I. Past and Present of Oil Paintings
(I) The Origin of Oil Paintings
As one of the main painting genres of Western paintings, oil paintings can trace their history back to tempera paintings in Europe in the 14th century. In the middle of the 15th century, Jan van Eyck, a Netherlandish painter, made significant improvements to the painting materials and style of oil paintings. Due to his unique contribution to the in-depth development of oil painting art techniques, he is honored as the "father of oil paintings" by later generations.At that time, painters were constantly looking for a more ideal painting medium. Jan van Eyck pioneered the use of linseed oil and walnut oil as a medium for painting based on previous attempts to dissolve pigments in oil. This improvement brought many advantages, such as making the brushwork more fluid, the pigment drying on the canvas at an appropriate time, facilitating painters to cover and modify multiple times during the painting process, and thus forming rich color layers and charming gloss. Moreover, oil paintings created with this medium have strong adhesion after the pigment dries and are not prone to peeling or fading.In terms of painting expression, oil paintings since modern times are generally created on treated cloth or wooden boards, and painters use linseed oil to mix pigments. This kind of oil painting pigment has the characteristic of not changing color after drying. Even if multiple colors are mixed with each other, it will not make the picture messy. With this characteristic, painters can show rich colors and realistic content. At the same time, oil painting pigments are opaque and have strong covering power. When painting, painters often cover layer by layer in order from deep to light to create a three-dimensional effect, making the objects in the picture seem to jump out of the paper.After Jan van Eyck's improvement and promotion, oil painting art has been innovated, and painting techniques have been greatly enriched, laying a solid foundation for its subsequent vigorous development and gradually becoming the main painting method in Western painting history. Most of the many surviving Western painting works we can see today are oil paintings.(II) The Development Context of Oil PaintingsThe Renaissance periodThe Renaissance was a great ideological and cultural movement in European history and played a great role in promoting the development of oil paintings. During this period, oil paintings began to emerge and gradually mature. Artists at that time advocated nature and pursued the combination of science and art, making oil painting techniques reach a new height.In Italy, the famous Florentine School emerged. This school was dominated by humanism, inherited the artistic traditions of ancient Greece and Rome, explored the realistic reproduction of three-dimensional shapes on a flat surface, and applied the achievements of natural sciences in the field of art. It developed perspective drawing, chiaroscuro drawing, and artistic anatomy, represented the abstract images of gods in the Middle Ages as secular people, and created a new artistic style. Figures like Giotto, Masaccio, and Botticelli are representative figures of this school. Botticelli's works "Spring" and "The Birth of Venus" are no longer limited to religious themes. Most of them are drawn from mythological legends and literary works, freely expressing individuality and secular feelings. They focus on line modeling, develop the decorative style of the Middle Ages, and create a unique painting style full of rhythm, exquisiteness, and clarity.The "Three Masters of the Renaissance" - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael - pushed Italian Renaissance art to a historical peak. Leonardo da Vinci was a versatile genius. He perfectly combined art and science, invented the "sfumato" technique, and successfully showed the subtle inner activities of characters. His works such as "The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa" are all传世 classics. Michelangelo's works are full of heroism, suppressed power, and tragic passion. He fully demonstrated the expressiveness of the human body. Whether it is his famous sculptures "David" and "Moses" or his paintings "The Creation of Adam" and "The Last Judgment", they all show extremely high artistic levels. The figures in Raphael's paintings have a mild and noble temperament. He is especially known for depicting the image of the Madonna. In Madonna paintings and portraits, the revelation of psychological factors of characters reached an unprecedented height. The beauty style he established also became one of the standards for later academic painting. His representative works include "The School of Athens" and "The Sistine Madonna".At the same time, the Venetian School emerged in the northern part of Italy centered around Venice. The characteristics of this school are a strong emphasis on the use of color. The paintings are gorgeous and pay attention to visual effects. The characters in religious-themed works are completely secularized, with a hedonistic sentiment. They also pay attention to the depiction of natural scenery and are full of lyrical poetry. Giorgione and his disciple Titian are representative figures of the Venetian School. Titian is even honored as the father of Western oil paintings. He made bold improvements to the original oil painting techniques, thus greatly enriching the expressive language of oil paintings. His works have strong colors, bold brushstrokes, loud pictures, and are filled with vitality. Works like "The Venus of Urbino" and "The Assumption of the Virgin" are his classic masterpieces.The Baroque art periodBaroque art originated in Italy and then spread to the entire Europe and later to America and Asia. It prevailed for more than a century from the second half of the 16th century to the 17th century and had a wide influence on world art. Baroque oil paintings are a new oil painting genre that emerged after the early classical oil paintings popular during the Renaissance period and are the mainstream painting genre of Western oil paintings in the 17th century.Although most oil paintings of this period still follow the tradition of taking ancient Greek and Roman mythological legends and Bible stories as their content, they are obviously different from oil paintings of the Renaissance period in terms of expression forms and style characteristics. It broke the implicit balance, harmony, tranquility, and solemn "rational perfection" of early classical oil paintings, injected rhythmic and romantic passion with a sense of life into oil paintings, and the pictures show a magnificent, bold, and even domineering atmosphere and artistic tension full of imagination.Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640), a Flemish painter, is an important representative of Baroque oil painting art in the 17th century. His oil paintings are considered to represent the highest achievement of Baroque painting art at that time. For example, in his "The Garden of Love", pairs of affectionate men and women convey the affection of love in various postures. Plump women in gorgeous clothing pose coquettishly, looking forward to and enjoying the warmth of love. The little cupid is happily leaping and shuttling among people, spreading the message of love. The whole picture is full of tenderness, warmth, and joy, while also showing the luxurious, passionate, imaginative, bold in color, and dynamic characteristics of Baroque art.In addition, works like "The Death of the Children of Bédée" by Laurent de La Hyre, "Landscape with Dancers" by Claude Lorrain, and "The Battlefield" by Salvator Rosa also show the charm of Baroque oil painting art from different angles. They either emphasize the solemnity, rationality, and elegance of the picture, or create an idyllic and lyrical poetic atmosphere, or vividly depict war scenes, bringing strong visual impact and artistic appeal to viewers.The Enlightenment eraIn the Enlightenment era, people's thoughts were further liberated, and their aesthetics and needs for art also changed. Oil paintings of this period began to pay more attention to real life, focusing on the depiction and thinking of aspects such as human nature and social phenomena. The painting style also gradually diversified, and artistic trends such as realism began to germinate. Painters were no longer limited to traditional themes such as religion and mythology but turned their attention to ordinary people and daily scenes around them, trying to show the real face of society and people's lives through oil paintings, laying the groundwork for the subsequent vigorous development of realistic oil paintings.
