Art

Recently I visited the Burrell collection to have a look at the artwork kept there. I was there years ago when I was on holiday in Glasgow to see all the exhibits but couldn’t really appreciate it at that time because I was quite young, so I was glad to go back and loved it there. Sir William Burrell and his wife, Constance, Lady Burrell gifted his collection of over 9,000 works of art to Glasgow in 1944. The city acquired one of the greatest collections created by one person. William Burrell had been an art collector since his teens, and the collection is made up of a vast array of works of all periods and from all over the world. I chose the painting “The Empress Eugénie on the Beach at Trouville” by Eugène Boudin.

The painting was done in 1863 and for that time shows a new uncomplicated vision which was the basis of impressionist thinking. There are no grand gestures, complicated compositions, or hidden messages- it is a straight to the point recording of what was being seen which I like. From looking at it, you couldn’t tell that the empress is there as you can make out there are ladies on the beach, but it is quite vague and you wouldn’t be able to pick out which one she was.
It is set on a beautiful summer day with a bright blue sky and calm sea on the beach. The real subject isn’t the people, but the morning light and sea breeze which draw the eyes to it. There is a building that could be a summer house or hotel in the near background, and objects in the painting include two on-lookers sitting on a bench under a lamp-post, a boat in the distance, two dogs, and the group of regal people. It is a relatively small painting at 34.2X57.8cm but it looked like just the right size for it as in a bigger version, the people would maybe have become lost.

The colours in the painting are very well put together to create a happy, joyous, relaxed mood. The sea looks so tranquil because of the perfect turquoise used, and the main landscape of the sand and sky show the foundation stones of impressionism with a lightening of the palette. This makes the day look nice and bright and shows how sunny the weather is. There are nice contrasts too with the on-lookers painted with dark colours which make them look poorer than the group of people who are wearing bright summer colours, so straight you know who is the most well off.

There is quite interesting use of line as they are all very soft, and the only obvious straight ones are on the building and the lamp-post which have to be straight. The rest of the painting has quite soft brush strokes that almost look smudged and create a hazy look. It may not be on purpose, but the haze adds to the effect of it being a warm day.

The main shapes that stand out are the ladies’ skirts and umbrellas. Even though there is no great detail and you can’t make out their faces, or even their hair, the viewer’s eye is drawn to them when looking at the objects because they stand out.

"A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things." -Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

The piece is still very easy to look at though and not hard on the eye as there aren’t a lot of intricate things to be taken into account, so it’s easy to enjoy it rather than pour over every detail.

To conclude, I really like the painting as I can connect with the artist and see why he was in such a good mood when working on it. Where the piece was amongst the other French paintings in a light, airy part of the gallery which suited its mood, it stood out to me because it reminded me of what it feels like to be at the beach on a beautiful summer day.