3 anaylses of art

Molly Strom
2-21-09




A painting from 1881 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir titled “Two Sisters on the Terrace” brings out part of self. From the moment I saw this picture I had a flash back of one of my childhood memories. A replica of this painting use to hand on the wall of my living room. When I look at the painting, I see my older sister and myself playing in the same living room where the painting once hung. I was the younger sister that mocked her every move and went everywhere she did. This piece of art deals with self because it allows me to have a personal relationship to the painting. My concept of this piece is similar to what Renoir was visioning, but it allowed me to make it more personal. Even the girls in the paintings are not related it allows me to have a connection with the painting.

Since the two girls in the painting are not related it made me feel that a painting can make two strangers connect and appreciate one another. After knowing that the girls were not related, it changed the way I felt Renoir wanted people as a whole to look at it. I feel Renoir is trying to make a statement to the other, the community, to not just walk past one another in life. People should make an effort to more intellectual with one another. We should be grateful to have so many people to build relationships with and to grow with. Renoir wants us to learn from one another and build the idea of a sisterly or brotherly relationship from unknown individuals.




As I glare at the painting “Women at her toilette” by Berthe Morisot, I made a connection between the other and the art. The woman in the painting is beautifying herself, glancing in the mirror. She gently touches her up-do. Since this painting was drawn in 1875, I believe the “other” is depicted by beauty and class. During that time period, women of a high social class needed to look a specific way. They would spend hours getting ready for any occasion. This is what women’s lives we like during that time. Morisot is saying that women were expected, or pressured, to look a specific way, and I believe that idea is still seen in today’s society. Women are put under this pressure (the mirror) to have certain qualities even if some women are not born with them. Everywhere people go there is pressure, like there are mirrors, reminding women what their roles are in society, and even today women’s goals are to be appealing as possible. I have felt this way when meeting people for the first time. I am acknowledged more by men when I look more “presentable.”

For the self portion, the foggy, open background allows me to create my personal “self” about getting ready for a large performance. This woman is full of grace and beauty as she prepares herself for an evening out. I feel the same when I am preparing for a performance trying calmly to make the finishing touches when deep down I am shaken. I look in the mirror to perfect as much as possible. I believe the self in this portrait is saying to me to look beyond my imperfections. Since the painting is so fragile and pure, I believe Morisot wants me to look at myself, my natural beauty in the same way. I am who I am and that is final. I also believe the reason the background is smeared and unclear is because in a way it also represents the other in that those opinions should not matter. I should be able to feel beautiful no matter what.



The final painting I examined “The girl by the Window” made in 1893 by Edvard Munch, gave me the impression that others, the community, see this girl searching for something. The girl glances below to a lightened window where she is curiously observing another, hoping she will get a response. Her body half hiding behind the curtain also shows of her shy, curiosity to find someone or something. As a whole, everyone wants something or someone reliable for those times of need. This separates the individual because everyone has different aspects and characteristics they are looking for in his or her search. That is why I believe the artist left the view out of the window with no specific objects or people because it is left for the individual to fill in.

Like the idea of the other, I see the self as a dream, which people do at night similar to the setting of the painting. I dream to achieve goals, and for happiness. Stars, seen at night, are what people wish upon to make dreams come true. I experience a lot of visions during dark, personal, quiet moments so that is why I think Munch made the scene at night. In this situation, self merges with other because both are want, hope, and wish for something that may not happen. Both also cannot be hidden behind emotion or cause because these wants and needs will not occur without desire to fulfill them. Munch does not have the girl star up towards the sky wishing on a shooting star because it is not reality. Dreams happen at the places we are closest to as she looks downward closer to the earth.