Essay on Norton Simon Art Museum Paper

  It is quite interesting to see the artwork of old artists from history, which made some great marks in history with their great paintings. One such famous artist of the era of the 18th century was Louis Anquetin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Both painters belonged to the French background.  Henri de Toulouse was born in France in 1864. His work has been associated with the world of entertainment in France as well as the nightlife of Parisian in the late 1890s. He was focused on personalities as well as their insight life. He really focused on the life of artists, entertainers, and cafes in France. He works is also famous for the projection of the historical culture of France. He painted simple paintings of one or two people with hidden meanings about individual behaviours and overall trends of societies.  He came up with great ideas in his work by coming up with new innovations and giving a new look to French Art of 19th century (Birnholz)

               Louis Anquetin was also a French Artist who born in France in 1861. It is said that there were many great artists produced in the 19th century, and he was one of those promising artists of the era, who came up with great ideas in their artwork. It is quite interesting to know that Henri de Toulouse was also a member of the same art group, where Anquetin was a member. It is important to know that the artistic style used in the paintings by Anquetin was very modern in nature, which was not used earlier in the painting art. His many paintings were very different in style and concept as compared to many artists of his era (SpokenVision)

               I had a tour at Norton Simon Museum, where I was lucky enough to see the artwork of these two great artists. I have chosen the artwork of both artists, which is depicting the woman of that era. The first painting is “Portrait of a Woman” from the collection of 1891. The painting is made from oil on cardboard. There is a woman in the painting and painting has mentioned the name of Marguerite Dufay. Majority of paintings developed by the Norton Simon are related to streets of old times. Norton Simon attempted to paint behaviours and attitudes that are not easy to interpret as several meanings are associated with these simple paintings. Marguerite Dufay was an entertainer, and she used to work in the music cafes of Parisian in the late period of the 19th century. It was a time when it was maybe easier to laugh at people, especially women working in those cafes (Buja). He is trying to object to a woman, which is playing an instrument in the café and smiling, but her inside is not that happy, as she looks from outside. But when women were deprived of so many things, and they did not have so many reasons to smile. But this is the courage of women that they still had a smile on their faces. Many artists might have used various decent things to portray the image, but Anquetin used the situation, which was real in nature. He did not use any attractive and bright colours as the prime focus of this work was not to project beauty. In fact, painting is painted with the intention of comedy.  For this purpose, he developed the body shape of this woman like a male body. Take a look of her arms that looks similar to male arms while other than this overall figure is painted beautifully in the shape of a woman's body. Although her face is full of expressions and emotions that attract the attention of viewers. According to history, this kind of women was quite common in Paris Streets at night times. 

               On the other hand, Henri de Toulouse came with another idea to depict a woman, which is a prostitute of the era of the 1890s. This painting is also made with oil on cardboard. It shows that a woman is sitting in an event, where other people are also around her, but she is feeling sad and lonely. We can find out signs of sadness and dismal painted on her face. Darkness and unhappiness are prominent on her face which projects her inner sadness and loneliness even when she is sitting with happy people in a party. Actually, she is a streetwalker, who had to find her clients for sexual intercourse from the streets, and her status as a prostitute is quite vulnerable because she did not have any option like a licensed brothel, which is not vulnerable to the society as these prostitutes are. Apart from this, there are many other reasons behind her sad face. Painter has presented this art very gracefully. Painter’s expertness is prominent in this work as various emotions and feelings of people belonging to different backgrounds are projected. In this work, a message is hidden which about the problems of our modern societies. The woman lost in thoughts is projecting a message of a miserable woman living in the era of 1890s. According to the description, the woman had to search for a client even when she was not apparently interested in this work.  This painting is a quite wonderful depiction of society, which had nothing great for women like prostitutes. It is quite sad to see that she is in any private event, where so many people are around her, but she is still sitting alone, somewhere lost in her thoughts. This painting is a great depiction is social isolation that how people can be socially isolated from society, even when they are part of that particular society. If any customer would want to have sex with the prostitute, then he may come up to her to talk, otherwise, she is sitting alone. This loneliness can be felt by her empty gestures and eyes, which shows the sad reality of society. The brushwork and colouring have been wonderfully used in this painting, where a variety of colours is used, but the prostitute is wearing a combination of black and grey. The people around him are in different colours.

 It can be said in the end that both paintings are showing the same object, "the women", but both are quite different from each other in so many ways. Both paintings have different colour schemes, styles, and ideas. However, the main theme is very much similar, showing the sad reality about women living in that particular era.

Works Cited for Norton Simon Art Museum Paper

Birnholz, Alan Curtis. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. 2019. 3 December 2019 <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-de-Toulouse-Lautrec>.

Buja, Maureen. Marguerite Dufay – Trombonist. 2018. 3 December 2019 <https://interlude.hk/marguerite-dufay-trombonist/>.

SpokenVision. LOUIS ANQUETIN, THE MOST PROMISING ARTIST OF THE 19TH CENTURY. 2019. 3 December 2019 <https://spokenvision.com/louis-anquetin-the-most-promising-artist-of-the-19th-century/>.