Several artists have made artistic renditions of the tower. Henri Rousseau, for example, used it to represent a ship’s sails in his “Paris from a Window.”
Robert Delaunay painted a series of paintings featuring the Eiffel Tower. He used mobile perspective, rhythmic fragmentation of form and contrasting colors to evoke the dynamism of modern life.
Colors
In this painting from 1924, Robert Delaunay used fauvist-inspired hues to depict the iconic landmark. He painted the Eiffel Tower in a rich range of tones from yellow and orange to lavender. The use of color is an important part of his artistic style, called Orphism, which emphasized the role of color as a communicator of sensation and thought.
The contrasting colors of the painting are also intended to create an aura of movement and energy around the structure. The painting uses a pointillist technique, in which dots of paint are blended together to form an image. The contrast between the dots of the Eiffel Tower and the background creates a sense of depth in the scene. The color of the tower is also chosen to convey its importance in Paris’ history and its role as a symbol of industrial progress.
When Gustave Eiffel designed the Eiffel Tower, he was inspired by the great engineering accomplishments of the 1700s and wanted to show the world what France could accomplish with science and technology. He worked hard to get funding for his project and made sure that the construction was planned carefully so that it would be a success. The result is a structure that has become one of the most famous monuments in the world.
Art inspired by the Eiffel Tower has been seen all over the world. It is not just found in the museums of Paris but can be found in many cities, including New York, San Francisco and even Helsinki in Finland. The Eiffel Tower is a popular subject for paintings, both in black and white and in vibrant, colorful images.
Henri Rousseau, a post-Impressionist artist who often used a naive style of painting, painted the Eiffel Tower several times. In his painting “Paris from a Window,” the Eiffel Tower is not the main subject but can be spotted amongst the rooftops and other buildings. In another of his paintings, the Eiffel Tower is almost hidden by the smoke from factories that lined the banks of the Seine downstream from the Eiffel Tower.
Light
For some people, the Eiffel Tower represents a strong symbol of modernity. Designed and erected in 1889 for the Paris World’s Fair, it was the tallest structure in the world at that time. Its wrought iron lattice design looked like the inner structure of many other industrial buildings at that time, which caused some to complain that the Tower was ugly, showing so much metal and not covering it with walls. Others felt that the Tower was honest and strong, and a beautiful reminder of the future.
For painters who used a style called Orphist Cubism (a variation of Post-Cubism), the Eiffel Tower was a source of inspiration for their work. Robert Delaunay, a pioneer of this new painting style, made countless studies of the iconic building. He studied it from above and below, inside and out, at night and during the day, absorbing every mood, perspective, and light effect of the monument.
In his paintings, he used bold and imaginative Fauvist-inspired colors to create a range of optical effects. He flipped Seurat’s notion of capturing light by varying only the application and intensity of color, envisioning instead that each color zone was actually pushed forward or backward in space by its neighbor. The result is a stunning fusion of color that is both beautiful and functional, like the Eiffel Tower itself.
Other artists interpreted the Eiffel Tower in more abstract ways. The famous Mexican painter Diego Rivera’s depictions of the building were expressions of his emotional ambivalence toward the modernization of France’s fin-de-siecle society. His off-kilter factories, tilting at precarious angles, and a band of black paint that resembled a window frame reflect the emotional turmoil of this time.
The most common criterion for judging a piece of art is how it makes the viewer feel. This is the most subjective of the judging criteria, and it is difficult to pin down the exact feelings that are evoked by a particular work. However, some of the most important feelings a work can inspire are those of joy and wonder. The Eiffel Tower is one of the few works of art that has this effect on countless viewers worldwide.
Contrast
The Eiffel Tower is the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Paris. Robert Delaunay took this iconic 19th-century structure and boldly interpreted it as a 20th-century Modernist work of art. His style was influenced by the radical art movement Cubism. This style broke the real world into a series of geometric panels of color that create the illusion of movement and sensation.
Delaunay also drew on the techniques of the abstract Fauvist movement to give his works a more fluid, imaginative quality. In his painting Champs de Mars: The Red Tower, he used vibrant colors that create a sense of energy and movement. He also took an aerial viewpoint, probably inspired by his own experiences as a pilot. This allowed him to create a unique work that merges exterior and interior spheres.
It is difficult to pin down the exact influences on Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night. However, many scholars believe that he was inspired by the tower in particular. In a letter to his brother Theo, he described the scene that inspired the painting as “a huge tower with its pillars aglow in the night” and “the light over the city of Paris reflected from its iron”.
Another famous painter who used the tower as an inspiration is Paul Gauguin. In his 1889 essay on the Modernist approach to art, he noted that the tower was a triumph of iron over wood. He then went on to describe the decorative details on the structure, which he compared to Gothic lacework.
These details are also apparent in the paintings of Jean-Paul Vuillard. His work from the early 1920s reflects his shift away from Cubism toward Orphism. In this work the Eiffel Tower is broken into symphonic patchworks of color that evoke energy and movement.
Both of these artists worked in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris. It is likely that they were familiar with the work of Seurat, a French Impressionist who studied the effects of pointillism on light and form. However, Seurat’s technique was rigid and structured, whereas Vuillard’s work is more fluid and imaginative.
Perspective
Amid the massive change happening in 19th-century Paris the Eiffel Tower emerged as a symbol of the city’s traditions, beliefs, hopes, and dreams. It was, and is still today, a magnificent structure, one of the most spectacular engineering feats in history, as well as a cherished tourist attraction. This iconic monument is so familiar to us that it’s easy to forget how amazing and impressive it actually was. Seeing it close-up again in a painting or photograph, however, is a different experience altogether. The detail and colors of the tower evoke a sense of wonder and majesty.
Among the many artists who have immortalized the Eiffel Tower on canvas are Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), Diego Rivera (1901-1924), and Robert Delaunay (1860-1940). Henri, who is often referred to as the father of modern naive art, painted the tower at least three times. He uses it as a backdrop in his colorful painting of Paris from a window and as a focal point in two self-portraits. The tower is barely visible in the first portrait, a bit confusing among the ropes and flags of the ship sailing above it. In the second portrait it is a focal point soaring above the rooftops with people lying at its feet and someone who seems to have parachuted from its summit.
Rivera used the Eiffel Tower in his paintings as a tool to illustrate the emotional and social turbulence of fin de siecle France. His turbulent and haphazard urban landscapes portray the complex emotions that people felt towards technological innovation at this time. The disjointed buildings, distorted perspectives, and off-kilter Eiffel Tower convey the fear and insecurity that many felt about new advancements in society.
Delaunay, on the other hand, used the structure as a means to explore 20th-century modernism and its philosophy of disintegration and regeneration. He re-imagined the iconic tower as a geometric figure that dissolves into its surroundings and even incorporated aspects of the real building’s architecture into his paintings. For instance, he painted the tower darker at the base and lighter at the top just like the actual Eiffel Tower. He also experimented with the idea of perspective in his paintings, using it as a pictorial device to fragment space.
