‘Towards Modernity’ - National Gallery 2023 additions: Sorolla, Degas and Bonheur

These paintings are the August 2023 additions to room 41 of the National Gallery. I covered the works from 2022 in post a few days ago. 

Those additions are works by:

• Rosa Bonheur
• Edgar Degas
• Joaquin Sorolla 

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The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur - 1855

This painting is huge.

I really like how Bonheur has painted her horses with so much vitality. In this painting, she depicted a horse sale. There is something special about that white horse. The way she has painted the bundles of muscles, tissue, and bone affects a movement to the horses in the painting. They have a force and physicality that is astonishing - in addition to the general commotion and noise of the painting.

Rosa Bonheur is a fascinating lady. She was, at the time, one of the most famous female artists of the 19th century across France and beyond. Born in 1822 into a poor family, she became a noted animalière (painter of animals). She made her debut at the 1841 Paris Salon when she was 19 years old.

She seems to have been a true nonconformist and didn’t mind standing-out. She wore trousers (which, at the time, were reserved for men & needed a “permission de travestissement” from the local police) and she had a romantic relationship for most of her life with another lady. Met Queen Victoria and the Emperor of France. Bonheur’s art seems to emerge from the Romantic movement (of the 1830s in France and England). Romanticism has a difficult relationship with nature: to inspire and terrify with nature’s intensity and serenity - by being free of social constraints - whilst also running against realism. 

According to the National Gallery, this is “probably Bonheur’s best-known composition, it established her reputation both in France and abroad”.

There is something very beautiful and pleasing in the way the horse seems to move and canter. Such a beautiful animal.

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Hélène Rouart in her Father’s Study by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas - 1886

Hélène Rouart was the only daughter of Degas’s friend, Henri Rouart. She was an art collector.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of warm in Helene. Whilst I do like the Egyptian statutes, paintings in the room etc., she does seem to be standing behind the chair with hands resting on it. I am not sure why he painted the chair in front of her. According to the National Gallery, it was her father’s chair and Degas may have wishes to capture something of her child-like quality. The Gallery says: “When Hélène was nine, Degas had painted a portrait of her sitting on her father’s knee“.

Interesting painting around her wrists:

I like the delicate daubs of her bracelet. I like the fountain pen in her hand (was it invented?), and the ink on her fingers. It suggests to me that she was in the habit of writing stuff regularly. 

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The Drunkard, Zarauz by Joaquin Sorolla - 1910

This painting is a recent addition to the National Gallery:

The National Gallery has acquired its first painting by the Spanish impressionist Joaquin Sorolla, a huge name in his day who was once audaciously described as “the world’s greatest living painter”.

I liked this painting. I like the commonplace ordinary feel of the painting. It’s a familiar scene of ordinary townsfolk. On the one hand, it could be the boisterous and lighthearted laughter in a pub on a Friday evening; on the other hand, it could be an homage to the blight of alcoholism to the time, money and health of these lads. 

It’s hard to tell; but Sorolla gives us a pie-eyed stoned look of the central figure - starring at us - of the bacchanalian crew. It’s quite touching. His friends have leaned in to him which suggests affection.

I love the darker palettes for the trousers:

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Valencian Fishermen by Joaquin Sorolla - 1895

This painting was incredible. 

I’m excited about this Spanish artist Sorolla.

I thought I was looking at a photograph. Unlike the other impressionists - who like to have their brushstrokes create uncertain boundaries and to have objects feeling disconnected in some way to the overall painting - Sorolla likes to immerse us in the lives of the ordinary people and show us something interesting with such fastidious brushwork.

I really love this fishing-town scene. Just love it all; the crashing soft waves, the sunny weather, the straw hats, the smooth sandy beach, the seaman’s ordinariness in their clothing, and especially the azure sea. You can almost taste the salty air, and that seaside smell.

I like how the fishermen are checking their wicker traps and hardly seem to notice the viewer. The shadow is incredible. It looks so real in colour and the way it bends and glistens across the shallow waters. Makes me want to book a holiday!

The swashing waves, the white frothy bubbles, the foot transparent through the water.

Love the hat and the shadow effect

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Monet’s WaterLilies

Already covered before. But it’s just enormous and very engaging.