Life on America’s Riverways during the mid-1800s During my visit to the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA, I viewed pieces of modern art that intrigued me, but did not invoke any strong emotion. After walking through the Harlem exhibit with paintings presenting social issues and other ceramics exhibits, I finally stumbled across the gallery of “European and American Art ca. 1820-1860.” This period of American history fascinates me because my 3rd great-grandparents Johannes and Johanna Engel, were first-generation German immigrants, who watched the steamboats roll down the Mississippi River across the town of St. Louis. I stopped at a painting titled “House and Farm on the Allegheny River” by William C. Wall from 1863. The two boys on the wooden rowboat where the first objects to strike my eye, and slowly my eyes moved towards the livestock wading in the river, and next to the mountains in the background. Above the rolling hills, there is a gorgeous sky that included colorful clouds with the sun’s rays shining through intermittently. Although the painting I found in the Carnegie Museum of Art was the scenery of the Allegheny River, it reminded of a painting of the scenery of the Mississippi River. The painting “View on the Mississippi” was created in 1858 by a Danish immigrant, …show more content…
In the foreground, an American steamboat can be seen moving through the river toward the vanishing point. Next to the boat is a small island with short trees that create shadows on the monochromatic river. The background of this painting is a partly clouded sky at sunset. The sun cannot be seen as it has fallen below the trees creating a red hue on the clouds. The scene similarly includes mountains on both sides of the river that create a line with the sky. The vanishing point can be found in the left-center of the image where the mountains can no longer be seen and the sky meets the
The mississippians were a group of people from North America. They lived here about 2700 years ago. They were very different than what we are used to now.
The Mississippi River is highly regarded as the most important river in Louisiana. One of the lesser known rivers is just as phenomenal, however. The Atchafalaya River (pronounced At-cha-fa-lie-uh), which is adjacent to the Louisianan southern half of the Mississippi River, is so much of a phenomena that the United States Army Corps has been put in charge of controlling the river!
As you arrive into the reception area of the Cleveland Museum of Art, you are greeted with silence. The clomping of shoes and whispers of fellow museum goers about what the “true meaning” behind the piece is fills the air. The first floor of the museum is dedicated to historical artifacts and artwork dating in the time period called Before Common Era (B.C.E.). Each piece is accompanied by a placard on the wall courtesy of the museum. The pieces are approximately dated, described, and an explanation of how each piece was used is given in the short paragraph.
On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt by the French painter Claude Monet is one of the few great paintings that truly embody Impressionism. On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt was painted in 1868 on the Seine River in the Northwestern Portion of France. Created with oil on canvas and standing at thirty-two inches tall by thirty-nine and two-thirds inches wide, this painting depicts Monet’s future wife, Camille Doncieux, gazing across the Seine River at a village not too far off in the distance. The ability this painting has to capture the eye is amazing and unique, and allows you to fully appreciate the Impressionist Art Movement.
The great flood of the Mississippi river in 1927 prompted the severing of class divisions and the extension of racial oppression. The flood caused over $350 million in property damage, 246 flood-related deaths, and a home loss of 130,00. Many african americans fled north to escape the racial oppression that resulted from the disastrous flood. Police held black african americans at gun point until they agreed to help raise the levees to protect buildings and houses from rising flood waters. After African americans started refusing to work, one got shot in the back and all the african americans fled north to escape the hardships that were brought about when the river flooded. After Hoover won presidency, he did not keep his promises to ensure
The painting, House by the Railroad, by Edward Hopper was completed in 1925. The house he painted was in the style of a Victorian house. The house was built next to railroad tracks. He painted House by the Railroad with oil based paint on a canvas. The artwork is a twenty-four by twenty-nine inches in a frame. When I look at this painting, the first thing I think of is where is it located? It looks like it is in the middle of nowhere but then again it looks like it is in a town because of the railroad tracks. The house is built next to the railroad tracks but there are no trees. The house contains several windows which I think would be neat. In this painting, he uses vertical and horizontal lines. He used vertical lines for the columns of the house and parts of the house. He also uses horizontal lines for parts of the house and the railroad tracks. Many of the lines Edward Hopper painted were medium size. The painting is painted with several figures lined up. If you look at the front of the house, you can tell that it is square on top of another square. The one on the bottom left is also a square but it is bigger. The picture and the lines are very soft. The lines in the picture never seem to overlap each other. The way the sun is in the picture makes it look absolutely beautiful. The sun could be either rising or setting by the look of the artwork. House by the Railroad was painted in the United States. Edward Hopper painted this picture after he came back
The background of the picture is dark. The artist paints the trees using dark colors and jagged lines to show how scary the moment was for the slaves. The slaves are walking through water that is also dark and filled with rocks and sharp sticks. The background gives the painting the emotion that bad things were happening at this time.
