My Kid Could Paint That

Georges-Pierre Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884

What teenager isn't familiar with Ferris Bueller's Day Off?  Everyone who has been through high school can understand the appeal of skipping out on droning teachers and playing hooky for one day of fun.  But Ferris's day off becomes an adventure intangible to the average high school student as he, his best friend, and his girlfriend lie their way into a high-end restaurant, catch a baseball at a Cubs game, and commandeer a parade.

Yet beneath Bueller's glossy, fun pretense lies a less happy story.  Cameron, Ferris's best friend, has a history that the film only hints at until confronting it at the climax.  Cam has an unhappy relationship with his parents, just as they do with each other, and his father seems more obsessed with his rare Ferrari model than his family (at one point, Cam says, "Look at my mother and father...They hate each other...He loves the car, he hates his wife.").  Cam needs to tap into Ferris's escapism to lessen his anxiety and self-consciousness.

The trio's gallivanting around Chicago, in Cameron's dad's Ferrari, eventually leads them to the Art Institute of Chicago, where Cameron becomes transfixed to Georges-Pierre Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (skip to around 1:11 in the video).  According to John Hughes in his voiceover commentary of the film, "...the more he looks at it, there's nothing there. I think he fears that the more you look at him the less you see. There isn't anything there. That's him."  The pointillism at its closest becomes an unintelligible array of meaningless dots.  Cameron, by Hughes's suggestion, feels no sense of identity.

But I believe that the significance of this scene and the painting in the film are greater than Hughes lets on.  The subject that he stares at in the painting is a young girl in a white dress whose mother does not seem to be paying her much attention, which clearly reflects Cameron's yearning for his parent's, specifically his father's, attention.  Seurat situates his people in groups that do not interact or pay much attention to each other,  as they look away and are cloaked in shadow.  These techniques may reflect Cameron's simultaneous identity crisis and mistrust of adults in general, extending far beyond his father.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off has plenty of humor and glamour, but upon a second or third viewing, you can see another reason for its genius.  Between the happiness on the surface, the unexpected adventures, the nearly unspoken hardships that we overcome, and the support of good friends, the film serves as a microcosm for high school life.

Editor's Note: While we may not want to date ourselves by saying we saw(and drove our 16-year-old-self)  Ferris at the Mid-State Cinema in Salina, Kansas, in June of 1986, we do want to mention the song in the above clip, a sweet Dream Academy cover of The Smiths "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want." The original song was also featured in Hughes' Pretty in Pink, seen in March of 1986 at the self-same cinema.

Kandinsky, Black Lines, 1913

Kandinsky, Several Circles, 1926

Fragonard, Bolt, 1777

Too much. It's just too much. The subject matter is enough in itself, but the movement and colors are the truly unsettling parts. Their interaction looks like a violent dance. From the sweeping gesture his arm makes for the bolt to the weak stretch of the woman's leg, the piece is tense and blatant in the most theatrical of ways. Fragonard's usual style is far different than a piece as dark as this one, but there are little tell-tale signs of his influence. The color of the curtain is reminiscent of the drapery in Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin, the dark red hue far too similar to blood. Her dress, even though it is so bright, cannot compete with the intensity of that red, slowly eating away the rest of the piece.

Looking at this piece for the first time, I couldn't even tell it was Fragonard's work. Parts are similar to his other works, but the subject matter is violent and serious and completely contrasting to the glamorous - almost comically so - scenes he usually does. There is blatant sexuality in all of them, but in others it is lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek rather than this dark scene. Immanuel Kant speaks of the Enlightenment era this piece was made in, saying that "Enlightenment is man leaving his self-caused immaturity." This rings true in this piece, with Fragonard's usually playful work taking a much more mature form. Isaac Newton takes this point further, speaking of the human body and how "the bodies which we handle we find impenetrable... we conclude that the least particles of all bodies to be also all extended, and hard and impenetrable, and moveable..." In this way, Fragonard extends his figures' bodies and fills up the space from arm to leg, with their interaction both frozen in time and taking place right before the readers' eyes.

I just want to run in there and stop him, to help push him off of her and unbolt the door. Her arm has such tension as she pushes against him, though her face confuses me. I can't tell if it is the face of someone who has resigned to her fate or if Fragonard just focused more upon body language. Either way, the tension between the two is palpable and overwhelms the piece, making even the gentle drapery feel like another obstacle to saving the woman. It feels voyeuristic and unsettling. But there's a small part of me that is in awe of Fragonard's ability to make both of those emotions come across so adeptly in just one half of a canvas. This piece is something special.

