Visit To The Chazen Museum

For my Art History Museum paper I chose to visit the Chazen museum here in Madison to observe a piece of artwork that I wanted to furthermore dig into. As I walked through the museum, the artwork appeared to be very organized in each area. On the second floor, the painting that really caught my eyes was one done in 1880. The artwork is an oil painting created on canvas with an old man and a little child in it. The painting was, In Grandfather’s Arms, by the artist Jozef Israëls. The painting seems to be very realistic. In it, a child is sitting on his grandfather 's lap while the grandfather is comforting the child. This artwork could be classified as still life and as a portrait because it is a scene that you could see in everyday life.
In …show more content…
Lines were used to show that the grandfather is comforting the child while the child is resting up against his chest. The lines also help indicate that they are sitting on the chair in a regular home. Even though the lines help us distinguish between the different parts of the painting, the lines are very subtle instead of hard bold strokes. They appear to be more of a sketchy line where the artist just made the rough outline so that us observers can differentiate between the different parts of the painting. The lines are used just enough to separate the individuals from each other and the room they are in. They also help us viewers to get a view of what kind of environment the people are accustomed to. Jozef used lines in a very subtle way so that it looks more natural instead of forced. The lines on the clothing of both the grandfather and the child show that there are some creases and wrinkles in the clothing but nothing to a major extent. The artist used just enough creases on the clothing to make it look realistic. It looks like they are in wood home with a hutch and a table standing near the child and her grandfather. If the artist hadn’t used lines, we may not have been able to see what the artist wanted us to see from this painting. We may have not noticed that there was a child on the grandfathers lap, we could have just thought it was a …show more content…
Natural colors were used to establish the environment of the room the child and the grandfather are in. It also helps show the kind of clothing that people wore in this time frame. Brown colors are used in many traditional paintings to show off realistic events just like this painter chose to do. When using oil to paint, the colors usually end up having a yellow tint to them once they dry. This yellow tinting is from the oil sitting and going through oxidation while it is drying which produces a more yellow color. This tinting makes sense because when you think of olive oil it has a yellow color just like any other oil. When Jozef chose to create this painting on oil canvas he probably had smooth blending in mind. When painting with oil, the oil stays wet for a longer amount of time allowing starting and stopping flexibility during the painting. This painting has very subtle blended colors which oil is good for painting with. The oils have a very slow drying time which allows the colors to mix together on the canvas. With that said, his lines don’t stand out as much as some other paintings because you would have to wait until the next day when the oils are dry so that the brushstroke doesn’t pull all of the colors together.
In Grandfather’s arms by Jozef Israëls really stuck out to me because you always see grandparents holding their grandchildren. Sometimes a child’s favorite thing is