The Canal Morning Effect, Richard Bruckner Gruelle
On Google Art Project. Also on Wikimedia Commons. Original is in the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Eye Candy for Today: Gruelle landscape
The Canal Morning Effect, on Google Art Project
Comments
6 responses to “Eye Candy for Today: Gruelle landscape”
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I’m not familiar with Gruelle, but I quite like this painting, especially the tiny splash of color in the woman’s hat.
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Being from Indiana, I see this painting a least twice a year. I can tell you the color is way off. It’s not warm, it’s cool in nature. It may sound trivial but it throws the whole mood of the painting.
The ochre and amber tones are really spring green with blues and sensitive grey skies.
It really makes me wonder just how many other paintings I have admired over the years are simply not right, color wise.
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Thanks, David. I appreciate the first-hand report. It’s not a trivial concern at all.
Unfortunately, it’s a concern that is difficult to compensate for, and the answer to your question is “probably a lot”.
I find the color of reproductions of paintings on the web varies wildly, from close, to wrong, to really really wrong. Many sources are consistently and terribly wrong. I try to look for sources close to the original, but I even find that the museums who have the works in their collections often put up images that are way off in color. If you use Google Image search, for example, to search for a given painting, you will often be astonished at the variation in the color of the images presented of the same painting.
I can correct, or seek out good variations of works I’ve seen in person, but that’s a small percentage. I’m disappointed in the Google Art Project on this one, as it has been one of the better sources of color reproductions for works that I have been able to judge from personal experience.
Bear in mind also, that this is further complicated by the fact that the color of any image (or color of any kind) on the web can look distinctly different on different computers, operating systems or types of devices, because they display color differently. I know this from years of frustrating experience as a website designer.
The best we can hope for is to get close and strike a median value. I’ve gone back and tried to correct the image slightly based on your description, but my chance of hitting it without seeing the painting first hand are minimal. Here is the one I put up originally that you were responding to: http://www.linesandcolors.com/images/2014-01/gruelle_450.jpg
Unfortunately, this isn’t limited to the web. Though some reproductions in books are quite good, I’ve also found numerous art books in print to be way off in color reproductions of paintings I’m familiar with.
Best practice, of course, is to go see original art whenever we can.
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The perfect picture of a canal in the morning light. Many thanks.
Something else is a subtle hint of orange behind the bridge. What is it, please? -
A portrait of R.B. Gruelle by Glenn Cooper Henshaw, 1910, who was born named Hinshaw.
http://www.artsmartindiana.org/popUp.php?id=7#prettyPhoto/0/ -
Impressed by this American painter, I kept searching for more detailed info on his life and works, and came up with the ultimate link.
http://www.askart.com/askart/g/richard_buckner_gruelle/richard_buckner_gruelle.aspx
I love his quote: “The fragrance of sweet jasmine in the woods was not so sweet as the smell of new canvas and new tubes of color.”, and the smell of turpentine.