Placido Costanzi, Immaculate Conception, circa 1730

Fuseli, Titania and Bottom, 1790

Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
 - A Midsummer Nights Dream, Act IV, Scene 1, 

As previously discussed, Henry Fuseli studied Shakespeare and many of his plays. This fascination drives from his amusement in the supernatural. Fuseli looks to paint scenes that give him more freedom to explore things like the contemporary dress that Queen Titania's fairies are wearing. In this piece, Oberon has cast a spell on the Queen which makes her fall in love with Bottom who's head is now that of an ass. Fuseli paints her desperately seductive as she tries to win Bottom's affection.

Here, Fuseli uses common Rococo techniques, such as the detail in the light. The fairies are wonderful, they are also wonderful at creeping me out. The baby fairy on the bottom right has a butterfly for a head and looks disconnected from the ones above who await orders from their queen. The fairy on the left holds the dwarf by a leash represents the young and beautiful conquering the old, and "the senses over the mind." These two characters reflect the play as a whole and mystery verses fact throughout the story. 

Leonardo da Vinci, Leda, 1506

Fuesli brings this piece together quite well with influences from many other artists. He is known for having studied Leonardo da Vinci's work and paints Tatiana's seductive pose from da Vinci's, Leda. He uses the curve of the head to show her eyes locked on him as she whispers to him promising him anything he wishes. The smooth curves of the body draws the eye up her body through her hand in both pieces, but Titania and Bottom, Titania's hand is raised, which forms a stronger line and divides the canvass.

Henry Fuseli paints other scenes from this Shakespeare play, but this one is my favorite. It stands out to me because of the clash of styles, not in the style of painting so to speak, but the choices of clothing and different stories illustrated the fairies in a circle around Bottom and Tatiana. The dwarf-like fairies dispersed throughout creep me out and interest me. Yet the subject is so big and illuminated that if you weren't looking for them, you could miss the small details Fuseli can put in his imaginative, mystical scenes.

Sticking to Boucher's ultra-extravagent style, The Toilet of Venus perfectly exemplifies a Rococo piece.  Rococo art was most popular during the reign of King Louis XV. In this piece, Venus is modeled after a good friend of Boucher named Madame de Pompadour. Madame de Pompadour was a mistress of King Louis, which helped jump-start Boucher's career. Not only did the painting have a strong tie to politics at the time, but it also possesses many other Rococo aspects. In many Rococo pieces, there are upper class people doing something elegant. Though the painting is of Venus, it shows the elaborate lifestyle the wealthy French experienced. 

The cherubs dressing Venus immediately reminded me of Snow White being dressed by the animals of the woods. The painting is so elaborate that it is obvious that its sole purpose was to showcase extreme wealth. The casual chaos of the jewelry and flowers show how the wealthy felt they were too good to care about even the nicest of things. The curtains in the background also provide a feeling of acting. Though the lack of realism of the setting is acceptable for Venus, it is meant to play up the luxuriousness of Madame de Pompadour. In addition, though the grace of God is not shown through beams of lights, Boucher uses white doves to represent de Pompadour's religious side.

Thomas Gainsborough, The Blue Boy, 1770

Fuseli, Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking, 1781-1784

Henry Fuseli was born in Zurich, Switzerland and was an active member in the church. Growing up, his father, a landscape painter, planned for him to work in the church. Fuseli had other ideas, so he left and pursued writing, He had many artistic influences in his life so it was not shock that when he first left home Fuseli wrote random pieces to bring in money. When he became tired of writing he found another interest that he fell in love with, drawing and painting. This led to his art pilgrimage that started in 1770 in Italy and ended in Britain in 1779.

While in Britain, Fuseli acquired his first commission at a Shakespeare gallery. He had studied many of Shakespeare's works, so this project led to many sketches and interesting works. This particular piece, Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking, Fuseli paints a scene towards the end of the play where Lady Macbeth starts sleepwalking and dreams of blood on her hands after her crusade to power. She runs through the dark halls obviously frightened and holding her hand in the air. She is turning away from her hand not wanting to see all of the damage she has caused.

