Have you ever seen someone with a cry for help in their eyes? Have you had to earn your food and live at or below the poverty level? Vincent Van Gogh did as a child and basically throughout his entire adult life as well. He portrays a scene of the harsh reality of a poverty stricken family in a dark, authentic painting called The Potato Eaters. This famous painting by Vincent Van Gogh was painted in April 1885 in The Netherlands. It is known has his very first masterpiece and one of his most magnificent paintings although it did not become famous until after his death like many of his works of art. Just as most of Van Gogh’s paintings, it is painted on a canvas in oil paint. The painting consists of modern art and realism. The Potato Eaters …show more content…
Throughout his life, he remained poor and unknown despite the fact of being a very talented artist. He did not become absolutely famous until after his death. According to Nathalie Heinich (1996) in her book “The Glory of Van Gogh”, “But it is not enough to tell how the Van Gogh who died in 1890 became the Van Gogh celebrated in the 1990s.” (pg. 1). It is not evident as to why he became extremely famous after his death but it is a known fact. As a child, he was not very wealthy, or anywhere close really. Due to his own personal experience, Van Gogh shows an ample amount of emotion and detail in the painting. Every aspect of the piece expresses a poor, malnourished family living just trying to get through each …show more content…
It is evident from the background of the painting that it is a small house and does not consists of a lot. The edges of the table are weathered and there are low dark rafters on the ceiling. It is mostly a plain and boring backdrop which indicates that it is the actual residence of the five figures presented in the painting. The brown, earthy colors give a sense of a dusty room. Maybe the reasoning for this is, potatoes are dusty and dull from being buried in the dirt. The title of this piece is more than just talking about what they are eating at their kitchen table. The single light vibrating from the oil lamp above the table makes the viewer’s eyes focus on the five figures, the tabletop and the scarce dinner being consumed by their skinny malnourished bodies. Although the room and shadows are dark, the emotions from the piece shine out bright and
Throughout this semester as a class we have gone over many different terminology, seen many artists from all different countries and time periods. We have also learned about different kinds of art and media that the Artist work with. Over the entire semester I have gained a greater appreciation and understanding for art. Taking all of the new information that I learned this semester I choose three pieces of artwork from the St. Louis Art Museum. Two are similar to each other and the other is very different.
In Rembrandt’s painting, he shows how the poor would bring along their family to show the suffering that they would go through, even while having young children. This gave the person giving the alms no option but to give them money because who would refuse a family with children (Doc 6). He drew privately to later show to the world and bring awareness that those who were poor also had a family to look after. Although Juan Luis Vives and Rembrandt van Rijn had worked hard to get the little wealth they had, they viewed the poor as people in need or lazy beggars and had witnessed the poor’s struggle and felt as if they needed to help them
The family shows signs of being part of either a low or poor class based off the conditions of the household they are living in and the bareness of their apartment. For instance, the dining room is extremely small and the kitchen seems old and worn out. Correspondingly, the family members seem to lack personality due to to the simple clothing they are wearing. However, the bright colors found interior of the home create a contrast between the dreary environment of the household. This helps convey the message that although the family may not be as economically stable and live a dull life, they still happily interact among one another and come together every evening to have a meal together.
The painting depicts what seems to be a panoramic view from afar but looking closely each aperture and objects make up the impressions of faces. From the left side there seems to be an aperture looking over a big cliff with branches of trees. This cliff and branches make up the face of an old person. The rock exposures within the cliff form the illusions of wrinkles, wrinkly lips and a long and untreated mustache. The branches give the effect of baldness, contributing to the overall appearance of an old man’s face.
There is very little space in this painting, as the background is mostly dark leaving the work with only a depth of two dimensions. In the background, the value of brown gets lighter only at the bottom of the painting, and shows the trace of a shadow indicating there is a faint light on the man. Repetition is only used to create an interesting pattern of clothing for the man. This work is a form of representational art since it presents a subject and objects from reality, which include the man, the gun (or arquebus), and the clothes as well. The presence of a gun (modern weaponry) suggests that this painting was from colonial South America and represents people from a higher status, based on the quality of clothing.
