Orange to the Rescue.

December 20, 2024 2 Comments

Walk with me. You have the choice of pouring rain (Tuesday) or bright sun, unseasonably warm (Wednesday.) On both days, the highlight of the visual riches in the woods and marshlands was the color orange – in many variations, sometimes subdued, sometimes fiery, at all times enhancing the cooler hues in the landscape with a pleasing contrast effect. Ever up-lifting.

In the visual arts, orange has been around for a long time. The Egyptians used it for tomb paintings, despite the fact that the pigment they employed, realgar, was derived from monoclinic crystals and was highly toxic. Medieval monks colored their manuscripts with it as well, ignorant of its effects on health.

Orange really took off in the 18th and 19th century, after Louis Vauquelin, a French scientist, discovered the mineral crocoite, which led to the production of the synthetic pigment chrome orange. The Pre-Raphaelites paved the way, with the Impressionists not far behind. Van Gogh took it to extremes, and Expressionism pledged itself to this intensive hue. Abstract artists of our own time made good use of the color as well. Below are some of my favorite examples, paired with what nature has to offer, in every which way as visually rich as what sprang from painters’ imaginations.

John Constable The Hay Wain (1821)

Sunsets are, of course, a perennial favorite. Not to be found this week, alas.

Caspar David Friedrich Das Große Gehege (1832)

Reflections rule.

J. M. W. Turner, Fighting Temeraire (1839)

The most famous of the orange suns,

Claude Monet Impression, Sunrise (1872)

and vineyards echoing the color choice.

Vincent van Gogh Red Vineyards at Arles (1888)

Light, captured,

Emil Nolde Coastal Landscape Date unknown

landscape abstracted.

Richard Diebenkorn Berkeley No 46 (1955)

Color reduction.

Mark Rothko Orange and Yellow (1956)

The strangest of them all – the man’s head below the woman’s face detectable in her lap only with a bit of help, covered by orange tresses, that might be the burn of love or loss, who knows.

Edvard Munch Love and Pain (1893)

Music today is dedicated by me to this ill-fated couple….

In a season where light during the darkness takes on a certain symbolism, (Hanukkiahs and Christmas trees, I see you!) the brightness of orange is nature’s contribution – gratefully accepted. Even when drenched in rain.

Here is a Long Read, suggested for the weekend. Elad Nehorai, a former orthodox Jew who writes for the Guardian, The Forward and Times of Israel, asks us to think through the implications of how the American public reacted to the murder of the healthcare CEO. He offers thoughts on how we can bring about change with non-violence and what the civil rights movement had to say about the challenges with such an approach. I thought this is a worthwhile topic during a season where Christianity celebrates the arrival of someone who was supposed to bring peace on earth, no luck so far, and Judaism celebrates a miracle of sustainability during a violent civil war …. https://substack.com/home/post/p-153227333

December 23, 2024

friderikeheuer@gmail.com

2 Comments

  1. Reply

    Louise A Palermo

    December 20, 2024

    Your pairings are better than wine and chocolate…or rather, orange and chocolate!! I fell into each image.

  2. Reply

    Sara Lee Silberman

    December 20, 2024

    Both the photos and the art were glorious!!!

    I read Elad Nehorai’s piece. A fan, as he is, of Martin Luther King, I think his conceptualization of our current state of affairs is excellent. I, however, can’t come up with evidence – and neither does he – for his claim that nonviolence “works” as a strategy for bringing about “revolution.” Saying that, I hasten to add, I am not thereby endorsing violence. Just commenting on (and regretting deeply) what I see as the bleak prospects for anything good’s happening in the immediate/near future.

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