During his Shakespeare project Fuseli was quoted saying, "All minute detail tends to destroy terror." The quote certainly explains the lack of background, but we stills see his talent in the shadows. A trend of rococo painting is this use of space and darkness which Fuseli uses well here. He shows the rushed movement of Lady Macbeth as she hurries down the hallway in her clothing and body, as well as the light in her hand pushing backward. The couple in this picture look extremely interrupted. They are positioned as though they were enjoying their time in the dark until the frazzled Lady Macbeth ruins their fun. With some imagination you can see my amusement with the couple. Regardless, Fuseli does a wonderful job here playing with the ribbon in the fiery red hair and the work is spectacular. It's nice to be able to take something like Shakespeare's plays and be able to read, study, act, and paint these sorts of things so that the mind can absorb the original work in different ways.

Pierre Roch Vigernon, Maximilien Robespierre, d'après Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1786

Seriously though. Labille-Guiard was not as considerate as Lebrun, who wrote a detailed memoir of her life, training, and experiences. Many details of Labille-Guiard's life have been lost, as well as several of her works, including the miniature she painted for her entry into the Académie de Saint-Luc. Her early education remains a mystery; she would not have fit into the normal male-dominated structure of mentors and pupils, but we know she did receive some tutoring from a family friend, François-Élie Vincent (whose son she would marry, then later divorce), and from Quentin de la Tour. Although Enlightenment philosophy, as summarized by Emmanuel Kant’s dictum “Sapere aude! (Dare to know!) Have the courage to use your own intelligence!” was coming to the fore at this time, rejecting old beliefs in favor of new rational, logical conclusions, a good deal of prejudice towards women still existed. Labille-Guiard nevertheless championed women’s rights and took on female students, as well as building up patrons and connections among the nobility and eventually getting one of her pieces into the Salon, Self-portrait with Two Pupils. She was eventually given the title Peintre de Mesdames (painter to the king’s aunts, believe it or not) and a cushy government pension.

After the French Revolution, her connections to the nobility made her suspect in the eyes of the new order. However, she adapted, and managed to obtain sittings with Maximilien de Robespierre, a famously influential member of the National Assembly. The painting shown above is a reproduction of the original - like many of her other works, it has been lost or destroyed. Robespierre exchanged correspondence with Labille-Guiard and even flirted with her. He smiles confidently in his portrait, a smartly dressed man with his hat tucked under one arm. The waist-up format with a simple background is Labille-Guiard’s standard for portraiture. His simple but elegant clothing is richly detailed, in all its folds and frills. Although some protested her use of pastels to immortalize l’Incorruptible, with criticisms like “Ah ! peignez un Robespierre à l’huile, (Paint a Robespierre in oils!)," her delicate touch and diligent eye for detail creates a warm and charismatic image of an influential young man, painted with a woman’s hand.

Canaletto, The Arrival of the French Ambassador, 1735

Here comes the ambassador, arriving in an ornate Venetian gondola. Rowing up the San Marco Canal, landing right in front of Palazzo Ducale, the political heart of Venice, the French ambassador meets Venetian Renaissance. Coming out of the playful, sumptuous French rococo, I wonder what the ambassador thinks when he sees the imposing Renaissance architecture and the works of the old masters. Only a century ago, the haughty Italian genius Bernini arrived in Paris with a condescending manner to show the French what art looked like. I wonder if the French still look at their Southern neighbors with awe and admiration. Even the reception scene is depicted as one of magnificence and splendor, Venice is past its most glorious days. Perhaps the French have already won the race, at least in terms of the flamboyance of upperclass life. If what Watteau paints is the case, the Italians are far out of their league.

While the French nobels are catching ladies' shoes, the pragmatic Englishmen are putting their flags all over the world under the guidance of the Enlightenment. Ironically, the rising British seem to have more interest in Italy than the French do. For a long time, the British felt that Italy and Venice are places they have to visit in their lifetime. So the wealthy young men of England would take the "Grand Tour" to Italy to round off their education, and bring back townscape paintings as souvenirs. Noblemen hang these paintings on the walls of their living rooms, and say to their friends, "Look, this is where it all started." Just like their predecessors did in Renaissance, the people of 18th century take another huge step towards the re-born of arts and science. Sapere aude - Dare to know. Having the courage to use your own intelligence and leaving men's self-caused immaturity become the motto of Enlightenment. While the pioneers of 18th century search their way towards enlightenment, it seems that Italy has always remained in their hearts, as the sanctum of arts and science, the birthplace of humanity after long nights of medieval age, and where it all begins.