Art Comparing Approaching Storm By Eugene-Louis Boudin And A Valley After A Shower By Gaspard Dughet

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Comparing Approaching Storm by Eugène-Louis Boudin and A Valley After a Shower by

Gaspard Dughet

Introduction

Presentations of art remain important aspects of human lives because they help humanity achieve

various goals. While artists use their works to express their ideas, such expressions deliver

divergent types of information and feelings to their audience. Notably, some works may be the

creative pieces of the artists’ minds while others are representations of occurrences in the

society. Either way; the approaches used by artists in presenting their works result in ceremonial,

artistic, narrative, functional, and persuasive functions. Paintings and other forms of art deliver

social descriptions and simulations that influence social behavior in different ways. They express

ideas, emotions, feelings and aesthetics. They also persuade through philosophies and arguments

(Berger 58). A Valley After a Shower by Gaspard Dughet and Approaching Storm by Eugène-

Louis Boudin reveal a number of these elements in comparing and contrasting approaches.

While the artists are both French, their works are created in different times with the

former done in 1655 and the latter 1864. They are both done using oil. However, the former is oil

on canvas while the latter is oil on a cradled panel. Considering the fact that one of the works is

before a storm and the other after a storm, their contrasts reveal elemental differences in style,

iconography, coloring, contrast, and brightness.

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Approaching Storm by Eugène-Louis Boudin

Eugène-Louis Boudin French, 1824-1898: Approaching Storm, 1864Retrieved from The Art

Institute of Chicago

Approaching Storm by Eugène-Louis Boudin presents a residential setup with typical

temporary houses. The work of art has clearly distinguished foreground, middle ground, and

background defined by various outstanding features. In the foreground, a non-vegetated yard

precedes the settlement of the present population. This is probably an indication of a desert like

setting in which no rain has fallen for long. Other elemental presentations on the foreground

include the shadows of the individuals and the structures. These shadows are long, which

indicates that painting probably represents evening.The residential structures perceivably used by

the people in the painting are cottage carriages with wheels. This indicates temporariness and the

probability that these individuals are sojourners who are only here for a while. Another

interpretation of this element would be a refugee camp or a camp for the displaced because of the

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presence of flags, denoting some kind of administrative authority. These are located in a row on

the left middle ground, receding into the background and on the right-middle ground. In front of

these structures are people presented in a perceivably hurried situation. They appear to be

summing up business outside the structures to gain shelter both for their property and

themselves. The background of Approaching Storm presents a sky with dark clouds that appear

to be heavy with rain. Perhaps the other element indicating the onset of a storm is the swinging

of the flags and the clothes worn by the people in the painting. This indicates the presence of a

strong wind that is typical tothe onset of storms.

A Valley After a Shower by Gaspard Dughet

Gaspard Dughet French, 1615-1675: A Valley After a Shower, C. 1655-56 Retrieved from The

Ringling Museum of Art

On the other hand, A Valley After a Shower by Gaspard Dughet is the depiction of an

after storm situation with the features of a late evening before dusk. Like Approaching Storm,

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this painting has elementarily distinct foreground, middle ground, and background. Unlike the

former, it contains vegetation right from the foreground through to the hind middle ground. A

flood appears to be emanating from the hind middle ground to the foreground, which is, perhaps,

an aftermath of the storm that has just ended. The middle ground has classical settlements, and

humans appear on both the foreground and the middle ground. The Sun’s position indicates it is

setting, and its rays light through from the trees to provide the audience with a window through

which to see the middle ground and the background. The use of color and contrasts helps

differentiate elemental factors like the houses, sky, and vegetation.

Comparing Approaching Storm by Eugène-Louis Boudin and A Valley After a Shower by

Gaspard Dughet

Bound by the occurrence of a storm, Approaching Storm and A Valley After Shower present the

contraries of the expectation of a storm and the aftermath of the same. The artists achieve these

elements in different ways. It is expected that both the occurrences take place in the evenings

with the former occurring earlier than the latter. Although from separate artists, the coloring and

the lighting in the two paintings reveal exactly these expectations. Approaching Storm is

generally brighter while A Valley After Shower is comparatively darker, indicating that the

former occurred when there was still more lights.

