Movement & Style

The first painting is titled "Kindred Spirits" painted by Asher Brown Durand. The second is a sketch by Rembrandt van Rijn titled "Seated Old Man." Both works of art show major examples of movement and style. Movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal. Asher Brown Durand's "Kindred Spirits" was created in the 1800s while "Seated Old Man" by Rembrandt was created in the 1600s. Brown was an American painter of the Hudson River school. Rembrandt on the other hand is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history.

During 1849 their was a Hudson School River Art Movement. The name given to a number of American landscape painters working between 1825-1875, inspired by their pride in the beauty of their homeland. The three founders, and probably the most important figures were Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty and Asher B Durand. The patriotic spirit of the painters of The Hudson River School won them great popularity in the middle of 19th Century. Rembrandt was in the Baroque period. Baroque Art emerged in Europe around 1600, as an reaction against the intricate and formulaic Mannerist style which dominated the Late Renaissance. Baroque Art is less complex, more realistic and more emotionally affecting than Mannerism.
This movement was encouraged by the Catholic Church, the most important patron of the arts at that time, as a return to tradition and spirituality.

These art works also express style. Style refers to a characteristic or group of characteristics that we recognize as constant, reccuring, or coherent. The style that both "Kindred Spirits" and "Seated Old Man" presents is representational. Representational covers a broad range of approaches. It is very faithful to visual experience, recording how forms are revealed by light and shadow, how bodies reflect an inner structure of bone and muscle, how fabric drapes over bodies and objects, and how gravity makes weight felt. This approach is also considered NATURALISTIC! In "Kindred Spirits" Asher Brown Durand set out to represent the visible world in such a way that we recognize a likeness. He also shows visual experience and recorded how forms are revealed by light and shadow. In "Seated Old Man" Rembrandt shows how fabric drapes over bodies and object and how gravity makes weight felt. These are a few examples of movement and style in my two art works.