Enlightenment Era
In the Enlightenment era, people's thoughts were further liberated, and their aesthetics and demands for art also changed. Oil paintings of this period began to pay more attention to real life, focusing on the depiction and thinking of aspects such as human nature and social phenomena. The painting style also gradually diversified, and artistic trends such as realism began to germinate. Painters were no longer limited to traditional themes such as religion and mythology but turned their attention to ordinary people and daily scenes around them, trying to show the real face of society and people's lives through oil paintings, laying the groundwork for the subsequent vigorous development of realistic oil paintings.20th Century Modern Art StageEntering the 20th century, oil painting ushered in an unprecedented period of reform and diversified development. Various modern art schools emerged like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, such as Impressionism, Abstractionism, Surrealism, and so on.Impressionism emphasizes the capture of instantaneous feelings of light and color. Painters often paint outdoors and do not rely on traditional sketches. Instead, they quickly apply colors with small brushstrokes. For example, Monet's "Impression, Sunrise" shows the hazy changes of light and shadow in the port at sunrise with mosaic-like brushstrokes, making the picture full of vivid sense of light and shadow and air, breaking the delicate and regular expression form of traditional oil paintings and leading a new painting style and aesthetic concept.Abstractionism pays more attention to the expression of inner spirit and emotion. Painters get rid of the depiction of specific objects and use elements such as color, line, and shape to construct the picture and convey an abstract and indescribable emotion or thought. For example, Kandinsky's works create a highly tense and rhythmic picture through the interweaving and collision of colors and lines, giving the audience a broad space for imagination.Surrealism combines reality with dreams and the subconscious to create fantastic and absurd picture scenes. Dali's paintings often feature distorted objects and unreasonable combinations of scenes, challenging people's conventional cognition and digging out the deep spiritual world of human beings.These artists of different schools continuously expand the boundaries of oil painting with their unique artistic concepts and creative techniques, making oil painting art present a prosperous scene of a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending in the 20th century and also making oil painting maintain strong vitality and artistic charm in modern society.(III) The Story of the Introduction of Oil Painting to ChinaThe introduction of oil painting to China can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty at the earliest. At that time, Western missionaries stepped on Chinese soil one after another, opening a new chapter in cultural exchanges between the East and the West. Oil painting was brought into China under such a background.In 1579, the Italian Catholic missionary Michele Ruggieri was ordered to come to Guangdong to set up a church. When he transferred from Macau to Zhaoqing, Guangdong, the local governor inspected his belongings and "found some finely painted colored holy icon paintings." These colored holy icon paintings are the earliest Western oil paintings recorded in documents that were introduced to China. The missionary who had a greater impact on China was Matteo Ricci (1552 - 1610). After he came to China, he did several things of extraordinary significance for the spread of oil painting. First, he presented holy icons and dedicated oil paintings to the Chinese emperor, arousing the emperor's interest. The emperor ordered court painters to enlarge these paintings with colors under the guidance of Matteo Ricci, making oil painting spread in the court. Second, "Cheng's Ink Garden" published "Treasure Image Map." Matteo Ricci gave Western copperplate painting drafts to Chinese artists. As a high-level ink spectrum atlas in ancient China, "Cheng's Ink Garden" played a great role in promoting the spread of Western paintings. Third, he also cooperated with Xu Guangqi, the minister of rites in the late Ming Dynasty, to write "Introduction to Translation of Elements of Geometry," expounding Western painting methods from scientific principles, which had breakthrough significance in China at that time.After Matteo Ricci, there was also a missionary named Giovanni who contributed to the spread of oil painting in China. In 1583, Giovanni painted "Savior" for the Ruins of St. Paul's Church in Macau. This is the earliest oil painting painted by Western missionaries in China recorded in existing documents. Soon after that, Giovanni was sent to Japan to open a painting school to spread Western oil painting and conduct religious painting education. In 1614, Tokugawa Ieyasu of Japan ordered the prohibition of religion. Giovanni then brought his students back to Macau and set up a painting school in St. Paul's Monastery to teach Western painting. Here became the first art school in Chinese history to teach Western painting and cultivated a group of early Chinese oil painters such as Ni Yagu, You Wenhui, and Shi Hongji, thus kicking off the prelude to the development of Chinese oil painting.In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, many European missionaries who were good at oil painting came to China and served in the court, such as the Italians Giuseppe Castiglione and Pan Tingzhang, and the Frenchman Jean-Denis Attiret. They became the first batch of foreign painters in the Chinese court and were ordered to paint many oil portraits. Emperor Qianlong弘历 also ordered to select young servants in the palace to learn Western painting techniques (oil painting techniques) from foreigners. The existing paper-based oil painting landscape by the Manchu painter Wude