find it beautiful and the facts behind it really intrigues me. I read about this painting before I ever even stepped foot onto the plane to go to London and I found out some interesting facts that drew me to looking for this painting. If focuses on this young girl who seems to be leaning in to get a better view of the theatre. Renoir is an impressionist painter and cabaret, the circus, and the theatre were popular themes. What I found to be most interesting about this painting is that Renoir originally planned to paint two other people in front of this young girl. While I was in the National Gallery I wanted to find this painting to see if I could find any indication that this was a true fact. I looked very close and I thought I could almost see strokes of where a potential person could be. Why he didn't continue with painting them into the picture is a mystery that makes this picture far more beautiful and catching to the eye.
My Thoughts on the National Gallery
When I first walked into the National Gallery I was amazed at the size of the building. It is a very large building filled with different artistic pieces by various artist. Some of them are similar in their style while others would never guess would be paired in the same area of the building. I loved being in the National Gallery I was fascinated by the pieces that were before my eyes. It was a very surreal feeling that I was standing next to works of art that were decades old and still in mint condition. Some of the major thoughts I had while jumping from painting to painting was how do they take care of all these pieces of art without ruining them? This is history right before your eyes. Each painting tells a story and you can really learn an abundance about a painter by the way the brush strokes glide across the canvas or how they position each figures.