Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge

Style Imitating Art: Sunspots by Cuno Amiet

September 19, 2022 / 22 Comments
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of MeadowTree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was chosen by Salazar. You can read why she picked this work here.

Sunspots by Cuno Amiet (1904)
Sunspots by Cuno Amiet, Style Imitating Art
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
About the Artist: Cuno Amiet

Cuno Amiet was a Swiss artist who specialized in painting, illustrating, sculpting, and graphic art. He was the first Swiss painter to give precedence to color in art composition, earning him the status as a modern art pioneer in Switzerland.

He was born on March 28, 1868, in Solothurn, Switzerland, to Josef Ignaz Amiet, the chancellor of the canton of Solothurn, and he began his lifelong career in art at a very early age. When he was 15 years old he apprenticed with the Swiss realist painter Frank Buchser and later enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 1886 where he met his lifelong friend Swiss painter Giovanni Giacometti who was just 3 weeks older than him. The two artists continued their studies in Paris but after a few years Amiet grew dissatisfied with his academic training and left for Pont-Aven in 1892. He remained in the Breton village for 13 months where he made connections with the painters and the work of the Gauguin circle. This experience made a lasting impression on the artist and shaped his development as a colorist.

Due to a lack of funding, Amiet was forced to return home to Switzerland in 1893 where he set up a studio in Hellsau. He had his first exhibition in 1894 at the Kunsthalle Basel which was very ill received but led him to gaining a portrait commission from the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler. Hodler was 15 years his senior and accustomed to dealing with critics and negative public reception which led to Amiet becoming known as a young follower of Hodler. Recognizing the truth about the nature of their relationship, Amiet began to develop his own independent artistic personality and over the next decade from 1904-1914, he produced some of the finest works of his 75 year long career.

In 1905, he had a one man exhibition at the Künstlerhaus in Zurich which was again received with much criticism. The exhibition traveled to Dresden and was controversial there as well being considered “too far ahead of the public’s ability to understand.” However, it was this exhibition that brought Amiet’s work to the attention of the first German expressionist group, called Bridge (or Brücke), which was formed in 1906 and dissolved in 1913. Amiet remained a member for the entire time.

He settled in Oschwand in 1898, the year of his marriage to Anna Luder, a tavern keeper’s daughter, and their home became a gathering place for artists and writers. They continued to live there until Amiet’s death on July 6, 1961, at the age of 93.

In the 1900’s, Amiet’s work began winning numerous art competitions throughout Europe which greatly increased his fame and his fortune. In 1931, a fire in an exhibition building housing some of Amiet’s works destroyed 50 of his most significant pieces. In his 75 year career, Amiet produced more than 4,000 paintings with about 1,000 of them being self portraits. While oil painting was his principle medium, the artist was also highly gifted in watercolors and printmaking. In the 1920s, he ventured into sculpture, producing a collection of bronze and marble busts.

Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
About the Art: Sunspots

Amiet’s work was dominated by four subjects, gardens, harvest, winter, and portraits, especially self-portraits, which were rich in color and depth. Sunspots is a 1904 portrait of a woman in a green kimono reflecting the sun’s rays in the loveliest way. I have searched all through internet-land and I cannot find any other information about this work such as its dimensions, medium, or current location. It is a beautiful piece and I find the colors very striking as well as the way the artist has created the sunspots all throughout the painting.

Resources/References
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
About My Outfit Inspired by Sunspots

I knew right away that I was going to style a green kimono. I have a few with greens in them, but this bird print one has the most green and is the closest in color to the shades of green in the portrait. Because the figure’s dress/kimono has a white swirly pattern on it, I decided to wear a white dress underneath and leave my kimono open. This particular kimono never stays secured properly when I tie it shut anyway so I added my obi belt underneath the kimono, belting only the dress.

Although the only red that appears in the painting is on the woman’s lips, I added a bit of red to my look to pick up on the red print of my kimono. Plus I really wanted to wear my new thrifted necklace with the big red beads. I found this beauty at a flea market where I also found my adorable wooden zebra and elephant necklaces.

Staying in tune with the whole Eastern style of the woman’s dress, I put my hair up in chopsticks and as a last minute thought I put some flowers in my hair. I didn’t have any white flowers on hand like the ones in the woman’s hair, but these bright yellow ones are the exact color of the sunspots appearing in the grass in the painting. My red phoenix earrings from Big Earrings were a wonderful touch in keeping with my bird print kimono as well as the whole outdoor nature vibe of the painting.

Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge
Green bird kimono, little white dress, obi belt, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge

And that concludes this weeks Style Imitating Art look. I hope you enjoyed it and feel inspired yourself!

Be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of the painting as well as Terri’s take on it. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, be sure to email your photos to her by Tuesday, September 20, 2022, by 10:00 p.m. EST. I am excited to see what you all style! 

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Kimono-Forever 21 / Dress-Old Navy / Shoes-Payless / Obi Belt-Chico’s / Earrings-Big Earrings / Long Red Necklace-Thrifted / Black Beaded Necklace-Old / Hair Sticks-Around the World

I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.

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