Study of Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct, by Jean-Louis-Andre-Theodore Gericault, 1818
... Another presence of light splashes across the one-quarter side down to the right of the painting and softly cascades on the rocks and bushes by the castle, flowing down with a final cast on the water and brightens on the back of one of the swimmers on the bottom of the painting. The light casts on the three men, and who I believe to be a woman (though one reference pointed to this being four men). The people are playing and relaxing after what seems to be a long day of work. As mentioned, a strong brilliance flickers on one of the men climbing out of the water accentuating the muscles in his body. While I was observing the people in the water playing and/or relaxing in the water, one of the expressions of the people in the water (I believe to be the woman on the left of the group) was disturbing and distressing after staring at the painting for a long time. The eyes are burrowed and looks away from the others. I’m not sure of this aspect of the painting. Is she afraid of being caught or is she fearful of the others as she looks upward? Another grouping of people on the left side of the painting, who are apart from the swimmers, is in conversation. The man on the rock, who is nude, seems to be explaining to the older man about what is going on in the water. The “wanderer” on the right seems to me to have time to contemplate and listen intently as the light shines on this forehead along with a strong light on his clothes. Has this been a long day of work for these laborers? Have they decided to go and have a swim in the last moments of dramatic and moving sunset at the end of the evening? Have the swimmers come from the area where the houses appear in the upper one-quarter of the painting on the right where another splash of color is emanating? These are questions, among many more, that are not easily answered by the writer. The water seems to be refreshing as none of the swimmers seem to be flinching as they are bathing. There are strokes of paint across the canvas representing water on the bottom of the painting in a wispy manner. The water does not seem dark but playful and inviting with long and light brush stokes. It is noticed that the color of the water is mainly black, dark blue, blue, light blue, white with a hint of orange and peach signifying the light around the swimmers. Long horizontal strokes seem to go from the left to right with a splash going across the rock. You can see the transparency of the water across the rocks with a wisp of white. There are smooth brush strokes across the whole painting except for the leaves on the left through the arch which seem to be added afterwards. The paint is thicker here, emphasizing shapes, and making them three dimensional. The tree on the right as well seems to have been added later along with the rock. Where the light strikes the tree branches, more paint is added to show the dimension of the tree and the light interacting with nature. Strokes seem quicker and jagged. However, the strokes on the people, the arch on the left, the aqueduct and the swimmers seem more deliberate and carefully planned. The feeling of the painting is almost an audible sigh of completion of hard work at the end of the day. The light gives a dramatic end to the day, that the work is finally done, and a cause of satisfaction. You can imagine yourself in this painting by “swooshing” through the warm water that has been heated by the strong sun during the day, up to the aqueduct to where the last of the bright sun is protruding through. The aqueduct seems to be jutting out from the landscape rock in the middle of the painting, providing the focal point, the anchor to the painting, as it extends from the right to left across the picture plane. The light emphasizes the curves and smoothness of the aqueduct. The colors of the painting are peach, orange (the arch, sky where the sun hits the water and rocks) with blue undertones (rocks and water). There is a foreground (swimmers) middle ground (aqueduct) and a background (sky and town on the right). Romanticism, the art historical time period in which this painting (along with its three counterparts) was done in 1818, signified a shift from “reason to feeling, calculation to intuition, and from objective nature to subjective emotion” according to Gardiner’s Art Through the Ages. I believe this quote best sets the artistic atmosphere in which these paintings were created demonstrated by the dramatic light and dark tones. Interestingly, as mentioned above, Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct was also done at the same time as Gericault’s most famous painting, The Raft of Medusa. My feelings about this aspect are two fold. I am not intending to compare the two works of art, however, by setting them side by side, I do find a very strong emphasis on the power of light and dark … dark and moody with a blinding brilliance of light in significant areas of the painting that bring forth powerful emotion. Another aspect of analysis is trying to understand how Gericault could paint a landscape and an image of human suffering at the same time. It can either be that he found the emotion of landscapes to be of the same caliber with the emotion of human suffering … or, were the series of landscapes a commission that Gericault accepted, and therefore, could afford to be “detached.” If this is the case, even with the commission, Gericault’s feelings and mode of creativity still came forth and resulting in a powerful jolt of emotion displayed in the light that bursts through the canvas in Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct. Whatever the explanation, Gericault’s creativity was the epitome of Romanticist feeling and emotion. According to the WebMuseum website, characteristic attitudes of Romanticism were: “a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation of emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect; a turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities … a new view of the artist as a supremely individual creator, whose creative spirit is more important than strict adherence to formal ...