The Art of Manuel Orazi

Manuel Orazi (1860 – 1934) was an Italian painter, draughtsman, illustrator, and poster artist, who elevated a global philosophy in response to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the Art Nouveau movement. During this time, some artists welcomed technological progress while others condemned the poor quality of mass-produced machine-made goods. By applying the highest standards of craftsmanship and design to society’s everyday objects their aim was to elevate the decorative arts to the level of fine art.

(Orazi, Manuel. La Maison Moderne. c. 1902. lithograph.)

Orazi was born in Rome in 1860. By age twenty-three, he was already notable for designing the covers of sheet music, similar to modern-day album covers before the invention of the radio. He then moved to Paris in 1892 and worked as a newspaper, magazine, and book illustrator.

(Orazi, Manuel. Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt. c. 1895. lithograph.)

He illustrated periodicals for L’assiette au beurre and Le Figaro illustre and illustrated books by contemporary authors, including Edgar Allan Poe, Baudelaire, and Oscar Wilde. His poster designs for the opera and other Parisian theaters heightened his fame and he soon began to exhibit his work at the Salon des Artistes.

(Orazi, Manuel. L'Atlantide. lithograph.)

In 1896, he received the commission of his career and designed a poster for an art show at the Maison de l’Art Nouveau (House of Art) gallery. Initiated in 1895 by the German art dealer Samuel Bing, this gallery exclusively featured the modern art of its time.

(Orazi, Manuel. Hot Chocolate. oil on canvas.)
The show was coordinated in design and color installations of modern furniture, tapestries, and objets d’art (everyday objects of art). The objects from the show became so strongly associated with the Art Nouveau style that the name of his gallery subsequently provided a commonly used term for the entire movement and propelled Orazi’s career.


(Orazi, Manuel. Panneaux Decoratifs. c. 1900. lithograph)

He illustrated the novel, Aphrodite, by Pierre Louis in 1912 and after completing the illustrations for the novel, Les fleurs dumal by Baudelaire in Paris, he dies in 1934.

(Orazi, Manuel. Poster for Job Cigarette Paper. c. 1902. lithograph.)

Inspired by curved lines, nature, natural forms, and the structures of plants and flowers, Orazi embodied the Art Nouveau style and his work is much appreciated here!

Enjoy! :)

The Art of George Inness

George Inness (1825 – 1894) was an American painter, famous for his luminous and atmospheric landscapes. He helped define the Tonalist movement in the late 19th century. Tonalism was an artistic style that began in the 1880s. The name was formed based on a group of American painters who, painted landscape forms with one single color or an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist.

(Inness, George. Sunset on a Meadow. date unknown. oil on canvas.)

Inness was the fifth of thirteen children born to a farmer and his wife in Newburgh, New York. Five years later his family moved to Newark, New Jersey. As a teenager, George studied under the painter, John Jesse Barker and then moved to New York City to work as a map engraver. He attended the National Academy of Design and began to study Asher B. Durand and Thomas Cole from the Hudson River School.

(Inness, George. The Storm. c. 1885. oil on canvas. Reynolda House Museum of American Art)

In 1851, a patron sponsored Inness to travel abroad, study and paint in Europe. During his trip to Paris, he discovered Camille Corot and the French Barbizon School. This group was focused on painting mood and shadow which influenced Inness to explore unique combinations of light and color, especially within specific color relationships. He published an article entitled, “Colours and Le Correspondences” where he described the spiritual significance of specific color combinations.

(Inness, George. Medfield Massachusetts. date unknown. oil on canvas. Private Collection.)

Inness used abstract shapes combined with soft edges to create a mystical experience for the viewer. As time went on his mystical view of nature became intensified. His artistic style is characterized by hazy atmospheres created by a distinctive tonal variety of neutral and saturated colors.

(Inness, George. Woodland Scene. date unknown. oil on canvas.)

Inness’ control over spatial relations, scale, drawing, and color combined with the idealistic handling of his subjects, allowed him to achieve a sense of relaxed and serene mystery, and his work is much appreciated here!

Enjoy! :)

References

• georgeinness.org

The Art of Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Newell Wyeth (1917 – 2009) was part of the Regionalist movement and is most well known for his painting of Christina’s World, one of the best-known American paintings of the mid 20th century. In 1963, Wyeth was the first painter to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award and at the age of 91 in 2007, he received the National Medal of Arts from George W. Bush.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Christina’s World. c. 1948. tempera on gessoed panel. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ©)

Christina’s World depicts a young girl lying on the ground in an open field, looking up and crawling towards a grey house on the horizon. The girl was Andrew Wyeth’s neighbor, Christina Olson. She suffered from polio and had lost the use of her legs. Wyeth paints her painfully pulling herself up the hillside with her arms. The painting was purchased by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1948 and its opening, brought in record-breaking attendance.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Dodges Ridge. c. 1947. tempera on gessoed panel. Smithsonian American Art Museum.)

Wyeth says, “She was limited physically but by no means spiritually. The challenge was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless.”

(Wyeth, Andrew. The Master’s Bedroom. c. 1965. watercolor. Andrew Wyeth Private Collection.)

Andrew’s father, Newell Convers Wyeth, also known as N.C. was one of the most famous and highest-paid illustrators in the United States in the early 20th century. He illustrated popular books such as Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, The Last of the Mohicans, and Robin Hood. Although Andrew had already mastered watercolor when he was about twelve years old, N.C. chose to tutor him extensively in art.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Winter. c. 1946. tempera on board. North Carolina Museum of Art.)

In 1945, Andrew’s life was forever changed after the tragic death of his father and nephew, who were both killed in a car accident at a railway crossing near his home in Chadds Ford. Andrew later describes that everything after that was different as though “his eyes were opened”.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Groundhog Day. c. 1959. tempera on masonite. Philadelphia Museum of Art.)

Wyeth painted with egg tempera, which is created from an egg yolk mixed with pigment. It is a unique medium to be used in the 20th century as its popularity declined after the invention of oil paint. Once mixed it cannot be stored and it dries rapidly but, it does allow for great precision and Andrew used this to his advantage as he worked countless hours to paint individual strains of hair and individual blades of grass in Christina's World.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Braids. c. 1979. dry-brush watercolor. Private Collection.)

Wyeth’s paintings of open plains lacking vegetation, weathered buildings, and subjects of people in solitude seem to create a cold wintery feel and his work is much appreciated here! 

Enjoy! :) 

References

• Andrew Wyeth.com