L' Amour et Psyche and La ferme

Oh how crowded it was. But, none-the-less, I did see some interesting things today. I had made a list of 7 paintings I wanted to see, and I saw almostall of them. But, as in our instructions of the day, I drew two paintings in detail and attempted to analyze them.

The first being L' Amour et Psyche.

Painted by Francois-Edouard Picot in 1817, it is a de

piction of the goddess Psyche laying in her bed, deep in happy slumber, and her lover, Cupid,

attempting to leave her. Some of the observations I made were that...

-Everything Cupid touches, or his belongings touch,

are red.

-He is tiptoeing away, as if to be sneaking.

-Candle is burnt down to nothing, as if burnt down from a long night ;-) oh la la)

-Cupid's hair is matted down, and his wreath is hanging on the hook (wreath hair)

-The cloth touching Psyche is white. (pure? Virginal?)

-The columns look like they are holding up the frame of the picture.

-Cupid is watching Psyche as if to see if she stirs.

I was drawn to this photo originally because I thought it might be the angel Gabriel with Mary at the Immaculate Conception. But, after reading the title, and taking a deeper look, it is clear they are lovers, not of the Immaculate kind ;-). I also noticed the way the picture was displayed, hanging from a picture rail, suspended above 3 smaller port

raits, and lit from a skylight above.

The second painting I drew and analyzed today was,

La Ferme, painted by Jean-Baptiste Oudry in 1750.

The painting depicts a French country style house, just like the ones I loved at L'Hamlet at Versailles, with country folk out doing their daily chores and many farm animals in the yard.

Besides the gorgeous house that clearly I am drawn to, the composition also intrigued me.

Some things I noticed were...

-The trees frame the city in the distance to the right of the house.

-The house and the fore, middle, and background of the landscape appear to be equal parts of the painting.

-The painting feels warm and inviting, as if catching a glimpse at the farmer's life as well as the animals and workers on the farm.

-There is some humor as well, notice the man in the hay wagon being pulled toward the hay loft.

-The animals are all gathered together, I noticed this at L'Hamlet as well, this may be common here perhaps, but at farms at home, usually each species generally seems to be penned up separately.

-The animals and the people seem to be idealized, everyone looking prim and proper, the animals all doing what they should be, seems a little too perfect...farms are farms, they are made for dirt, mud, and hard sweaty work!!!

I also looked at the room and surrounding in which the painting was displayed. Again, the same as the first one, it is a larger, with 3 smaller paintings beneath it, and hung from a picture rail to the ceiling. This room also had light from above. The skylights in this room had louvers to block out direct sunlight, as well strips of square skylights on either side of the rectangular room.

Both painting were of very different things, but both intrigued different interests. One had architecture, the other was of mythology and symbolism. Overall, I enjoyed drawing them, although in attempting to find what I wanted to draw, it was overwhelming!!