The Romantis And Sad Painting: The Eiffel Tower

The artist Rousseau Julien was born in Laval, Mayenne France. He was born on May 21st, 1844 to a humble family. His house was seized due to the debts that his father owed and left his city at a young age. Rousseau went to Laval High School and received prizes in drawing and music. After he finished his high school education, he went to law school and worked for a lawyer. After some time, he changed between occupation attempted a small perjury and sought refuge in the army and served four years. In 1868 he moved to Paris France to support his mother as a government employee. At the same year, he got married to Clémence Boitard, who was his landlord's 15-year-old daughter, he had six children with her but only one had survived. In 1888, Clémence Boitard died and he married Josephine Noury. At the age of 49, Rousseau retired from his job and focused on paintings. Rousseau never had any formal training in painter and was considered a self-taught painter. Rousseau never went to the jungle, he used his imagination in some of his paintings depicting detailed jungle by listening to the descriptions of the people that went to the jungle. He used his imaginations to draw the wild animals and the trees in the jungle.

The Eiffel Tower painting is one of Rousseau’s famous paintings. This painting was given a title as the La Tour Eiffel, which is the French name for The Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower painting captures important landmarks of Paris such as the Eiffel Tower, the Bridge below it, and the River Seine. This painting also captures the anglers holding their fishing rods into the river, the fishing boats on the left side of the river, and the boat flowing along the river towards the bridge. Rousseau also includes the flag of France at the top of the tower.

In the painting, the sky shows various colors, ranging from baby blue at the top third of the painting, followed by a lighter blue sky with scattered pink clouds. The tower together with the bridge was painted in dark brown color. The trees are colored in dark green and the river is reflecting the clouds showing a mixture of blue and pink, and on the right of the painting, there are small brown hills, behind the fishermen.

The artist Rousseau Julien uses different forms of the element including outline to mark the riverbanks and the tower. He also uses one-point perspective where the whole drawing vanishes into the tower. Rousseau uses different scales of colors ranging from light blue, to dark green, to light brown depicting contrast in the painting. Rousseau Julien also uses chiaroscuro technique that creates a three-dimensional effect with light and shadow in the trees on either side of the painting. The painter also put a lot of emphasis on light especially on the color of clouds and the trees. The different colors used in the sky and the river shows that it was at a sunset.

Apart from the principle of arts, Rousseau Julien also used the principle of design. With the tower being in the middle of the paint, the right side of the painting is almost a mirror image of the left side creating asymmetry. Rousseau Julien balanced the drawing by drawing more people on the right and having more boats on the left. Also, on the right side has more hill in the background of the fishermen and is being balanced by the house on the left. In general, the painting is balanced and is symmetrical. In this painting, the tower is the focal point. It is contributed by the riverbanks pointing to the tower, the arrangement of the houses and the direction of the river and the boat that is moving. All of these things converge to the tower. In the drawing, . Rousseau Julien also used variety in that the colors are different. The trees are given very dark colors and kept between two light colors; the sky and the river. There is also variety in that the shape and sizes of the clouds. The paint has limited the motion and is being depicted in the sailing boat in the middle of the river.

The painting creates a romantic and sad mood. The boat in the afternoon scene with the sunset is one of the most romantic places, and it is sad because it is calm and there is no sign of motion other than the middle boat. The Eiffel Tower is an oil painting on canvas. The artist Rousseau Julien died on September 2, 1910, in Paris, France. He suffered from an infected leg wound and despondent over the rejection of his romantic overtures by Leonie, a shop assistant.