is the oil painting work of Chinese painters during this period.After hundreds of years of development, oil painting has achieved vigorous development in China today. Not only have a large number of famous oil painters such as Wu Guanzhong, Zhao Wuji, Jin Shangyi, Luo Zhongli, Chen Yifei, Chen Danqing, and Leng Jun emerged, but also a considerable-scale oil painting industry has formed and is widely recognized by the Chinese people. At the same time, Chinese artists are also constantly innovating and exploring, trying to combine oil painting and traditional Chinese painting, copying and creating many perfect works with high artistic value, adding a thick and colorful stroke to the development of Chinese art history and also making oil painting bloom with unique brilliance on the land of China.II. Diverse Artistic Styles of Oil Painting(I) Style schools mainly based on objective reproduction1. Renaissance styleOil paintings in the Renaissance period focused on realism and were committed to showing a realistic effect on the canvas, as if moving the real world onto the canvas. Artists at that time were deeply influenced by humanist thought and conducted in-depth research on nature and human body structure, using scientific knowledge to improve painting skills to achieve more accurate reproduction.
(I) Style schools mainly based on objective reproduction
1. Renaissance styleOil paintings in the Renaissance period focused on realism and were committed to showing a realistic effect on the canvas, as if moving the real world onto the canvas. Artists at that time were deeply influenced by humanist thought and conducted in-depth research on nature and human body structure, using scientific knowledge to improve painting skills to achieve more accurate reproduction.Leonardo da Vinci is an outstanding representative of this style. His "Mona Lisa" vividly portrays the figure's expression, skin texture, and mysterious smile through delicate brushstrokes and subtle light and shadow treatment, making viewers seem to feel the breathing and emotions of the person in the painting through the canvas. There is also "The Last Supper", which creates a sense of space through perspective. The characters' movements and expressions are diverse, vividly showing the tense and dramatic scene.Raphael cannot be ignored either. The Madonna images under his brush are particularly classic. For example, "The Sistine Madonna". The Madonna's face is kind and gentle, and her posture is elegant. The surrounding characters and environmental arrangements complement each other. The entire picture is harmonious and full of beauty, showing extremely high artistic expression. These works achieve a realistic and highly artistic presentation of the objective world through rigorous composition, accurate grasp of human proportions, and delicate use of colors.2. Baroque styleOil paintings in the Baroque style extremely emphasize light and shadow effects and dramatic compositions. Artists are good at using strong contrasts between light and dark, allowing the bright and dark areas in the picture to interweave with each other, thus creating a dramatic atmosphere and making the figures and objects seem to be endowed with life, seemingly emerging from the canvas and having a strong three-dimensional sense. At the same time, they often use dynamic postures to shape the images in their works, breaking the relatively static presentation method of traditional paintings.Rubens is a key representative figure of Baroque oil painting art, and his works are exemplary. For example, "The Garden of Love". In the painting, affectionate men and women convey love in various intimate postures. The women are dressed in gorgeous clothing and are coquettish. The little cupids are happily leaping and spreading the message of love. The picture has bright and bold colors and vivid character dynamics, fully demonstrating the luxurious, passionate, and dynamic characteristics of the Baroque style. In addition, works like "The Death of the Child of Baudelocque" by Laurent de La Hyre also show the unique charm of Baroque oil painting art from different angles, either solemn and solemn, or lyrical like a pastoral poem, or vividly presenting war scenes, bringing a strong visual impact and artistic appeal to viewers.3. Classical styleClassical oil paintings strictly follow the aesthetic principles of ancient Greece and Rome. In terms of composition, it pays attention to symmetry and balance, and pursues a harmonious and stable picture layout, so that viewers can feel a kind of beauty of order when appreciating works. In terms of momentum, it often shows the characteristics of solemnity, brilliance, and loftiness, conveying a grand and elegant artistic atmosphere.Technically, it requires even more exquisite craftsmanship. Painters will spend a lot of time deeply depicting the outlines and lines of figures and objects, and meticulously carve details to strive for a perfect presentation. Many of Raphael's works reflect the charm of classicism. The beauty style he established also became one of the standards of later academies. Ingres is hailed as the last master of classicism in Europe. His nude oil paintings show the unique charm of classical oil paintings through delicate brushstrokes, accurate modeling, and exquisite use of colors. For example, in his "The Source", the girl in the picture has a graceful posture and delicate skin. The entire painting exudes an elegant and holy atmosphere.4. Realist styleThe realist style advocates using techniques faithful to the object to show normal visual images. Its core lies in reflecting the essence of life. Artists abandon idealized imagination and instead closely observe the appearance of things and copy them truthfully, focusing their attention on various scenes and characters in real life, and showing the real appearance of life and the social significance contained therein through brushes.Miller's "The Gleaners" is a typical