Thursday, September 19, 2019

Rusiñol's Gardens

A previous post on Santiago Rusiñol (1861 – 1931) showed a woman before and after taking morphine. But Rusiñol was probably best known for his garden paintings.


He was also a poet and playwright, and he was a member of the Symbolist movement.


While he was studying art, he hung out at the café Els Quatre Gats with Pablo Picasso and other emerging modernists.


His work is realistic, at least on the surface.

He was interested in the spirit and the emotion that lies hidden behind appearances. 


According to Wikipedia, "He went to Mallorca with the painter Joaquin Mir Trinxet, where they met the mystic Belgian painter William Degouve de Nuncques in 1899." 


De Nuncques is supposed to have said, "To make a painting, all you need to do is to take some paints, draw some lines, and fill the rest up with feelings."
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4 comments:

  1. De Nuncques's recipe for the essential ingredients of a painting reminds me of Harlan Howard's oft-quoted definition of a great country song: "Three chords and the truth." Is anyone else watching Ken Burns' "Country Music" this week?

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  2. I'm watching it. Nice observation! That recipe is a little like the sculptor who takes a block of marble and chips away everything that doesn't look like the David (or whatever). If only it were so easy! I'm rereading my Edgar Payne book, and he tell the story of the bystander watching his dad paining outdoors. He says to him "why, it ain't nothing but daubs!" Then a few minutes later..,"but boy, you sure have to know where to put those daubs!"

    If only it were so easy, huh?. Anyway, those shadows are so luminous and varied. The sculptured garden has built in form and composition, but to me the other artful part is giving the impression of lots of detail in all that vegetation.

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  3. Els quatre gats is (still is!) in Barcelona though 😁

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