When thinking about the harmonious and blessing Thanksgiving, one connects the setting and atmosphere to the painting of Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell. Norman Rockwell, an American painter and illustrator, was best known for his depiction of everyday American life. In Rockwell’s early years, he putted the emphases of his paintings on the warm and idealistic aspect of world, treating with simplistic charm and certain degree of humor. In January 1943, during World War II, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave an emotionally moving speech, addressing his vision to the American freedom and the desperate need of concern for the real threat of war, Rockwell was greatly inspired. Thence, he painted the Four Freedoms including Freedom
The painting is oil on canvas and contains an extensive amount of contrast. For example, the bright vermillion blanket against the dull eggshell colored door. The disparity between the colors used is prominent. Additionally, the fusion of ornate patterns and simplistic solids is evident. The tablecloth is a geometric mixture of cream and periwinkle.
In the Loge, by Mary Cassatt is a very interesting piece of artwork. The artwork depicts what appears to be a woman, viewing a play or some kind of entertainment inside of a theater. The woman’s gaze is set on whatever the entertainment in front of her is. However, the man across the theater is looking directly at the woman, yet he appears to be attending the show with a woman himself. This painting appears to be set sometime in the past, the outfits the people are wearing appear to be very outdated.
This painting is an Oil on Canvas made in about 1718-19. This painting can be analyzed through contextual analysis. When I first saw the painting my first thought was that it was all about the architecture and daily lives of people but it actually has a story and I only know that because of the context given beside the picture in the museum. I could have never known from just looking that something was actually going on because everything is so far back in the
Van Gogh painted “Skull of a skeleton with a burning cigarette” in 1886, while still studying art. It is highly likely that the skeleton was painted while he was studying anatomy at the royal academy of fine arts. The painting itself is bold, displaying a slightly turned head and shoulders of a rather earthily coloured skeleton, gripping between its teeth what appears to be a burning cigarette. In stark contrast to the bright skeleton is the very dark background which is relatively plain, perhaps painted this way in order to make the skeleton the main article.
In art, color is very personal and subjective, and gives different meaning to different people. However, in this Van Gogh piece, it is clear what the colors are used for. The blue found in the man’s overalls suggests uneasiness, melancholy and distress. Blue is unanimously associated with sorrow, and it is clear that in this piece, the subject is suffering immensely. The color is used to compliment the feelings the audience perceives from this artwork.
In a Roman Osteria Carl Bloch, In a Roman Osteria, 1866, Oil on Canvas, 177.5 (w) x 148.5 (h)cm (without frame), Rome. Introduction Carl Bloch’s In a Roman Osteria was completed in 1866 with Oil on Canvas. It is currently found in Rome. I decided to write about this artwork considering it is a little comical to me and very interesting considering there are a couple things that can be going on.
This artwork is Picasso’s “Night fishing in Antibes” made in 1993. It is oil on paint of a dimension of 6’9” and 11’4”. With a quick glance, many people wouldn’t understand this painting’s meaning at first, some may even disregard it as simply a people fishing. However digging deeper into this painting, there is more foreboding and a significant message than one may think at first. Picasso creatively uses principles like color, space, shape, balance, form, composition in this artwork.
The image has a dark side to it which is foreshadowed by the rustic feel created by the farmhouse and shed. Like many, the history of this painting actually goes back to the illustrator. Christina Olson was a good friend and neighbor of Wyeth. He soon discovered that Christina lived with a unbearable disorder that took away her ability to walk and use any limbs. Years down the road she died at age 74 after a long hard life and complications from her disease These details may help the viewer to
The “Mona Lisa” is the best known and most visited piece of art. It is a portrait painting done by Leonardo de Vinci. The portrait is an oil painting on a white Lombardy poplar panel. The woman in the portrait is sat upright in an armchair, with her arms folded. This painting was one of the first portraits that depicted the sitter in front of an imaginary landscape.