The Quai, Venice

The Dutch painter, Kees van Dongen, in the early twentieth century, created fauvist portraits for the French upper class. In his painting The Quai, Venice, Kees depicts a simple abstract portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati waiting along the Venice Grand Canal. Kees van Dongen takes advantage of elements of contrasting colors, rich color, and the style of Fauvism. The Quai, Venice elegantly portrays the Italian woman, Marchesa Luisa Casati, who is quite familiar to the art world. Marchesa Luisa Casati is said to be one of the most illustrated women in art. In this piece, her electric orange hair not only grabs ones attention, but is also Marchesa’s trademark. With Marchesa’s hair contrasting against the rest of the portraits blue and green hues, shows her unordinary and extraordinary quality. Kees van Dongen had been part of Fauvism, which had originated in France in the early twentieth century. The Quai, Venice shows all the aspects of Kees’ Fauvist style. This painting has the Fauvist elements of overstressed color with simplified figures. In this painting, Marchesa Luisa Casati figure is simply slim and elongated. Her body lack a sense of complexity to her figure, as she lacks curves and her body is simplified to just the figure of a human. In Kees’ painting, he uses rich pigment that creates strong contrast between two rich colors. In Fauvism, some artist use paint directly from the tube, which leads to the creation of these rich colors. The overall hue of the painting is a bluish green tone similar to viridian. Color in Fauvism is said represent emotion, which might suggest sadness with the multiple hues of blue. Having contrast in a painting is essential; it gives the painting depth creating definite shadows and highlights. The contrast between Marchesa Luisa Casati’s hair and the night sky gives the viewer a focal point. The strong contrast, can exaggerate the importance of an element, for instance Marchesa’s iconic hair. The distance