The subject of this painting to me is a picture of the Pacific coast when a rainstorm is starting to come inland. The context is Indians on boats just gotten to the coast to avoid the storm that has already started at sea.
Crozier’s work in the art gallery in Babcock, I was hooked. His landscape paintings were especially captivating to me. I immediately texted my Dad pictures of his work saying that I just “had to have it.” Then upon learning that our beloved Sweet Briar would be closing this spring and I would be graduating a year early, I chose to ask for one of Mr. Crozier’s paintings as a graduation gift. I felt that this would be so much better than money or something that is ‘in’ at the time. Not only did I attend the gallery opening, but I also photographed the event and my photographs were published in a Lynchburg paper, making this gift especially
On September 4, 2016, I visited the Matisse in His Time exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. This exhibit is home to a plethora of pieces by many different European artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. While it is focused on Matisse and his extensive works, containing more than 50 of his pieces, there are many portraits and sculptures by other influential artists from that time period including Renoir, Picasso, and Georges Braque. Three of the most appealing works that I encountered in this exhibit are Maurice de Vlaminck’s Portrait of Père Bouju, Pablo Picasso’s Reclining Woman on a Blue Divan, and Henri Matisse’s sculpture series Henriette I, Henriette II, and Henriette III.
Another main focal point in this canvas was subject matter. This is where the objects or events are described. The artist gives us different objects such as the old couple seems displayed as depressing. Or you can observe it as normal couple, walking across the river, enjoying the night. He also gives us a boat which could possibly be giving us a correlation because the boat looks like it’s broken or about to sink. There is also another interpretation with the object that Van Gogh displays which is, the stars. Depending upon which way you want to take it, they look like flowers or fireworks. Also, there is a sense of false appearance with the houses. If you stare at just the bank you will notice that it is just a bunch of bright lights but if you pay attention to the water close to the bank, you will acknowledge the darkness or shadow of the houses.
• The focal point of the painting is the sun-drenched valley and river. The emphasis comes from the diagonal of the tree to the left that directs the view of the scene down the valley toward the farmland.
The next question we usually ask ourselves is “why?” why the color, why the worn out look of the farmhouse, why the surroundings, in general why is the painting depicted like this? That brings up the need to analyze the work of art at hand. When focusing on this painting, you can see a few birds soaring over the farmhouse. They’re quite small so there’s some difficulty telling if they’re flying towards or away from the farmhouse. It is still very probable that they flew over it at some point in time though. The lines in the painting are mostly depicted in the trees, and outer walls of the farmhouse. Standing firm the trees look, and or represent strength and dominance. It makes you wonder if there’s still hope for the dead looking environment surrounding the farmhouse. When first observing this painting; the thoughts were generally negative such as; sad, abandoned, lonely, and depressing, etc. The painting is indeed centered, and the focal point is obviously the farmhouse.
When I was looking through 17th-18th century European artwork in the Norton Simon Museum, there was one piece of art that really stood out to me. That beautiful art piece was the Bay of Naples by Claude-Joseph Vernet. This piece stood out to me because of the beautiful scenery that is displayed and the deep serenity the piece gives me when I look at it. The Bay of Naples is a painting of a landscape that captures the daily life of the bay. The materials used for this painting was oil on canvas.
When I saw the painting for the first time it grabbed my attention. At first I thought it was the beautiful colors that attracted me to the painting, but it was more. In the picture the shadowy men look scared. They looked as though they were trying to run away from something and this lake that forms into this river that is surrounded by tall grass is the way out, or at least a place to hide until the coast is clear. During that time in my life I felt