El Jaleo Analysis Essay Example
One painting that is not talked about like other paintings such as the mona lisa or the starry night by van gogh is called El jaleo. This painting was created by John Singer Sargent in 1882, which is located at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. If you love free spirited and dramatic paintings this is the one that will really catch your eye. A painting that speaks to you with the facial expressions of all without reading what the painting is about. This painting brings so much more than art it brings Spanish culture to the viewers in a form of art.
Description Of El Jaleo
A good way to describe the painting of el jaleo is that the artist does not use bright colors throughout his work. He sticks to black,white, and gray colors although he did use orange an red for the dresses of the women in the background.The composition in painting is that the lady is in the center of the dance floor where she is dancing as the crowd in the back cheers her on as it gives it more feelings towards how they feel about the dance. The material John used was color paints and oil where we can see the paint strokes of the brush going across the canvas. The subject matter for this painting's intent is to show the Spanish culture of playing music and dancing while enjoying the night like the crowd in the background is doing. This painting also shows dionysian because of the way the painting demonstrates a lot of enjoyment and celebration by having the lady dance and the others playing music or moving with their arms and yelling like the man in the chair is doing. To describe it in depth, This painting shows dark gray floor running across the dance floor, a lady dancing with her long white but dark dress flowing across the floor as she spins through the night with movement.
Interpreting The Work Of Art
The story taking place is the story of John Singer being in love with Spanish gypsy dancers as he really loves the culture and gypsy women. This story portrayed here is of a Spanish gypsy woman dancing to music with a crowd in the back representing the spanish culture. This paintings setting is in a home or in a cave as he said most gypsie dances were in caves or homes most likely at night as we can see the room/place is dark and there's only faint light showing the dancer and the people in the back to see the dancer. The mood of the work can be described as a saddened but happy environment as the picture shows the men with droopy faces playing the music but the women with happy long smiles dancing in their chairs.This work of art is about the spanish gypsie women and spanish men playing their guitars showing a type of hispnic celebration.I think the artist was trying to show how the love of dance and music can affect someone's feelings/emotions.
Relating The Work Of Art
This artwork reminds me of a mariachi or a hispanic group where they play different instruments and sing and they make people feel different types of ways depending on the song they're singing. This type of music can make someone feel sad or happy and make them even want to dance. This art work relates to an aspect of my life because I can see myself in that picture watching a dance and a mariachi sing and play music at my sisters quince. This made me feel all types of emotions from sad to happy and even made me cry. Or when going to many hispanic dances where there's singing with instruments it makes everyone always feel loved, sad, or happy but in a good way.I can compare this artwork to images of quinceaneras dancing in the front center stange with dimmed lights and a big crowd in the back filled with many emotions. Like my quince pictures. They are similar because you can see the expressions of everyone in the back from saddened to happy. But they are different because of how it is not only one person dancing but multiple people dancing in the center of the strange around 12 people dancing while the crowd sits and watches the dance.
