ART APPRECIATION LESSON 3: European Artist and History
In the art appreciation lesson, you see how an artist uses a wide tonal range in his works of art and integrate the idea into your own work of art.
Eugene Delacroix, Tiger c.1830
A European living in the 18th and 19th centuries had to travel to foreign nations to see an animal such as a tiger. The animal was exotic and Europeans loved to see these types of scenes in their art. This watercolor study was made in North Africa, where Delacroix completed over one hundred paintings. His technique was to use wet on dry paper for a light layer in the mountains. He then added a second layer over the top of the first. The foreground was covered in the same way, working from light brown to the darker umber (brown) on the left and greens on the right. Look at the tonal range within this painting. The orange of the tiger is a mid-range value, but the color helps it to stand out from the background. The white underside of the tiger and its black stripes complete the full tonal range. The relaxed position taken up by the tiger implies that it was painted on site. Contrast that position with the very aggressive stance of the tiger on the next page, in Tiger and Snake (1862), an oil painting. The tiger and snake face each other in a dramatic scene, composed in a way that solicits our emotions. This is more typical of the Romantic notion of portraying controversial or stressful scenes, whether it included animals or people. How has Delacroix used a wide tonal range in the painting, Tiger and Snake ?
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