representative of realist style paintings. The picture depicts three peasant women bending over to pick up ears of grain in the field. They are dressed in simple clothes and have focused and tired expressions. The background is a vast field and busy crowds. The painter uses simple brushstrokes and realistic techniques without deliberate beautification or exaggeration, truly presenting the hardships of farmers' labor and the difficulties of life, allowing viewers to deeply feel the living conditions of the bottom people in that era and triggering people's thinking about social reality.5. Impressionist styleThe Impressionist style is a major innovation in the development process of oil painting. It breaks many shackles of traditional painting and focuses on capturing the instantaneous changes of light and shadow and colors. Painters are no longer limited to the studio. Instead, they go out of the room and go deep into nature to explore the wonderful effects of light produced under different times, weather, and environments.Monet, as the leading figure of the Impressionist school, his works fully show the characteristics of this style. For example, "Impression, Sunrise" uses small mosaic-like brushstrokes to color quickly. When viewed from a distance, these brushstrokes interweave and merge with each other, vividly showing the hazy changes of light and shadow in the port at sunrise, making the picture full of a vivid sense of light and shadow and air, as if the port scenery at that moment is frozen on the canvas. There is also his "Water Lilies" series. The water lily ponds under different times and seasons have different color and light and shadow presentations under his brush, bringing a new aesthetic concept to oil painting art and opening up a broader space for the subsequent development of oil painting, inspiring many artists to explore more possibilities of color and light and shadow.(II) Style schools mainly based on subjective expression1. FauvismThe remarkable characteristic of Fauvism lies in its extremely bold and vivid use of colors and unrestrained brushwork. Painters seem to break free from the shackles of traditional color combinations and painting brushwork and express their inner emotions and artistic concepts in an extremely impactful way.Matisse is the leading figure of Fauvism. In his painting "Dance", the figures in the picture are simple in image, but the colors are intense and hot. Bright colors such as red, green, and blue collide with each other. The postures of the figures are full of vitality and movement, as if viewers can feel the passionate dance rhythm and the overflowing passion for life. Art critics once described Fauvist paintings as "squeezing the paint directly from the paint tube onto the canvas". Although somewhat exaggerated, it also vividly reflects the boldness and unrestrainedness of this school in color use and brushwork. They add a different kind of bright color to oil painting art with their unique artistic language.
(2) Style schools dominated by subjective expression
1. FauvismThe remarkable characteristic of Fauvism lies in its extremely bold and vivid use of colors and straightforward and unrestrained brushwork. Painters seem to break free from the shackles of traditional color combinations and painting brushwork and express their inner emotions and artistic concepts in an extremely impactful way.Matisse is the leading figure of Fauvism. In his painting "Dance", the figures in the picture are simple in image, but the colors are intense and hot. Bright colors such as red, green, and blue collide with each other. The postures of the figures are full of vitality and movement, as if viewers can feel the passionate dance rhythm and the overflowing passion for life. Art critics once described Fauvist paintings as "squeezing the paint directly from the paint tube onto the canvas". Although somewhat exaggerated, it also vividly reflects the boldness and unrestrainedness of this school in color use and brushwork. They add a different kind of bright color to oil painting art with their unique artistic language.2. ExpressionismExpressionism focuses on expressing inner emotions. Painters often distort and abstract reality to convey strong subjective feelings and spiritual worlds. They are not bound by the original forms of objective things but instead strengthen the emotional power contained in works through exaggeration, deformation, and other techniques, allowing viewers to directly touch the inner depths of the creator through the picture.Munch's "The Scream" is undoubtedly a highly representative work in the expressionist school. In the picture, the main figure covers his ears in an extremely distorted and frightened posture. The sky and river in the background also seem to twist and rotate with the figure's emotions. The use of colors creates an oppressive, tense, and uneasy atmosphere, vividly showing the scream of human beings when facing the pressure, loneliness, and fear of modern society, allowing everyone who appreciates this painting to deeply feel the strong emotional impact conveyed by it.3. CubismThe typical characteristic of Cubism is to reduce things to geometric forms and represent objects from multiple angles and in an all-round way. Painters break the traditional single-perspective presentation of objects in painting, disassemble and reconstruct the depicted objects, and combine different geometric shapes together to show the different sides of objects and their interrelationships in space, bringing viewers a brand new visual experience.Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" is a classic work of Cubist style. The figures in the painting are spliced together by various geometric shapes. The contours of the face and body are no longer in the realistic form in the traditional sense but present a broken and reconstructed state. Through this unique creative technique, it shows a different kind of formal beauty and a bold breakthrough in traditional aesthetic concepts, and also inspires many later artists to conduct more exploration and innovation in painting forms and spatial expressions.4. AbstractionismAbstractionism purely uses basic elements such as lines and colors and completely abandons the reproduction of external objects. Painters, relying on inner inspiration and emotions, freely combine and interweave colors and lines to construct pictures full of imagination and artistic tension, allowing viewers to break away from the limitations of specific objects when appreciating works and enter a broader spiritual and emotional space to feel and understand the abstract meaning conveyed by works.Kandinsky's works are outstanding representatives of the abstract style. Through the interweaving and collision of colors and lines, he creates pictures with extremely strong tension and rhythmic sense. For example, in some of his paintings, patches of various colors and flowing lines merge and conflict with each other, as if they have their own vitality, giving the audience a broad space for imagination and allowing people to read different emotions, thoughts, and perceptions of the world from them. Mondrian's works are also extremely characteristic. He often constructs pictures with simple straight lines, three primary colors, and black and white blocks, showing an extreme sense of order and rational beauty and conveying a unique abstract art concept.III. Appreciation of classic oil paintings
(1) "Mona Lisa"
The Mona Lisa is an oil painting created by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 and 1506, which is now in the collection of the Louvre Museum in France.The picture is a mysterious female image of gentleness, tranquility, elegance and nobility, dignified and kind. The Mona Lisa is in a serene and steady posture, with her hands folded in front of her, her face is soft, her eyes are looking into the distance, and the most fascinating thing is the smile that purses the corners of her mouth and is just noticeable. Leonardo da Vinci used the technique of "smudging" to layer layers of paint on top of each other to create a softened and hazy silhouette that envelops the figure in a mysterious veil.What makes the Mona Lisa's smile so mysterious is that da Vinci painted the key corners of the eyes and mouth of the smile in a way that is unpredictable. This way of expression makes the facial expression of a specific person become an eternal symbol of human joy, and also makes the viewer feel as if she is smiling no matter from any angle, as if her smile has a magic that transcends time and space, which is also the wonder of this work.In terms of painting techniques, elements such as cliffs, paths, stone bridges, trees and gurgling water in the background complement each other with the main body of the characters, and through the clever use of light and shadow, the whole picture is full of poetic artistic conception. In addition, with the help of a microscope, you can also find details that are difficult to detect with the naked eye, such as the greenish-brown right eyeball of the Mona Lisa, which shows the care and skill of Leonardo da Vinci's painting.In terms of ideological and artistic value, this painting was born in the Renaissance period, when it was after the era of medieval religious domination that suppressed human nature, and the artwork began to shift from the theme of God to depict living people, "Mona Lisa" is a praise of human nature, a rebellion against the theological domination and asceticism of the European Middle Ages that suppressed human nature, representing the revolution of the emerging bourgeoisie to break the spiritual shackles of the church, carrying a profound humanist connotation, highlighting the human, dynamic, elegant, and harmonious formal beauty, It is no wonder that it has become a classic and has been appreciated and studied by countless people in later generations.
(2) "Sunflower"
Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" series is a shining jewel in the history of art, and these works are full of Van Gogh's deep understanding of life and his unique personal spiritual world.Van Gogh had a deep affection for sunflowers, which in his eyes were a symbol of life, and their brilliant golden yellow color when they bloomed gave people a sense of vitality and eternal life. The sunflower is full of vitality and is always open to the sun, and the inflorescence rotates with the sun, representing the pursuit of light and ideals, showing the characteristics of passion, courage and steadfastness. By depicting sunflowers, Van Gogh expressed his attitude towards life with gratitude to his family, kindness to others, honesty to friends, sincerity to work, gratitude to life, and appreciation for art.From the perspective of picture performance, the series of works is extremely bold and distinctive in terms of color, and the intense and fiery colors fill the whole picture, such as the vivid red, green, and blue collide with each other, presenting the exuberant vitality of the sunflower with a very impactful visual effect. In terms of artistic conception, the seemingly simple combination of sunflowers interprets Van Gogh's own warm, sincere and pure qualities, as if each sunflower blooms warmly on the canvas, conveying the power and passion of life.After Van Gogh's death, the "Sunflowers" series was widely acclaimed, on the one hand, because of the love and awe of life shown in the works, the spirit of yearning for beauty in the face of difficulties resonated with people, allowing the audience to draw from it the strength to face life positively; On the other hand, Van Gogh's unique artistic style broke some of the constraints of traditional painting at that time, and opened up new ideas for later artists to create art with a new use of color and expression, inspiring more people to explore and express their inner emotional world, which had a profound impact on the development of modern art.
