Arts

As I remember I went to London, England in January 2020 with my friend. During the trip, I visited a museum called The National Gallery. Let me introduce the history of the Gallery.

The British government gave permission for the National Gallery in England to be opened to the public on 10 May. It is located at No. 100 Pall Mall in central London in the early 1824, however the gallery had been re-located to the north side of Trafalgar Square later in 1832 since the gallery was too overcrowded. The National Gallery has collection as many as 2,300 paintings from the 13th to 19th century which are mostly masterpiece of the European collections. Also, the National Gallery is the seventh of the most visited art museums in the world in 2019.

When I went to room 116, I figured out one art work was very attractive to me, the artwork is called After the Bath, Women drying herself. It was painted by Hilaire-Germain- Edgar Degas in May 1890. Degas has used pastel to paint the artwork. The artist has captured the back of the woman body while the woman was sitting on the sofa. She was drying herself after taking shower. She was in the private room alone. Her back was twisted a little forward, creating a tension. Her left hand was drying her red hair and her right hand was holding the edge of the yellow chair to support herself. Because the woman was drying her hair, we can hardly see her face, but we can see her neck. Degas wants to show her movement of the woman drying her hair and how she was sitting on the chair.

The painting is about 98.4 x 103.8. Because of the large size, I can see clearly how the artwork focused on woman drying herself. With aided by photography, Hilaire-Germain- Edgar Degas was able to capture the female body in awkward contortions.

Hilaire-Germain- Edgar Degas has showed his talent in depicting the lines of a female body shape, the curved lines in the painting shows the aesthetic of the body muscles appearance as similar as a real object. The woman’s body is very sharp with a strong character, and through the focus on the middle part of the naked woman, the painting depicts the beauty of human body. Through the vertical lines of curtains as a background to stand out the curved lines of the women, also shows the differences between artificial objects and the nature object.

Hilaire-Germain- Edgar Degas has exploited the flexibility of the pastel medium, creating sumptuous textures and blurred contours that emphasis the movement of the woman. With the combination of the color, I can clearly see the natural light source of the body and the movement of body very naturally. But if the painting is black and white, the woman cannot be stand out.

The museum is very large, I didn’t have time to visit all the artwork. I wish I can revisit the museum again one day. I could see different types of painting school, it literally increased my knowledge about art, especially in paintings. After I visited the museum, it increased my interest about art and my observation skills. Also, I can know more about the history of the museum, the artist and the artwork. Furthermore, I see myself that I have learned how to appreciate an art work, knowing how to analysis the art elements and what has been stand out in the painting.