Seneka once said: “All art
is bur imitation of nature” . I don’t agree with
him. I think that art has many
functions and it’s hard to overestimate the role of art in
one’s life. Art has
great influence on our souls, feelings, forms our moral values. Art
forms our
outlook and enriches our inner world. Art influences greatly the
development
and of evolution of consciousness of a person and of the mankind. Art
makes us
think of the sense of life, how people must live, what is ideal of
beauty, what
is love, - the eternal questions. Art helps us to understand people who
lived
hundred years ago and to learn the history of the mankind. Art creates
our
notion about beauty and harmony. Art helps people to understand outside
world
and each other. Art develops our good qualities. Art has a great
educational
significance. Art brings people up - makes them more humane and kind.
The
language of art is universal. Everybody, in spite of age, nationality,
occupation understands what is said by the painter. Art gives people a
possibility to express ourselves and to become famous. But I
don’t think that
every painter becomes famous. Only talented, genius people like da
Vinci,
Raphael and others can create great, eternal art, real masterpieces.
Art is
great only if it has links with people’s lives, interests,
ideals. If it
hasn’t, it won’t be understood and acknowledged.
Real art appeals to the heart
and mind of a man, to his feelings and it proclaims life.
As to the trends of art, I
prefer old art. Painting of old masters is one of the greatest
treasures
mankind has collected in the history of its civilisation. The pictures
of old
painters are in all big museum of the world (for example, the
Hermitage, the
Tretiakovskaya gallery and others) . Old painting reflects the
collective
experience of human spiritual life of many centuries, because, as I
have
already said, painting is the first way of art. As to country schools
of
painting, I prefer English painting school. My favourite English
painter is
George Romney.
George Romney was born in
1734. He was a son of a cabinetmaker. He was apprenticed to Christopher
Steele,
a travelling portraitist between 1775 and 1757; at that time Romney
established
himself in Kendal, Westmoreland, where he had a fairly prosperous trade
in
small portraits. In 1762 he left for London; here he broadened his
style
considerably. In 1763 and 1765 he won awards at the Society of Arts.
During the
next few years he became more popular as a portrait painter. In 1764
Romney
paid a short visit to Paris. In 1773 he left England and spent two
years in
Italy, mainly Rome, studying antique sculpture and the work of Raphael.
These
studies had a major influence on the development of his style.
On his return to England in
1775 Romney rapidly became and remained for many years one of the most
fashionable portrait painters in London; his patrons ranged from the
Prince of
Wales and members of the aristocracy to the literary and dramatic
figures of
the day. Second only to Sir Joshua Reynolds in popularity, Romney was,
however,
such a pathologically timid character that he never ventured to present
himself
for the honours of the Royal Academy of Arts and hence acquired an
unmerited
reputation of a recluse. In 1782 he met his “divine
lady” , Emma Hart, later
Lady Hamilton, of whom he painted a great number of famous portraits in
various
character roles. Romney painted four pictures for John
Boydell’s Shakespeare
Gallery between 1786 and 1791. These were among the very few subjects
he
finished, though he left thousands of rough sketches that are of great
interest. Unlike his public work, these sketches link Romney with the
imaginative world of William Blake. After 1796, ill health forced
Romney to
stop painting. The last years were spent in Kendal. George Romney died
in 1801.
The most vivid impression
on me has produced Romney’s picture “The portrait
of duchess Elisabeth Derby” ,
which was finished in 1778. It is an oil painting, canvas.
The figure of a beautiful
rich woman is placed on the landscape background. It is a full-length
portrait.
The woman is represented sitting. The figure is arranged in a vertical
format.
Colouring is subtle, soft, delicate and restful. Brushstrokes are not
visible.
The women are dressed in
luminous dress, through which one can see contours of her figure. The
lady’s
figure is lighted up evenly. The women have beautiful big dark eyes,
tall
forehead, rosy cheeks, straight nose and beautiful lips. The profession
of the
woman isn’t indicated, but she has graceful hands, so one can
guess that she
doesn’t work with her hands. We can judge that she is a
representative of
high-class family.
Every pleat of the woman’s
dress, coiffure and other details are painted very precisely. As to my
opinion
the details are not emphasised purposely. Accuracy in details is the
result of
supreme mastery in technique of the painter. So the figure is a
harmonious
unity.
The landscape isn’t painted
so exactly. There is a piece of blue-grey sky in the right corner of
the
picture, but on the horizon the clouds are condensing. The forest
behind the
lady isn’t green, it is obscure and gloomy. Predominant
colour is brown. There
is a sharp contrast between lighted up figure and dark landscape. The
figure is
close to the observer than to the landscape. So the figure
doesn’t blend with
the landscape.
The posture of the lady is
very natural. Her eyes are gazed before and upper herself. She is deep
in her
thoughts.
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