Puesta De Sol 15 Analysis

Nature through the Seasons Diego Rivera’s artwork Puesta de sol 15 (Sunset 15) created in 1959 is a two dimensional painting created by using oil and tempera on cardboard, and is a prime piece that exemplifies my theme of nature through the seasons. This entire art project itself works together as a whole to create my theme, and Sunset 15 works to exemplify nature during the summer season. Sunsets are something typical of the summer season, and while Rivera’s take on a sunset is interesting, and uniquely different, we still get the point of how nature is envisioned during the summer months with the hot summer sun and its intense rays of light. The water is also an aspect of nature of and of summer time that exemplify the theme trying to be conveyed with this artwork. Sunset 15 is a two dimensional painting that was created on a piece of cardboard which is the biggest and most obvious limitation that the artist created for himself. The decision to use cardboard, which is not a very durable medium, as his canvas may explain why the entire piece is a lot dark then you would expect. The reds, and blues, and greens are all dark shades, with no true hint of light shades of color within the piece. While strokes can be seen in the work, it was of Rivera’s doing since the strokes of cardboard is different from
the ones created in the piece. Since two different paints where used to create this work (tempera and oil), he may have used the oil paint to create a rough draft of what he wanted his piece to look like, and afterwards complete his piece with the tempera. This painting to me resembles more of a tempera rather than an oil painting, which is why I decided that he must have used oil before moving on to tempera paint. Using this type of paint gives the work a flat look, and while the paint may have faded since its creation, it otherwise looks the same way it did when it was first created. Taking a look at this piece from a biographical point of view helps viewers to understand Diego Rivera’s mindset behind his work.
Rivera was staying at Dolores Olmedo’s home, which has a magnificent view of the beach and bay. This is the setting of where Rivera would create his painting of Sunset 15. The colors, specifically the blues, within the work show influence from Jose Maria Velasco, who was a former teacher to Diego and uses his blues in a similar way of which Rivera did. Within this particular work a Cubism time period can be seen due to its range of colors. The year in which Rivera created his work, 1956, was also the time frame of the Modern Art
Era. Summer Scene created by Jean Fredric Bazille on an oil canvas in 1869 also portrays the nature through the seasons theme for summer. Differences that can be seen between Summer Scene and Sunset 15 is the contrast in colors, where we can see bright vibrant colors used in Summer Scene in contrast to the dark color pigments visible in Sunset 15. In Bazille’s work we can see his interpretation of summer as being a bright, and care free time that you spend with your buddies at the lake, while Rivera’s version of summer includes relaxing as you watch a breath-taking sunset. While different interpretations of summer can be seen in each piece, they both serve the purpose of showing us nature through the summer season. Taking an in depth look at these works made me understand the different avenues at which each artist used to give their interpretation of a summer day, and also showed me how different time periods can produce vastly different images of art.