Skip to main content

Maurice Cullen, Canadian Impressionist












Moret, Winter, 1895
Maurice Cullen was born on the 6th of June, in St. John's, Newfoundland. Cullen grew up in Montreal before studying in Paris in 1888. Deeply inspired by the Impressionism of the period, Cullen developed a brushwork and palette that is rich and vibrant compared to most artists in the genre. He often approached the bucolic landscape with a fresh eye and bold use of colour that makes his work easy to identify and fun to study.
In Moret, Winter above, Cullen uses thick brushes and beautiful impasto strokes with dazzling colours. The reflections in the river have a magical glow of warm against cool hues. Take a closer look at these brushstrokes:
close-up
detail, Moret, Winter

Cullen places deliberate strokes while paying close attention to edge control and values. The temperature hues are amazingly accurate also, successfully conveying both cool tones and the brisk temperatures of winter. Pure magic. This river inspired many other Impressionists such as Monet, Renoir and Sisley in Northern France, but no one painted it quite like this. Inspiring.



 


Maurice Cullen - Winter Evening, Quebec
Winter Evening, Quebec, ca.1905
Despite the low-res image, we can still feel the frosty mood of this dark winter night. Cullen uses an analagous palette of greens and blues to create a monochromatic evening while using textures to contrast between foreground, middle and background. And yet it is those tiny flickering lights that create the sense of depth and space for this winter scene. Cullen creates a mood here that makes us shiver just looking at this painting. This would be a painting to see in person up close.

















The North River, 1921
Done in pastel, this beautifully conveys once again the natural beauty and coolness of winter. Cullen wisely focuses more on shapes than details and uses tone to convey texture. Although the reflections would have probably been more intense and dramatic in oils, here Cullen leads our eye to the snow bank and the trees themselves as the overcast sky provides less reflective quality. Cullen creates real presence here. Quiet. Stillness.


















Quebec City from Lévis, 1904
Wondrous colour harmonies here. Although his brushwork feels rushed, especially in the clouds, the reflective water is the star of the show here. Look at how thick he applies the paint in the foreground. Love the way those green patches recede in perspective toward the horizon and the reflection of the city in the water. The water itself has unusual, warm tones that complement the icy greens...this works so well. Cullen is a supremely underrated Impressionist with a colorist bent that is striking and hypnotic. This is an artist that needs to be seen in person. Tonality is also important yet Cullen proves that mood is, as always, everything.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bouguereau

Nymphs and Satyr, 1873 If there is one artist today that hardly needs an introduction, it would be William-Adolphe Bouguereau , supreme giant of 19th century Academic art. Born on November 30, 1825 in La Rochelle on the southwest of France, his talent would define the era he lived in only to fall into obscurity for decades after his death in 1905 until as recent as the early 1980's, shockingly. Today he has the distinction of being lionized by the Art Renewal Center as one of the greatest artists of all time while at the other end of the spectrum vilified by modernists as artificially perfect and sentimental. In fact it is quite rare to see such polarization over an artist of a calibre like Bouguereau, whose bravura is difficult to equal yet at the same time thematically his work admittedly tends toward women and children, a subject matter that sold well and he had endless patience for. Over the vast array of his oeuvre, some 820 paintings, I have tried to fi...
3 comments
Read more

The Sensuality of Corrado Giaquinto

Allegory of Peace and Justice, 1754 Born on February 8, 1703 on the eastern coast of Italy, Corrado Giaquinto was a Rococo painter. His early training was under Neapolitan Master Francesco Solimena , then Giaquinto worked mainly in Rome, under another Neapolitan great, Sebastiano Conca . During this time he moved between Turin and Madrid where he received important commissions including Church frescos, alterpieces and a ceiling in Turin. Giaquinto marks a period in Italian Art where the elegance and sophistication of the Baroque leaned toward a more sensual liberty that would ultimately never quite return again. His work reflects the influence of his Neapolitan Masters yet also reveals a certain French sensibility in terms of colour, as he was sometimes referred to as an Italian François Boucher . Giaquinto however, has a drama that is particular in that his Baroque roots remain intact despite the grace he conveyed. In Allegory of Peace and Justice above, he uses an i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hans Gude, Norwegian Lord of the Land and Sea

Norwegian Highlands in Sunrise, 185 Hans Fredrik Gude was born on March 13, 1825 in Oslo (formerly Christiania), Norway. A Romanticist from the Düsseldorf school of painting , a German Romanticist school in the mid-1800's that produced an impressive array of artists painting in a very detailed yet powerfully emotional way. The landscape as an artistic genre, although very common today, was often regarded as a lower genre and something not as "serious" as the more religious, historical or portrait genres that dominated the art world for centuries. German Romanticism changed that in a relatively short period of time and attracted artists from all over the world to study at the prestigious Düsseldorf Academy . Gude's career established him as an icon of Norwegian artists and became a master of the seascape and a distinguished art professor in his later years. He often collaborated with artist Adolph Tidemand, a highly skilled portrait and figure painter on ...
2 comments
Read more