Artists' Techniques

Any work of art is determined first and foremost by the materials available to the artist and his ability to manipulate them. Here we examine five paintings, Gleyre's Lost Illusions, Renoir's La Parisienne, Manet's Déjeuner sur l'Herbe, Monet's Autumn at Argenteuil, and Cézanne's Mountains Seen from L'Estaque, for the techniques which each artist employed: the application of paint, the use of color, the brushwork and the type of lighting. Only when these technical limitations are taken into account can one begin to understand what the artist's vision really was.

© 1998-2001 The Roland Collection & Pira Intl.