Marthe Rakine: Difference between revisions
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In fact, light was one of the first considerations of our painter. She tried th obtain it, not only through the contrast of light and dark, but by her usage of colors which she made vibrate through juxtaposition. The various elements of a Marthe Rakine still life are not chosen for their singularity or their intrinsic value, but because they are part of our daily life. They become precious by their intimacy and our unconsciousness prevents us from recognizing them. We have lost in this period of high emotions, the moving feeling of everyday life. Because we no longer know how to see or to be astonished, modern man no longer knows how to live gracefully. To experience joy, we need the extraordinary, and all the while it bursts out all around us - in the fruit dish, the pot of flowers, the sun shining on the table, and above all, in relaxation, in the joy which dozes in the heart and is suddenly discovered. And so this bright light continues changing with the time. In the first landscape it slides, diffused over the canvas and by that very quality consumes some of the form. Then, in contrast, due to frequent trips to the Côte d'Azur (Riviera), this light, under the blazing sun, becomes more brusque and at the same time the form asserts itself. Later, around 1937, the light becomes softly transparent and typifies the pictures of that period when Martha Rakine worked with the painter, Othon Friesz, professor at the Academy de la Grande Chaumière. |
In fact, light was one of the first considerations of our painter. She tried th obtain it, not only through the contrast of light and dark, but by her usage of colors which she made vibrate through juxtaposition. The various elements of a Marthe Rakine still life are not chosen for their singularity or their intrinsic value, but because they are part of our daily life. They become precious by their intimacy and our unconsciousness prevents us from recognizing them. We have lost in this period of high emotions, the moving feeling of everyday life. Because we no longer know how to see or to be astonished, modern man no longer knows how to live gracefully. To experience joy, we need the extraordinary, and all the while it bursts out all around us - in the fruit dish, the pot of flowers, the sun shining on the table, and above all, in relaxation, in the joy which dozes in the heart and is suddenly discovered. And so this bright light continues changing with the time. In the first landscape it slides, diffused over the canvas and by that very quality consumes some of the form. Then, in contrast, due to frequent trips to the Côte d'Azur (Riviera), this light, under the blazing sun, becomes more brusque and at the same time the form asserts itself. Later, around 1937, the light becomes softly transparent and typifies the pictures of that period when Martha Rakine worked with the painter, Othon Friesz, professor at the Academy de la Grande Chaumière. |
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In 1945, Martha Rakine preferred to paint reclining women, lying near vast windows opening onto a garden or overlooking the sea, in an atmosphere of blissful calm. The composition of her pictures is later modified. The painting is organized around the negative spaces as much as around the filled ones. The negative spaces take on a harmonious resonance, the positive spaces are in harmony with the others, and essentially decorative elements are used for their pictorial value. The expression of the painting comes from the general organization of the surface, where the spirit of Matisse is not absent. Did not this great painter write: "Expression for me does not lie in the passion which bursts forth on the face or that which affirms itself by a violent mouvement. It is in the whole arrangement of the picture; the place occupied by the bodies, th negative space around them, the proportion, all that plays a part". |
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In this connection, her study of a flowering cactus is very significant. Perhaps the exotic grace of the plant allowed her to organize her surface more freely. Was the subject the source of this liberty, or, the need imposing itself on the artist, was the flower the crystallizing pretext? However it my be, this sketch definitely shows that Marta Rakine was heading toward a decorative conception of the surface by mixing, in a subtile play, the inversed equivalent of filled and empty spaces. From then on she had a tendency to abandon the principles established by the Quattrocento to which she had remained faithful and to find her own completely subjective perspective. Thus it is not surprizing that at the same time Matisse was "une source" for certain of her problems. The same sketch also brings out the search for a special tone, of an "à priori" harmony, less influenced by the spectacle only taken in by the eye. |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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Revision as of 08:06, 30 April 2017
Marthe Rakine | |
|---|---|
| Born | Marthe De Rakine-Schrepfer 1904 |
| Died | 27 July 1996 |
| Education | École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs |
| Occupation | Visual artist |
Marthe De Rakine-Schrepfer (1904 – 27 July 1996) is a Canadian painter of Russian birth.[1]
Early life
Marthe de Rakine-Schrepfer is of Swiss origin. Her father was of Swiss and her mother of French origin. Marthe was born in Moscow. She began her studies at the he age of 10-15 at the École supérieure de Villamont de Lausanne, Switzerland. Further on at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs à la Sorbonne nationale in Paris. She also took lessons in Paris at the Ecole des Langues Orientales and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière with Othon Friesz in the mid-1930s.
