(continued from PART 1) The next artwork that really caught my attention was quite different from Siesta. Siesta leaned towards Realism and an atmosphere of serenity is felt as we look at it. However, the next artwork is filled with angst, drama, tension.
Titled The Enigma by Gustave Dore, painted in 1871 (now this was about 2 decades before Thoma's Siesta), it is a tragic allegorical painting Dore painted. (He only did 3 of allegorical paintings). Dore had been through the Franco-Prussian war, the siege of Paris and the Paris Commune. The scenes of war he witnessed had left their impact on him. In this painting Dore employs real elements alongside allegorical ones.
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| Detail of The Enigma, by Gustave Dore |
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| The Enigma, by Gustave Dore (the slanted view was because too many people were crowding around it and I couldn't get a good front view) |
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| Detail of The Enigma, by Gustave Dore |
The exaggerated emotionalism present in the painting is typical of the romantic movement, showing that Dore was influenced by Romanticism. This can be seen from the careful composition of subject matter, the body postures and gestures of subject matter.
A battle has just ended. The ground appears to be bare, desolate. Bodies are strewn all over a hill. Atop the hill, a winged woman reaches out with a look of desperation to a sphinx for an explanation of the chaos and devastation of war, but the sphinx merely remains silent. I appreciate the fact that Dore painted the sphinx's face such that it is mostly hidden from the viewer. This adds on to the sorrowful tension present in the work. Masterful chiaroscuro also appropriately brings out the solemn yet heartbreaking mood. Behind the hill, thick columns of smoke left behind from the battle rise into the skies. These slanted columns draw attention to the lower half of the painting, where all the main subject matter has been positioned.
The most heart-wrenching part of all is probably the mother lying among the dead upon the hill with her infant baby still in her arms. This painting is a powerful representation of the devastation and destruction that war results in.
The next artwork is less dramatic and emotional.
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| A Forge, 1893, by Fernand Cormon |
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This painting reminds me of Lunch Break by Lai Foong Moi. The workers in A Forge are wearing blue shirts and are labouring for the sake of industrial progress of the nation. Similarly, the Singaporean workers depicted in Lunch Break by Lai Foong Moi show the male worker and the Samsui woman in similar blue shirts. Likewise they are also workers trying to build up the nation, implied from the scaffolding behind.
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| Lunch Break by Lai Foong Moi (this one is not taken by me!) |
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