Rembrandt portraits were revolutionary. He experimented with colour and light through use of paints. The way he used light and dark contrasts is well known, as is his broad brushstroke and his use of the painting knife. For Rembrandt, it was the character of the subject rather than the appearance that mattered. Yet his approach did not stop him obtaining an accurate likeness. Rembrandt used his colour to the most of his ability. The use of light compared with the amount of space in which he had in his composition, the more light, the bigger the space looked. His attention to detail always brought Rembrandts subject matter to an importance. He worked in complex layers, building up a pictur

His paintings are characterised by long and detailed brush strokes and rich colours. He was known as a master of light and shadow whose paintings, drawings and etchings made him a giant in the history of art. His early work was devoted to showing lines, light, shade and colour of the people he saw about him. In 1631 Rembrandt began to depict quieter, more contemplative scenes with warmth in his colour. His landscape paintings are imaginative, mostly of the landscapes that surrounded him. He was at his most intensive in the work popularly known as The Night Watch, painted in 1642. It shows a group of city guardsmen awaiting the command to fall in line. Each man is painted with the care Rembrandt gave to single portraits, yet the composition is such that the separate figures are second in interest to the effect of the whole composition. The canvas is bright with colour, movement and light. In the foreground there are two men, one in bright yellow and the other in black. The shadow of one-colour tones down the lightness of the other. In the centre of the painting is a little girl dressed in yellow. All these colours are of contrasting value, which is why the painting stands out as one of his best.

Bonnard is described as “The masterful modernist, who manipulated light, form and focus to create colour strewn scenes of everyday life.” Bonnard lived from 1867-1947. He was one of the first artists to use pure colour in flat patterns. In the late 1880s, Bonnard was a found member of the Nabis, who were interested in manipulating colour and composition to evoke a feeling or a mood (just like the Fauves). Their works were influenced by paintings of Paul Gauguin and Claude Monet. Bonnard drew on Japanese prints for his striking simplifications of form and bold use of bright colours. In 1894, he turned to more sombre colours, restricting his paintings to small, natural scenes, where people were caught offguard. His naturalism was a starting point for striking experiments in colour and the use of perspective. He said “ There is a formula that perfectly fits painting: lots of little lies for the sake of one big truth.” But in 1914, when he was 46, Bonnard went through a period of self-doubt this led to his most complex and carefully shaped paintings. In these late canvases, the qualities of daring and invention outshined the fantasies of the Surrealists, the colour of the Fauves and the multiple viewpoints of the Cubists. The painter Pierre Bonnard came of age when Impressionism was at the height of its formative influence on young painters.Its colour and vivity attracted other artists of the same period to follow in his foot steps. The Nabis, or prophets, followed Gauguin, and that colour in painting should be used independently. The painter Vuillard was also in this group. Their painting styles are also somewhat similar, in that they both painted many domestic interiors, with intensecolour and in a loose style. Their work was also jewel-like in colour, and the painting surface was always worked and re-worked over a period of time, resulting in a rich, "scumbled" luminosity and softened edges, almost like a soft blur. Their style of working was called "intimiste" by French critics - a reference to the intimate interiors of their paintings. In particular, the colour violet had not been used very much prior to Impressionism. Bonnard made it his staple colour, along with the other two secondary colours, orange and green, and all the mixtures of these colours to form rich greys. In fact, Bonnard is one of the best colourists of the 20th century, the colour relationships in his paintings are nothing short of revelatory.

Painting since the mid-19th century in Europe had shifted from the former Renaissance tradition of illusionist space, to the modern flatness of painting, where all areas of the painting are on the same level. This was achieved in the positioning of figures and objects in the composition in a more two-dimensional patt

Some topics in this essay:
Impressionism Bonnard, Turner Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Rembrandt Fauves, Night Watch, Poussin Watteau, Pierre Bonnard, Monet Bonnard, Art York, Mondrain Turners, subject matter, 20th century, resistance subject, colour painting, 19th century, resistance subject matter, light colour, movement colour main, claude monet, colour relationships, movement colour, century colour, colour main focus, fauvist movement colour, danger resistance subject,