In the following gallery, paintings that use background color to set a specific eerie and mysterious mood will be discussed. Color plays an important role when portraying a mood, but we will see how color in the background can also be crucial to setting the tone of the painting. For this gallery we will discuss paintings from Spanish speaking artists.
Our lady of Andalusia, Julio Romero de Torres, 1907, From the collection of: Museo Julio Romero de Torres
"Our Lady of Andalusia" portrays multiple characters in a single scene. All these characters have a different purpose and moral representation. One can see that the background colors are not constant throughout the entire painting. Surrounding the character in the farthest right is a shade of black as the background. While he is the only character surrounded by this color, it implies that his motives are not morally correct. His background suggests that he is a mysterious character and leaves his motives up to interpretation
Melancholy Woman, Pablo Picasso, 1902, From the collection of: Detroit Institute of Arts
Melancholy Woman by Pablo Picasso shows a woman with noticeable sadness. In this case, it is very important for the background to complement the character in order to create a tone. And by using dark colors, it successfully accomplish to perfectly represent the character. The whole scene looks mysterious and uncanny, thanks to its backgrounds and its colors
Natura morta con pesci, Pablo Picasso, 1932, From the collection of: Mart, Museum of modern and contemporary art of Trento and Rovereto
Based on the title and the scene, one can see that in this painting, Pablo Picasso is showing death through a living thing that we are all used to killing, yet in this painting, it is still portrayed as something morbid and dark. The colors in the background help achieve this tone for the painting. The dark blues in the background, and the odd contrast with yellow suggests tension in the tone
It was after Frida's terrible bus accident that she started painting while laying in bed. It is possible that this terrible accident influenced her dark tones for this painting and many more. The portrait is about a friend of Frida, and the background is indoors, with an unclear transition to the outdoors. The fact that she used dark colors fades the clearness of this transition even more. The gray-black background adds a mysterious, yet calming tone to the painting. It adds both the eeriness from these dark colors, and the peace of night.
The overall look of this painting is very mysterious. The face of the character, the clothes he is wearing, and even the his pose adds to the dark tone. A strange background brings all these things together. The dark colors are uneven, and one can see that light plays an important part in it. Yet, this light does not move away the tone of this painting from being dark. The lack of consistency and the transition between dark and semi-light colors, keep an uncanny tone to the overall painting.
This is another painting by Diego Rivera. One can see that his backgrounds are quite consistent from painting to painting. However, unlike the mathematician, there is a contrast between a happy, bright tone from the character and the flowers, and a dark, gloomy tone from the background. Even though the contrast is clear, the overall tone of the painting is still considered dark and mysterious, and the contrast mentioned above may help with this tone.
There is a major contrast between good and evil in this painting. The moral value of the characters portrayed is represented by the clothes they are wearing and the "attractiveness" of the character. The two people on the left who are in white are represented with an "angelical" image, while the rest of the characters are seen as evil. As for the animal with horns, or "Baphomet", he is considered as an image of evil in many cultures. This contrast creates a tone of darkness in the painting, and it is brought together by the setting they are in, and the background and its dark-warm colors. While there is a transition from light colors to dark colors in the clothes of the characters, there is also a transition from light colors to dark colors in the background as it goes up. This sets a tone of mysteriousness and good vs. evil.
This is another painting by Goya and Lucientes, and it is also very dark and mysterious. Goya and Lucientes play with the transition from light to dark in the background of this painting as well. The light shines in from the left and it goes to pitch black in the right. The transition in the background accents the uncanny tone of this painting, and the transitions of color, suggest another good vs. evil situation
The School Scene (La Letra con Sangre Entra), Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, 1780 - 1785, From the collection of: Museo de Zaragoza
The tone of good vs. evil and mysteriousness is very constant in Goya y Lucientes's paintings. Yet again in this painting we see a transition from light to dark colors in the background, but in this case the characters closer to the light background are seen as more human, and normal, while the characters closer to the dark background have a distorted face and are seen as monstrous, this strongly suggests the big moral conflict and the dark tone of the painting.
Monk Talking to an Old Woman, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, 1824/1825, From the collection of: Princeton University Art Museum
Lastly, this is another painting by Goya and Lucientes. The religious theme is also constant in these paintings, having religious characters conflict with good and evil. The background for this painting is completely black and has no transition from light colors to dark colors. Based on previous Goya's paintings, we can infer that evil is a greater force in this painting with no good (light colors) present in the background. The depiction of the characters serves as further evidence for the theme.
Credits: All media
This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.
