Yareah Magazine

Ann Timmermans

by Dominique d'Orange

Naturalistic authors portrayed the lives of the lower classes true-to-life and described the disenchantment, disappointment and the downfall in day-to-day life. Their characters were often weak, ill, bored and dejected. Man was perceived as a social creature, a product of the social background he had been raised in. Life was determined by upbringing, heredity and social background.

Romanticism glamorized and focussed on heroes and artists whereas naturalistic artists depicted the plausible, depressing reality of the poor working class who had to work all the time for the increasing prosperity of others. Child labour and exploitation were very common in those days. The workers lived in overcrowded slums and did not have anything to look forward to.

It goes without saying that naturalistic philosophy was influenced by pessimism   , determinism   and fatalism.

Illustrating the spirit of the age, I stumbled upon this balanced piece by the Belgian artist d’Orange(untitled, oil painting, 1999), breathing the air of the suffering man in the street, uttering displeasure caused by the abuses of society.
Two poor, tired old ladies on the foreground are toiling along with bowed heads.
The lady with the hump needs the help of a walking-stick and is looking straight in the viewer’s eye.  A slightly taller woman with an emaciated face, is looking down shamefully. The women’s vulnerability and isolation are accentuated by the amount of negative space. The colourless, hard life of the women fits the green and brown hues, conveying a sense of mystery.

The atmosphere, style, the disillusioned characters and the subject of human agony instantly touched me as Zola moved many of us.

Read more:

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html

Bio:

http://www.artnet.com/artist/591095/dominique-d-orange.html

Dominique d'Orange, an extremely productive Belgian artist, enrolled in the art school in Bruges and studied at the academy of Fine Arts in Ostend. Her immense oeuvre consists of acrylic, oil and wall paintings, aluminium and paper prints, installations, mixed media and multimedia work, photography, pastel drawings, gouache, abstract and graphic work., which she exhibited all over the world. After a lifetime of studying, teaching and creating art, she came to a point of having a clear and defined view upon what defines art. It is about creation, shape, lines, composition and colour. Art is redefining and abstracting. She evolved from a classical to a contemporary and graphic style, with an emphasis on lines, compositions, relief and colour.

Created by Ann GP Timmermans