(3) "The Girl with a Pearl Earring"
Created around 1665 by the 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is one of the typical representative works of the small Dutch painting school, and is now in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Mauritshuis in The Hague, the Netherlands, and is also known as the "Mona Lisa of the North".The girl in the painting turns her head sideways to stare out of the frame, wearing a blue and yellow Turkish headscarf, the blue is painted from the expensive lapis lazuli polished ultramarine, which contrasts with the hanging lemon yellow, and the pearl earrings around the neck shimmer slightly, and the solid color background makes the image of the girl stand out. Her complexion is white and translucent, her lips are slightly open, her eyes are melancholy and calm, and she is dressed in a brown coat with a white collar exposed, showing a fresh, quiet poetry and a meaningful mysterious temperament.This work was created in the context of a specific era in the Netherlands, when the Netherlands got rid of Spanish rule and established the earliest capitalist system in Europe, the social atmosphere was free, and the artistic creation was also freed from religious shackles, and began to face secular life, focusing on the market life of ordinary citizens. Vermeer is one of the outstanding representatives of the Dutch School of Painting, and "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is a representative work of this school.In the stage of development of Dutch art, this work has a unique meaning and artistic charm. From the point of view of color matching, the use of bold chiaroscuro and purer pigments gives a distinct interpretation of the girl's headscarf, clothes, face and pearl earrings, etc., and sets off the radiant image of the girl to the extreme. In terms of light and shadow skills, Vermeer skillfully uses highlight techniques to express various textures and shapes through subtle changes in a large number of diffused light, such as using heavy white spots to outline the light emitted by the pearls on the edge of the girl's earlobes in the dark, cleverly reflecting the shape and texture of the pearl, and at the same time creating a strong three-dimensional effect and a sense of depth in the picture, making the girl's image particularly real and eye-catching, showing a very high artistic standard. It has important reference value for the painting art of the Netherlands and even the whole of Europe in terms of realism and artistic conception creation.(4) "The Scream"The Scream is a masterpiece by the outstanding Norwegian artist Edvard Munch and a pioneer of the international Expressionist painting, through which Munch conveys a deep sense of life and death.In the picture, the main figure covers his ears in an extremely distorted and frightened posture, as if he is suffering great pain and fear, the sky and river in the background are also distorted and rotated with the emotions of the characters, and the heavy blood red is suspended above the horizon, giving people an ominous premonition, which conflicts with the purple in the dark part of the sea, and the same purple is repeated on the clothes of the lonely person, while the hands and head of the characters are left in a pale, bleak brownish gray, the whole picture is depressed, creating a depressing, The tense and unsettling atmosphere vividly shows the cry from the depths of human beings in the face of the stress, loneliness and fear of modern society, so that the viewer can deeply feel the strong emotional impact conveyed by it.In terms of expression, Munch adopts the method of simplifying the details of reality and exaggerating emotions, and depicts the deformed screaming characters with extremely exaggerated brushwork, which vividly expresses the extreme loneliness and depression of human beings, as well as the fear in front of the infinite universe.Munch's personal tragic experiences had a profound impact on his creative style. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1868 and was raised alone by his mentally ill father, who instilled in his children a deep-seated fear of hell, and his siblings died. These experiences led him to express his inner feelings and emotions with contrasting lines, color blocks and concise and exaggerated shapes, using contrasting lines, color blocks, and concise and exaggerated shapes.4. Practical skills for oil painting creation
(1) Drafting and composition skills
In the initial stage of oil painting, the manuscript is a crucial part. We have a variety of options for how to start your manuscript. A common practice is to use a pencil to lightly sketch a rough outline on the canvas, which is easy to modify and adjust, and can help us quickly determine the position and form of each element in the picture, just like the blueprint of an building, laying the foundation for subsequent creation. For example, when painting an oil painting of a person, first draw the big composition and the general expression of the character on the paper with a pencil, and then sketch against the model, and constantly appreciate the inner temperament of the model in the process of sketching, process, summarize and refine the first draft, and finally finalize the sketch and then copy it to the canvas.Alternatively, you can work directly with light pigments, such as very thin watercolors or acrylics. Very thin watercolors will not affect the coverage of the subsequent still life paintings, and acrylic is a good choice if you need to impasto. Of course, there are some other drafting tools to choose from, such as charcoal sticks (charcoal sticks and charcoal sticks), charcoal strips are lighter, easier to erase and more flexible to use, and charcoal sticks can leave heavy lines to make the contour line more defined; Charcoal has thinner lines and is more suitable for depicting details; However, some people are not very fond of using a pencil to start the draft, believing that the lead print may come up from under the color layer of the oil painting.In the creation of oil painting, composition is related to the overall effect of the picture and the first impression and emotional resonance brought to the viewer. First of all, it is necessary to grasp the balance and layering of the picture, and the creation of a sense of balance can be achieved through a variety of techniques, such as symmetry, repetition, contrast, etc., to avoid the situation that one side or corner of the picture is too crowded, and the other parts are too empty. For example, in Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper", the figures and houses in the picture are in a triangular composition, the triangular structure itself is solid, and the straight dining table and thirteen figures in a row at the front of the picture form a parallel line relationship with the back wall of the building, giving the viewer a stable and unshakable emotional experience.The shaping of the sense of hierarchy is the key to expressing the sense of three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional plane, and we can use the principle of perspective, chiaroscuro and color changes to create different levels of effect from near and far. For example, when depicting a landscape oil painting, by using the paint of the distant scene a little thinner, the color is slightly lighter and more imaginary, and the paint of the close scene is thicker, the color is thicker and more solid, and then the color changes can be combined with the cold and warm changes, etc., the picture can present a rich sense of spatial layering, as if it can lead the viewer into the world of the painting. In short, the sketch and composition are the cornerstones of oil painting creation, which need to be carefully explored and practiced.