Analysis of the foregrounds of the two also helps discern the issue about time. In

Approaching Storm, the shadows are long and distinct. The artist uses contrast and differing

brightness to reveal that the position of the sun is still high in the sky. This is the reason all the

structures and people in the painting have shadows. Additionally, these shadows have a specific

direction that points to the possible location of the sun. Although the sun is not visible, its effect

in lighting the settlement is still clear in the painting.

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Contrarily, Shadows in A Valley After Shower are all over with clarity only on the

horizon. This is indicative that the time setting here is later in the day than in the former case and

the sun is already setting. Again, human activity here seems to acquire a more settled approach

compared to the former. While humans in Approaching Storm appear to be fleeing from the

approaching storm, those in A Valley After Shower appear to be dealing with the effects of the

storm.

The presence of permanent buildings and vegetation in A Valley After Shower and their

absence in Approaching Storm where these are replaced with temporary structures also reveal

various facts about the place setting of the two. It is likely that A Valley After Shower is set in a

productive place where inhabitants are permanently settled. Contrarily, Approaching Storm is set

on an unproductive land where people can only stay for a while before they depart for other

locations. While the sky in Approaching Storm is darker and heavy with dark clouds anticipating

rain, that of A Valley After Shower is light and shows that dark clouds have cleared after the rain.

Commonly developing and gaining populace in the 17

century was the genre of

landscape painting. A Valley After a Shower is created during this time, a confirmation that it

reinforced preceding conventions of its time. To begin with, Dughet’s teacher and brother in law,

Nicolas Poussin was a landscape painter whose works were latter to establish the fundamentals

of the classical landscape tradition (The Ringling Museum of Art 6). Perhaps, an element that

would be considerably new and unique in A Valley After a Shower is the closeness of the

audience to the landscape that would make them feel absorbed into the view. Notably, most

preceding paintings created some elemental gap in the foreground to present features away from

the audience.

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On the other hand, Approaching Storm which is a 19

century painting both reinforces

and challenges the conventions of the time. As explained by Black, the early decades of 19

century landscape painting had varying trends in the western world. In Europe, elements of

climate change were quickly cropping in while the same were less prominent (968). Black

indicates that most European painters had stopped painting virgin-nature depictions. Instead,

they began focusing on the relationship of man and nature. This is phenomenal in Approaching

Storm.Most works of art in Europe at this time did not commonly depict desert settings and

absence of vegetation. This feature is considerably new in relation to the time of the painting. On

the other hand, American painters still focused on nature with the optimistic belief that American

landscape had better to offer when painted without interruptions. To these, Approaching Storm

went contrary. Examples of American paintings depicting this belief include October in the

Catskills by Stanford Gifford, The Oxbow by Thomas Cole, and Autumn Sunset by Jasper

Cropsey (968).

Viewing Approaching Storm, Dughet would appreciate the elemental depiction of the

effects of climate change clearly indicated by the absence of vegetation in the painting and the

seemingly dusty ground. Contrarily, Boudin would appreciate the opposite as presented in A

Valley After Shower; the presence of natural vegetation and environmental features that depict a

stable climate.

Conclusion

In conclusion, A Valley After Shower is Gaspard Dughet’s presentation of the embrace of

landscape painting. By the use of contrast that depicts dissipating rain clouds, rays of a

horizontally setting sun, the juxtaposition of shadowy and light areas, and vegetation on the

foreground and the middle ground, he manages to create a dark effect of a late evening after-

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storm situation. Contrarily, Approaching Storm by Eugène-Louis Boudin is a before-storm

situation with darker clouds, clear shadows, and a strong wind. The differences in the pictures

tell a lot about their locations, activities, and time settings.

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Works Cited

Berger, Arthur A. Media and Society: A Critical Perspective. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield

Publishers, 2012. Print.

Black, Brian C. Climate Change: An Encyclopedia of Science and History. Santa Barbara,

California: ABC-Clio, 2013. Print.

The Art Institute of Chicago. "Approaching Storm” .Artic.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016

from: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/27764

The Ringling Museum of Art. The Docent Collections Handbook: French Artists and Rome,

1600-1700. The Ringling Museum of Art, 2007. Web. 11 Apr. 2016 from:

http://ringlingdocents.org/pages/Gallery7.pdf

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Art Comparing Approaching Storm by Eugene-Louis Boudin and A Valley After a Shower by Gaspard Dughet

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