Romantic Blog

Art Nouveau Versus Realist Art Styles

La Beale Isoud at Joyous Gard by Aubrey Beardsley. From Le Morte d'Arthur, 1893-94. oil on canvas

The Dancer's Reward, for Salomé by Aubrey Beardsley [1907] oil on canvas

Art Analysis of Aubrey Beardsley Art Nouveau

    Aubrey Beardsley art was inspired by Japanese wood cuts and and emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. My first thought with seeing his art was it looked liked it was inspired but Japanese artist with the grotesqueness and line work however I do think he adds his own style with using basic black and white colors which creates a balance between light and dark contrast. Beardsley's paintings can be characterized as Art Nouveau with the dramatic curve shapes he has in both paintings above. As with Art Nouveau his paintings both both have dynamic movement with the curves of both women's silhouettes such as the long train on the dress in La Beale Isoud at Joyous Gard and the curvature of the womans back in The Dancers Reward. Aubrey also places dominant figures like the decapitated head or the women in the dress towards the left of his paintings making the viewer "read" his paintings from left to right. 

Saturn Devouring His Son by Francisco Goya oil on canvas

Witches Sabbath Francisco Goya oil on canvas

Art Analysis of Francisco Goya Realist Style

 Francois Goya was a Spanish painter and both paintings above were never meant for public consumption but were painted on the walls of his own home. The series of paintings adorned on his walls are famously called the "Black Paintings".  He is well known for his other realist works but these two I chose to do my analysis of are dark themes but are shown in a well, realistic way. Saturn was a titan and the story is told that titans eat their children when they are born so the don't grow up to overrule them, the story goes eventually one named Zeus escaped and so the Greek gods ruled over. Other painting styles of this exact story are gruesome but show a more "attractive" or "aggressive" Saturn character, while Goyas Saturn portrays the emotions that a father would feel if they had to eat their own child and with seemingly less detail then shown in other artistic movements portrays a horrifying scene of what every father would deem unthinkable. The second painting fits with the realist movement because the depictions of the people are not romanticized, these witches could be typical everyday laborers which is often what was painted in the realist art movement. The colors Goya uses in his paintings look muddy, almost as if he created them with mud, which also creates little to no illusion of light. Making the characters trapped in the scene.

Compare and Contrast Artistic Intentions 

    I chose two paintings each from Francisco Goya and Aubrey Beardly that showed a group and a grotesque scene. Both "The Dancers Reward" and "Saturn Devouring His Son" show a caretaker figure murdering someone while naturally Aubreys painting is stylistically more "pretty" Goyas painting inflects more emotion onto the viewer. Both artists use colors to evoke emotion in the subject matter as well as using the colors to create the illusion of light or shadow in the scenes. I think both artists group scenes however share a common trait of making the viewer interpret what is happening in the painting with what little information is given to them. I think both artists intended their pieces to have emotional reactions if it would be personal or public reactions or disturbed thoughtful emotions. 

Works Cited 

“Francisco Goya Artworks & Famous Paintings.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/goya-francisco/artworks/#pnt_8.

ubrey Beardsley Art, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/beardsley-aubrey/.

“Francisco Goya.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Goya.