(2) Color skillsColor is the soul of oil painting, and the clever use of color can make oil paintings glow with unique charm. First of all, it is extremely important to observe the changes in color in natural light. Because the light source and the environment will directly affect the temperature and temperature of the object, the color of the object will be completely different under different light conditions. For example, under the illumination of a cold cloudy day or a commonly used incandescent lamp, the light-receiving surface of the picture will show a cold light color effect due to the cold light, while the color of the dark part or the unlit part will be warmer. When the object is irradiated by sunlight, the light-receiving part often produces a warm feeling, and the corresponding shadow part is biased towards cold tones, like a white wall, irradiated by a strong beam of sunlight, the light-receiving surface will appear yellowish or orange warm gray effect, and in the dark side or in the part of the object projection, it will give people a feeling of cold blue-gray and cold purple-gray.In actual creation, the use of principles such as warm and cold contrast, complementary colors and other principles can make the picture more vivid and expressive. The complementary colors mainly include yellow and purple, blue and orange, red and green, and when they are placed next to each other, they will form a sharp contrast, produce a strong visual impact, and attract the viewer's attention; The rational use of the transition and collocation of cold and warm colors can enhance the sense of space and hierarchy of the picture, making the object look more three-dimensional and realistic. For example, when depicting an indoor scene, warm colors are used to represent the areas illuminated by the lights, and cool colors are used to depict the dark corners that the lights can't shine through.Different color combinations can also create different picture effects. For example, warm colors often bring people a warm, warm and lively feeling, such as Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" series, strong and fiery colors fill the whole picture, bright red, green and blue collide with each other, presenting the exuberant vitality of sunflowers with a very impactful visual effect, conveying the characteristics of passion, courage and unswerving; Cool-toned images may create a calm, cold, and distant atmosphere, which is suitable for expressing some quiet landscapes or contemplative themes. In short, the use of color is a major science, which requires us to constantly observe, practice and explore in order to master this key element of oil painting creation.(3) Brushstrokes and texture skillsBrushstrokes have a unique expressive power in oil painting, and brushstrokes of different sizes and shapes can play different roles, adding rich texture and emotion to the work. Long strokes are often used to depict open and gentle areas such as distant plains, water, or sky, which can make these large areas appear more fluid and stretched, giving a visual impression of vastness. For example, when painting an oil painting of grassland landscape, using long brushstrokes to express the stretch of grassland can well show the vastness of the grassland.The short thorn-like brushstrokes have a stronger sense of activity, which is suitable for expressing some dynamic or textured places, such as depicting the scene of the turbulent waves hitting the rocks, and the short brushstrokes can vividly show the surging power of the waves and the state of splashing; Small dotted brushstrokes are generally closer to the object in the foreground, and through dense or sparse embellishment, you can shape the details of the object or show a special texture effect, such as when painting flowers, use small dot brushstrokes to depict subtleties such as stamens, so as to make the flowers more realistic.The creation of texture effect is the key technique to add texture to the picture in the creation of oil painting. We can create soft textures, such as smearing on objects with blurred and irregular brushstrokes, or trying to rub the canvas with a brush to achieve a fluffy texture that expresses the texture of soft objects such as clouds, cotton, fur, etc. You can also use complementary colors to form contrast to strengthen the texture effect, adjacent complementary colors can form a sharp contrast, so that the texture of the picture is more prominent, such as when painting an ancient wall with mottled traces, the use of yellow and purple and other complementary color brushstrokes to shape the texture of the wall, can make the wall look more vicissitudes of time and three-dimensional.In addition, special materials and tools can be used to create unique textures. For example, use large white powder or lithop powder to mix white latex into a paste, use a paintbrush or knife to make a mottled pen mark texture where needed, or apply white powder paste to the bottom layer, and use knives, combs, rollers, etc. to make an ideal texture; You can also dissolve Dama or Marty resin in turpentine and then mix the white pigment, and when it reaches a certain viscosity, use a paintbrush or a large painting knife to make texture on the scraped canvas; It is also convenient to use acrylic paint or acrylic shaping paste to create a texture, but be aware that if acrylic paint is easy to peel off when used on an oil base or after coloring, it is best to sandpaper it before use. In the process of painting, you can also use the color changes of the pigment such as thin, thick, thin, and thick, and borrow brushstrokes and knife techniques to directly make uneven and rough effects, or mix sand, sawdust, glass chips, bread crumbs and other granular materials into the pigment to create a different texture effect, so as to make the oil painting show a unique texture charm.
