Monday, February 16, 2015

Carpe Diem #670, Bathing


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I haven't enough time today to write a "big" post so I decided to just give you the title and painting which was my choice for today's prompt. I love to present to you a painting by Paul Cézanne ... I think it's a nice example of late impressionism and it's really an impression from a bathing scene. Paul Cézanne painted this painting between 1898 and 1905. It is considered one of the masterpieces of modern art, and is often considered Cézanne's finest work. Cézanne worked on the painting for seven years, and it remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1906.

This painting is titled "Large Bathers" and is part of a series of paintings (as was very common in impressionism). With each version of the bathers, Cézanne moved away from the traditional presentation of paintings, intentionally creating works which would not appeal to the novice viewer. He did this in order to avoid fleeting fads and give a timeless quality to his work, and in so doing paved the way for future artists to disregard current trends and paint pieces which would appeal equally to all generations. The abstract nude females present in Large Bathers give the painting tension and density. It is exceptional among his work in symmetrical dimensions, with the adaption of the nude forms to the triangular pattern of the trees and river. Using the same technique as employed in painting landscapes and still lifes, Large Bathers is reminiscent of the work of Titian and Peter Paul Rubens. Comparisons are also often made with the other famous group of nude women of the same period, Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. (Source: Wikipedia)

Credits: Large Bathers - Paul Cézanne
It's a nice scene and I think it can inspire you to write an all new haiku (or tanka). I had some trouble to compose a haiku inspired on this painting, but ... after a while I came up with the following haiku:

skinny dipping
between frogs and waterlilies -
one with nature

© Chèvrefeuille

By the way it's not only inspired on this painting. As I looked at this painting a sweet memory came to mind ....

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until February 19th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our new episode, a new episode of our Haiku Writing Techniques, the second on Wabi Sabi, later on.

By the way I will take a few days off next weekend and I have asked Jen of Blog It Or Lose It to help me out. She said yes ... so our regular prompts of Friday 20th, Saturday 21th and Sunday 22th will be done by Jen.
As you maybe know it's my goal to have every month a weekend off, so if you would like to fill in for me next month, than please let me know. That free weekend will be Friday March 20th until Sunday March 22nd. You're free to do with the given prompts of those days, but you have to follow the prompts according to our promptlist which I hope to publish next week.


2 comments:

  1. What a lovely painting and your haiku is sweet.

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  2. Late again! Mine is up at: https://purplepeninportland.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/bathers/

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