Career
After moving to Canada in 1949 she enrolled in the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, studying there from 1949 to 1950 Ceramics. She exhibited widely in Canada and abroad, both in solo and in group shows.[2] Two of her paintings are currently owned by the National Gallery of Canada;[3] other examples of her work may be seen at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre..[1] In 1952, Gordon Washburn of the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh invited 6 Canadian painters (amongst others Marthe Rakine) to represent Canada at the International Exposition of Pittsburgh in 1952.
Personal life
She died on 27 July 1996 in the Fondation Boissonet, Lausanne/Switzerland.
References
MARTHE RAKINE par GUY WEELEN
Editions Les Presses Littéraires de France, Paris 1948
(Translated from French by Gladys Filippone)
French painting passes in turn from a phase of austerity to one of sensuality. Its historic progress proves this, and therein lies a characteristic balance in our behaviour. Although Marthe Rakine is of Swiss origin, on her father's side, she has the French blood of "Provence" in her veins from her mother. Therefore, we consider her one of us. In her own words the region of Mistral in Southern France, the home of her ancestors, is her favorite country. Whenever she is there she experences a special happiness, an ease, and a joy of living. This luxurious and sun-drenched countryside has facilitated the inherent gift that Martha Rakine has for colors, for the warm vivid harmonies, for high, gay scales. The discreet use of grays has the value of pauses, of rests which permit a brilliant orchestration and lightness of color. Therefore, it is with a certain degree of sensuality that Martha Rakine works. In love with this world that offers itself as a table "abundantly laden", she takes and gives in return an object of her adoration. Such is the painting of Martha Rakine.
It is in the Southwest section of Paris, hear Porte de Versailles, that the cottage is found, hidden away beneath a wild grape arbor, where Martha Rakine and her sculptor husband have their studios. Paris is a disconcerting city and this section, still unexplored by the impenitent "flâneurs" is one of the most curious, and well-deserving of thorough description. The painter's house is discreet, conceived for artists, its bay windows opening onto a quiet street. The golden light of Paris gaily breaks into the studios. This light will be the constant concern of the painter, and we shall see later on the successive transformation that it undergoes throughout her work.
Martha Rakine's father was a construction engineer. He worked in many countries, and during her childhood she travelled all through Europe in his company. Her vocation as a painter dates from this period. Children are always glad to break the pattern of their habits, and the novelty of a new country stimulates their young imaginations. After having seen the different countries she passed trough, she tried to reproduce the scenes that impressed her most. Her vision and mind were thus enriched, but soon her taste was formed and she knew how to avoid a certain exotisme that had held her at the start. By impetus her predilection to painting became more determined by her adherence to life and to nature, an eternal sentiment that by agreeable picturesqueness rarely expresses anything but a particular aspect of a vision or of an attachment. It is the poetry of a place that holds her; it is the emotional impact that decides her. It is always very instructive to examine the first works of an artist; these first drafts, these rough sketches which an artist keeps out of a sense of fidelity towards a feeling of himself or out of a sense of fidelity of sentimentality. Here there is nothing in common with the beginner's watercolors that are killed with flatness and banality. From the beginning, our young painter is careful of construction, and clearly defines the planes of the work. A certain portrait of a woman demonstrates this. It is "an extremely viril action showing careful planning", as Montherlant said. This careful construction, which is perhaps all too evident at the beginning, disappears to a certain extent later on, the artist being over-anxious to follow the natural bent of her eye. Then, discreetly, the construction reveals itself, half hidden, yet always with an underlying architectural element which gives the picture the desired effect. These modifications have divers justifications, since evolutions in art slow and the passing of several years is of little importance.