5. The charm and development of oil painting in contemporary times
(1) Embodiment of value in the art market
Oil painting has shown a high value in the contemporary art market, not only due to the long-term preservation characteristics of its own materials, but also closely related to its profound artistic heritage and evolving artistic style.From the point of view of preservation characteristics, oil paint does not change color after drying, and has strong adhesion, as long as the storage conditions are appropriate, after hundreds of years or even longer, the picture can still maintain a good state. Centuries have passed since the works of many Renaissance masters, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Raphael's Sistine Madonna, but they are still brightly coloured and intact, stored in museums for the world to enjoy, and they carry historical and artistic value and have become priceless treasures.It is precisely because of this good preservation that oil paintings have a unique status and influence in the field of art trading. In the auction market, famous oil paintings often fetch staggering prices, becoming the object of competition among collectors and investors. For example, Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" series, with its intense and fiery colors, full of passion for life and Van Gogh's unique artistic style, has given it a very high position in the history of art. There are also works like Picasso, whose cubist style ushered in a new era of painting, whether it is masterpieces such as "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" or other paintings, which have attracted much attention in the market and sold for a lot of money.Looking at the classicist master Ingres's "Spring", the delicate depiction of the girl's image exudes an elegant and holy atmosphere, and with its exquisite techniques and unique artistic charm, it also has a very high value in the art market. For example, collectors who like a realistic style may be keen to collect Rembrandt's works, and those who appreciate abstract styles will be more interested in Kandinsky and others. In short, in the contemporary art market, oil painting is not only the bearer of artistic value, but also a collection category with great investment potential, which constantly demonstrates its unique charm and influence.(2) Integration and innovation with other art formsIn the trend of the development of contemporary art, modern artists continue to explore and innovate, skillfully integrating oil painting with other art forms such as Chinese painting, injecting new vitality into the art of oil painting, making it show diversified and avant-garde changes.Taking Chinese painting as an example, the two have their own particularities in composition, line, brushwork, color, etc., and the artists have grasped these characteristics to fuse. For example, in terms of composition, Chinese painting pays attention to the depiction of the gods in form, adopts scattered perspective, pays attention to the expression of artistic conception, and is relatively relaxed and casual; Most of the oil paintings are more rigorous in composition, and they often use focus perspective to highlight rationality. However, the artists broke through this difference, such as Wu Guanzhong's work "Water Town", which combined the brushwork, black and white color, and composition of Chinese painting with the expression of Western oil painting, creating a unique artistic conception of water town, which not only has the ethereal charm of Chinese painting, but also has the texture and color expression of oil painting, creating oil paintings with a very Chinese flavor.Looking at Mr. Pan Xiaodong, as a well-known oil painter, he continues to explore and practice on the creative road of oil painting and Chinese painting, and his Chinese painting works have many artistic characteristics in oil painting works, such as distinctive regional characteristics, the grasp of ink and color contrast, the free use of the pen and the proper use of the method, etc., the overall artistic effect is full of enthusiasm for the land of Northwest China, so that the audience can feel the expressiveness of oil painting in his Chinese painting works.Leng Jun is also an artist with a unique exploration in the aspect of fusion, he was originally famous for his hyper-realistic oil paintings, and later set foot in the creation of Chinese painting, the freehand to the extreme, and ingeniously use oil paint combined with Chinese painting techniques to create bamboo, the bamboo with hyper-realistic techniques to express, not only the fragrance of brush and ink, but also to achieve the effect of fake and real, to achieve the unique integration and innovation of Eastern and Western painting art in the theme of bamboo.This kind of integration and innovation is of great significance to the development trend of oil painting in the development trend of contemporary art, it breaks the single creative mode and aesthetic concept of traditional oil painting, broadens the expression boundary of oil painting, allows oil painting to better combine with local culture, shows national characteristics and cultural connotation, and also attracts more audiences with different aesthetic preferences to appreciate and understand oil painting art, and promotes the diversified development of art.(3) How ordinary people appreciate the beauty of oil paintingsFor the general public, appreciating oil painting can start from multiple angles, so that they can better appreciate the artistic charm of oil painting and improve their artistic quality.First of all, you can enjoy it from the theme of the picture. Each oil painting has its core content to express, such as the realist painter Miller's "Gleaning", the theme is to show the hardships of peasant labor, by depicting the scene of three peasant women bending over in the field to glean the head, let the viewer intuitively feel the living conditions of the people at the bottom of that era, and then trigger thinking about social reality; For example, Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" focuses on the image of a girl with a mysterious temperament, and through the portrayal of the girl's demeanor, clothing and environment, it conveys a fresh, quiet and meaningful feeling. Understanding the subject matter of the painting can help us better resonate emotionally with the painter.Color matching is also an important aspect of appreciation. Color plays a soul-like role in oil painting, and different color combinations create different atmospheres and emotional effects. For example, Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" uses strong and fiery colors, bright reds, greens, and blues collide with each other, presenting the exuberant vitality of sunflowers with a highly impactful visual effect, conveying the characteristics of passion and courage. Paintings with cold colors, such as those depicting tranquil snow scenes or tranquil lakes, tend to create a calm, cold, and distant atmosphere, which calms people's hearts after watching them.In addition, it is also important to pay attention to emotional communication. Through the comprehensive use of brushstrokes, composition, color, etc., the painter integrates his own emotions into his works. Like Munch's "The Scream", the extremely distorted and frightened postures of the characters in the painting, combined with the distorted and rotating background and oppressive colors, vividly show the inner cry of human beings in the face of the pressure, loneliness and fear of modern society, and the viewer can deeply feel the strong emotional impact conveyed in it, as if they can touch the artist's state of mind at that time.In addition, you can also pay attention to the composition of the picture, brushstrokes, and other elements. Composition is related to the sense of balance and layering of the picture, for example, Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" achieves a stable and visually balanced effect through the triangular composition and the layout of the characters and the environment, and creates a sense of spatial hierarchy, making the picture more expressive; In terms of brushstrokes, brushstrokes of different sizes and shapes have different expressive powers, long strokes can show open and gentle areas, short thorn-like brushstrokes are suitable for expressing dynamic textures, and small dot-like brushstrokes can shape details
