Similarities Between The Letter And Gee-Lebrun

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s work The Letter and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun’s Comtesse de la Chatre, share obvious similarities. Indeed, both are portraits depicting a woman. Although they belong to two different aesthetic currents, Romanticism for Corot and Neoclassic for Vigée-Lebrun, both artists use similar tools such as color, composition, brushstroke, and lighting to define the character of their painting. After comparing them, I would advise a prospective buyer to acquire The Letter because Corot conveys a haunting emotion in his art piece through the use of deter colors that arouse the viewer’s emotion, through his bold brushstroke technique that creates dramatic effect, through the overhead light source that furthers the feeling of despair,
and finally through an inadequate yet balanced composition that supports the body language of the sitter. As a Romantic painting, The Letter benefits from the use of high contrast, nearly monochromatic color in its overall presentation. I believe that Corot’s use of color is superior to Vigee-Lebrun because he produces a deeply melancholic ambience, which sparks a strong sense of sadness and empathy for the subject, wallowing in her despair looking at the letter in her hand. This clearly conveys so genuinely the painter’s passion, which renders this painting a resounding choice, as it will generate a strong emotional response from the viewer. The dark interior setting is captured using deep values of brown, with little detail other than a minimum of color in the background painting and the briefest hint of color for the fireplace in the mid ground, keeps the viewers eye focused on the seated subject. The subtle tonality also supports the view of the woman’s physical expression, sitting defeated in her chair, evokes sadness. The viewer can imagine the sorrowful feelings the woman has as she has been informed of her husband’s deployment to fight in the Revolution or some foreign war. Differing shades of brown used on the chair, the darkest green of the vest, the tan of the dress, and a red ribbon in her hair draw the viewers’ attention to the beauty of the central figure, yet the viewer’s eyes go back to the central focus, the white letter she holds in her hand. Conversely, Vigee-Lebrun uses comparatively brighter, more cheerful color combinations, presenting a beautiful, pleasing subject. The white color of the dress, lace cuffs and a lace shawl serves to underline that the sitter belongs to a more aristocratic strata of the social hierarchy because the color serves to demonstrate how refined and delicate the fabrics of the clothing are. The dark blue silk ribbons tied around her waist and the matching ribbons adorning her hat furthers to develop the elegant character of the central figure. The red book she holds casually with one hand shows her idle nature and a level of intellectuality as well as wealth, since books were at the time only accessible to the rich. The dark green velvet settee cushion combined with gold wooden colors in the mid-ground brings the viewer’s eyes back to her as a center of attention because the dress and her face are the brightest objects in the composition. Although the vivid colors seem supportive of the character in the painting, the Comtesse does not entice the viewer to develop deeper feelings. Besides color composition, a bold brushstroke technique that Corot used in his painting is more compelling because it adds drama and movement to the painting.
These brushstrokes that Corot uses in this painting create a tension needed for the development of the character of the sitter, who seems unhappy because of the letter on her hand. Bold, in both the width of the brushstroke, and the zigzag nature that he employs to create depth and detail, especially in the shoulders and the plunging neckline of the vest. However, Vigee-Lebrun forms barely visible, wispy, precise brush strokes to convey the characteristics in every detail of The Comtesse painting. One must commend Vigee-Lebrun for the tedious work she did to paint the hair, which is done in minute detail every single hair, creating a sense of real hair. The hands of the sitter are finely detailed, leaving nothing to the imagination. This perfection makes the sitter quite statuesque conveying her character as a Nobel. Vigee-Lebrun also displays vivid details in the brocade of the dark green velvet cushion and settee, and perfect folds in the dress. Based on the brushstroke style, The Letter seems more unique compared to The Comtesse because Corot forces the viewer to stand further away in order to fully appreciate his painting while viewers can describe Vigee-Lebrun’s painting whether from near or far
away. Not only is Corot more confident in brushstroke technique than Vigee-Lebrun but also in lighting. It appears that the scene is at night; therefore artificial light would be needed. It appears that the artist used an overhead chandelier that acts as a spot light, which was needed to dramatically cast light and shadow throughout the entire setting. The light perfectly illuminates the sitter and the letter, making the letter the brightest object in the entire painting. Also, the lighting causes shadowing of the neck, face and in the eyes of the sitter, creating depth and tension to the scene. In contrast, The Comtesse lighting comes from a definable natural source, likely a large window up high because there are soft shadows in the dress and on the right cheek. There is a highlight in the top left part of each eye, revealing which direction the light is coming from. The soft window light is bringing out all the dimensions of the ribbons, hat and dress, even the green velvet in a very gentle way. This lighting technique obviously produces a clear image of The Comtesse de la Chatre, so there is no challenge for the viewer to define her character. The composition of The Letter is balanced overall and more natural in posture than The Comtesse, whose body language illustrates a sense of posing. The form of the sitter in The Letter, is lending more drama to the scene. The sitters posture is resignedly slumped and her face is downward looking; her arms and the chair arm are pointing to the letter, bringing our focus back to the letter once again. Corot uses a minimum of obscure background pieces to set the scene, keeping the viewers attention on the furthest forward object of this painting, the letter. While The Comtesse has also a balanced composition in arrangement, the form of the sitter is rigid and geometric forming a pyramid, the twist of her upper body, and the placement of her hands holding the book seem to repeat the properness and a real posing of such a Nobel woman.

To conclude, analyzing famous historical paintings presents a challenging task because the world of Fine Art has gradually evolved in terms of stylistic expression, technique and viewers’ expectations. People, now more than ever and at any socio-cultural background, have access to Fine Art. The distribution of Fine Art throughout the world took this important form of cultural expression away from an aristocratic happy few, who once were the only people whose eyes were allowed to view and understand its code, and have been made accessible in museums worldwide. The Letter and the Comtesse de la Châtre are just two examples of famous paintings, widely accessible and easily recognizable. For the many reasons listed above, The Letter by Corot attracts my attention because unlike the Comtesse de la Châtre, which clearly represents a noble woman, The Letter presents a more relatable situation and engages the viewer’s emotion. Vigée-Lebrun’s piece represents a bygone ideal of beauty, and a display of social status is no longer relevant to a modern audience. Furthermore, The Letter is a work that transcends time because it appeals to the viewer’s emotions, and leaves a fragment impression that is described profoundly in the viewer’s memory. An emotion still understood by modern audience because pain is universal. Thus, adding The Letter to a collection over the Comtesse de la Châtre seems like a very clear choice to me.