090

  • Le Jardin du Luxembourg (The Luxembourg Gardens)

  • n.d.
  • Emma Ruff (French b. 1884)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 33.0 x 41.2 cm., 13 x 16-1/4"
  • Lent Courtesy of Private Collection in Honor of Katherine Elizabeth Goebel through Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts

Essay by Courtney Olson, Class of 2007

Emma Ruff's style clearly reflects Impressionist roots. Her paintings are full of color and beauty, much like these works, yet there are some distinct differences. Her brushstrokes are much tighter, especially when depicting figures, a tendency also apparent in Impressionist Edgar Degas' beautifully drawn pieces (web gallery 98 and 106). Ruff's painting is oil on canvas. There are no existing records to indicate its exact date or if it was exhibited. It comes from a private collection and was likely meant to be paired with Ruff's other painting, Le Jardin des Tuileries (web gallery 89). Ruff's style might properly be called conservative Impressionism. It was probably painted en plein air, in open air on site, rather than in the studio. Most of the composition is bright and colorful, and you expect to see a blue sky with puffy, billowing clouds, but instead it is a subtle color, tinted with shades of gray above, perhaps hinting at a more romantic side to the artist or simply reflecting an overcast day.

The composition depicts the Luxembourg gardens in Paris. This location is indicated by the two shaded pathways and the sculpture and fountain. These beautiful gardens and their sculpture surround the Luxembourg Palace, once home to Marie de' Medici (web gallery 30), but now the headquarters for the French Senate. During the nineteenth century, as well as in our present time, these gardens seemed to belong to the people of Paris. They remain a favorite meeting place for Parisians during the milder seasons of the year. Throughout the garden, people from different walks of life gather: a family, a soldier, a young couple, the wealthy and the working. It is a place to relax and to play. Beyond the trees and the fountain, the mansard roofs which visually defined modern Paris tower over the gardens, evidence of the many recent changes sweeping away old Paris and replacing it with modern boulevards and buildings. But here in the park, one could still catch a glimpse of nature and retreat to a simpler world, seemingly far away from, but actually within the more complex city (Tinterow and Loyrette 142-143).