Henri Rousseau- The Sleeping Gyspy. Critique Assignment.

This is Henri Rousseau's; The Sleeping Gypsy. It was made in 1897 with oil on canvas, it is 51.0 in x 79.0 in, and is currently in the museum of modern art, New York City.

I do not think this painting did an acceptable job when it came to imitating life, because it has more of a surreal feel to it, but obviously this was intentional that the artist did this. Along with the surreal feeling, it also seems a slight bit childish, since the way the artist made it, with the small amount of detail and the art style it was painted in, makes it seem it was cut straight out of a Claymation or paper-cut animated children’s TV show. Though maybe, the only part of the picture that actually looks real is the gypsy’s feet, the detail makes them look realistic, if you’d ask me.

I believe with the unity of the elements and principles, the artist managed to achieve that fairly well.  The elements that I can see in this picture are line, color, value, texture, some asymmetrical balance, and emphasis.

In this picture you can see lines in many different areas, such as; the gypsy’s clothes, her hair/hat, her pillow, the lute, and the stick she is holding. All of these create some steady lines, and some either curved or bumpy lines throughout the picture.

The different varieties of colors in this picture seem to create an eerie yet soothing feeling.  The mixture of warm and cool colors all comes together to create that feeling. Take the background for example, The mountains, the sky and the lake/land in the back, the majority of that is cool colors, yet they have a gray tint to it, causing the eerie feeling.

Next is value. The parts in the picture that show as such is the lion and the gypsy. The shadows beneath her give a better view that she is laying down. And the lion, the shadows that are taking up the majority of its body makes it not only seem creepy, but shows a good idea of the shadowing for the picture, and that the artist used shadows in a really good way, since it darkens the front of the gypsy and the lion, making the lion seem rather peculiar, and the gypsy serene in her deep slumber.

Next is texture. The things in the picture that made me wonder what it felt like was the sand, and the lion’s mane.  The sand actually looks like I could really reach into the picture and run my fingers through the sand, rubbing it between my fingers.  And the lion looks like you could actually feel its soft furry mane, since the separate brush strokes of varied colors and shades made it look like real fur.

And now we’re at the balance: The picture has a lot of asymmetrical balance, since instead of being center; it’s more off to the right of the picture. Like the lion and Gypsy, they are set off to the right of the picture, and the sand at the front goes more to the right as well. In this picture there is rarely symmetrical balance, since the background is more its own thing while the foreground is off to the right.

With Emphasis, the things your eyes are drawn to first are the lion and the gypsy, since they hold the most color and value in the picture. While everything else is mostly cool color, the gypsy and the lion have a warmer color, which makes you look at them first, because they stand out more.

Finally, when it comes to emotion, like I mentioned many times before, when you look at this picture, you get a sense of eeriness and a calming feeling. Just earlier, with all the principles and elements of design that this picture had, all together it creates the feeling that it has. Though I’m not entirely sure what message the artist was trying to get across, I do know that he was at least trying the make that eeriness, and that with even just a person and an animal in a desert, he can make it seem so surreal.