Martha Rakine began her artistic education in Paris, in the very heart of Latin quarter in 1926. The School of decorative Arts on the rue de Fleurus, where our young artist followed painting courses, is only separated from the Sorbonne (Paris University) where she was also a student, by the Luxembourg Gardens, which are among the loveliest in Paris. There are places in this city about which one never stops talking, places where the light has chosen th become brighter, and the Luxembourg, along with the footbridge of the "Arts", is one of these chosen spots. There is a certain luminosity in the air which doesn't exist elsewhere and the eye can't record the many wonders without whishing to make use of them some day. Besides, during those happy years, the favorite quarter of the art galleries was precisely the one that surrounds the Luxembourg gardens. What a marvellous temptation, what stirring contemplations before the great modern painting! And lastly, the Louvre Museum is not far away; we all know what masterpieces it contains.
If there was anything lacking in the universal panorama of the arts, the numerous art bookshops o this quarter offered to Marthe Rakine books and reproductions of the most varied masterpieces. In such a lovely setting, so rich in lessons, Marthe Rakine polished her taste and developed the sense of finesse that gives so much charm to her works.
Since 1932, Marthe Rakine has exhibited in many salons and exhibitions of Paris. The art critic, Jaques Guenne, director of the review "L'Art Vivant" was the first to remark on the talent of the artist, to underline her extreme sensitivity to colors, and to stress the importance of light in her work.
In fact, light was one of the first considerations of our painter. She tried th obtain it, not only through the contrast of light and dark, but by her usage of colors which she made vibrate through juxtaposition. The various elements of a Marthe Rakine still life are not chosen for their singularity or their intrinsic value, but because they are part of our daily life. They become precious by their intimacy and our unconsciousness prevents us from recognizing them. We have lost in this period of high emotions, the moving feeling of everyday life. Because we no longer know how to see or to be astonished, modern man no longer knows how to live gracefully. To experience joy, we need the extraordinary, and all the while it bursts out all around us - in the fruit dish, the pot of flowers, the sun shining on the table, and above all, in relaxation, in the joy which dozes in the heart and is suddenly discovered. And so this bright light continues changing with the time. In the first landscape it slides, diffused over the canvas and by that very quality consumes some of the form. Then, in contrast, due to frequent trips to the Côte d'Azur (Riviera), this light, under the blazing sun, becomes more brusque and at the same time the form asserts itself. Later, around 1937, the light becomes softly transparent and typifies the pictures of that period when Martha Rakine worked with the painter, Othon Friesz, professor at the Academy de la Grande Chaumière.
In 1945, Martha Rakine preferred to paint reclining women, lying near vast windows opening onto a garden or overlooking the sea, in an atmosphere of blissful calm. The composition of her pictures is later modified. The painting is organized around the negative spaces as much as around the filled ones. The negative spaces take on a harmonious resonance, the positive spaces are in harmony with the others, and essentially decorative elements are used for their pictorial value. The expression of the painting comes from the general organization of the surface, where the spirit of Matisse is not absent. Did not this great painter write: "Expression for me does not lie in the passion which bursts forth on the face or that which affirms itself by a violent mouvement. It is in the whole arrangement of the picture; the place occupied by the bodies, th negative space around them, the proportion, all that plays a part".
In this connection, her study of a flowering cactus is very significant. Perhaps the exotic grace of the plant allowed her to organize her surface more freely. Was the subject the source of this liberty, or, the need imposing itself on the artist, was the flower the crystallizing pretext? However it my be, this sketch definitely shows that Marta Rakine was heading toward a decorative conception of the surface by mixing, in a subtile play, the inversed equivalent of filled and empty spaces. From then on she had a tendency to abandon the principles established by the Quattrocento to which she had remained faithful and to find her own completely subjective perspective. Thus it is not surprizing that at the same time Matisse was "une source" for certain of her problems. The same sketch also brings out the search for a special tone, of an "à priori" harmony, less influenced by the spectacle only taken in by the eye.
External links
- Marthe Rakine Roberts Gallery was her regular Sales Agent.
 | This Canadian painter article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- ^ a b Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013-12-19). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 9781135638894.
- ^ Jules Heller; Nancy G. Heller (19 December 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5.
- ^ "Marthe Rakine". Retrieved 5 March 2017.