Hi Subscriber,
We've published a few things from Thomas Couture and today's selection
won't disappoint.
His thoughts on not letting others' negativity hold you back still hold
true today.
Enjoy,
BoldBrush Studio Team
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Thomas Couture, Lawyer Going to Court, oil on canvas, c.1860
Thomas Couture, Lawyer Going to Court, oil on canvas, c.1860
Originality Comes from the Soul
Thomas Couture was a history painter, thinker, and educator working in
France during the second half of the 19th century. He ran a private
atelier where many influential artists studied, including Édouard
Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, John La Farge, and Puvis de Chavannes. A
talented educator and communicator, he also wrote a book setting forth
his techniques and philosophy of art, translated into English as
Conversations on Art Methods in 1879. Conversational and charmingly
direct, his book is full of useful information even for today's art
student, and is well worth the read (it's entertaining too!). Now in
the public domain, you can read it online here - below is an excerpt
from his chapter on originality:
DO not listen to those who say to you, 'These rules are useless, and
even hurtful to those who have originality.'
There are not two ways of painting, there is but one, which has always
been employed by those who understand the art.
Knowing how to paint and to use one's colors rightly, has not any
connection with originality.
This originality consists in properly expressing your own impressions.
Take for example the most personal and original: Raphael, Rubens,
Rembrandt, Watteau; these four great names are sufficient to make you
understand.
Raphael, Vision of a Knight, tempera on panel, c.1503
Raphael, Vision of a Knight, tempera on panel, c.1503
RAPHAEL.
Raphael expresses beauty in its sweetest form; he embellishes youth in
such a way that it captivates us. Everything in his pictures is
represented in the springtime of life; men, women, flowers; all are
young; elegance, gracefulness, purity, simplicity of lines. This
beautiful flesh, firm and round on the slender forms, the reserved
bearing, this reminder of the flower which is opening, but not yet
fully blown; the green turf enameled with marguerites, the shrubs
ornamented with small leaves, showing themselves against the pure
morning sky; all is born, all breathes, but has not yet lived. All is
perfect with this truly divine painter; here is life without its wear;
this is what I wish you to feel, and what gives to the works of Raphael
an angelic aspect.
You see he does more than copy, he chooses first, he develops
afterwards, then he throws aside all that is not in the domain of
youthful beauty; this is what makes his style and originality.
Peter Paul Rubens, The Feast of Venus, oil on canvas, c. 1635
Peter Paul Rubens, The Feast of Venus, oil on canvas, c. 1635
RUBENS.
Rubens loves grandeur and richness above all things. Nature is for him
a bouquet of brilliant flowers. His love of red shows itself in all his
pictures.
Of a temperament sanguine and strong, his paintings give the idea of a
colossus of health. His genius is very great, but it deals only with
matter. He inundates his canvas with all the richness of the earth;
flowers, fruits, gold, ermine, purple, and light, light, everywhere.
Peter Paul Rubens, The Feast of Venus (detail), oil on canvas, c. 1635
Peter Paul Rubens, The Feast of Venus (detail), oil on canvas, c. 1635
In this magnificence he represents all passions, and all sentiments;
youth, love, war, suffering, pleasure, torture, triumph ; he throws all
together liberally, a little pell mell, but with admirable energy, and
covers all with a slight mantle of purple. This is Rubens.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait (detail), oil on canvas, c.1628
Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait (detail), oil on canvas, c.1628
REMBRANDT.
His is a very different genius from Raphael's, but not less grand; he
has the rare gift of never fatiguing you. A profound observer and
thinker, he is sad and sombre; it pleases him, to picture man fatigued,
tired of life. If Raphael represents man as he comes from the hand of
the Creator, Rembrandt, on the contrary shows him to us in a state of
wreck, in human rags. The face drawn by suffering, the wrinkles, the
eyes full of tears; nothing escapes him; then profound and mysterious
shadows envelope all this sadness. Rubens might make an execution
cheerful or at least embellish it: Rembrandt saddens all joy and
gayety; he is a profound misanthrope; his work takes the impress of
what fills his soul; solemn as those who suffer, he seems to paint with
tears and with shadow. . . .Not a color, not a flower, a simple ray to
brighten the face. But what a head and what eyes! It is life itself; it
frightens us and overthrows the idea we have of art; for here there is
not development, interpretation, nothing of that, it is simply truth.
This wonderful genius is a mystery. In his depths what intensity! I
cannot explain, only admire.
Jean-Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, oil on canvas, 1717
Jean-Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, oil on canvas, 1717
WATTEAU
Is the painter of gallantry, of fickle love. All is amiable in him; his
pictures have no angles, his trees are flowing like silky feathers, his
colors tender and fleeting. Like the sentiments he represents, nothing
is serious and all is charming, all is caressing ; a simple ribbon on
the grass, made by this painter, sings of love.
Now I wish to convince you, that the manner of painting, has nothing to
do with what constitutes originality. Watteau paints like Rubens; the
same freedom, the same methods, and yet we never confound Rubens with
Watteau. Van Dyck follows the manner of his master, but his reserved
elegance, his grand feminine peculiarities make him an eminently
original painter. Rembrandt has, much more than is generally believed,
the same manner of working as Rubens.
Let us resume.
There is no manner of working which will give us originality, that
comes from the soul.
The artist who feels intensely, throws the love which fills him, into
his composition and execution; this is what we call style, and his
thought is called originality.
Jean-Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera (detail), oil on canvas,
1717
Jean-Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera (detail), oil on canvas,
1717
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