Jean Francois Millet Accomplishments

The life span of 37 years saw Vincent Willem van Gogh (Vincent) in creating beautiful works he dearly loved. Painting was an avenue, which allowed him to express his inner thoughts or vent his struggles. My decision to research on Vincent’s painting, Starry Night (1889) came with the inspiration from Don Mclean’s Song, Starry Starry Night where his lyrics spoke about Vincent’s life that further intrigued me in writing this paper.

By the time he was seventeen, Monet was already making money from his work and had won a local reputation as a caricaturist. Skillful and amusing, his caricatures were displayed in the window of a local frame maker, Monsieur Gravier, where they drew crowds of appreciative viewers. Gravier also displayed paintings by the landscape painter Eugene Boudin, who was an old friend of his. Monet's development of friendship and informal tutelage of Boudin proved to be formative for Monet's future direction as a landscape painter. (Gordon, 38)

The biblical allusions Gwynn makes are used to expose the problem of societal pressures women face as a result of biblical teachings. When unhappy and doubtful of such teachings, the church “instantly referred [her] to text in Romans/ And Peter’s First Epistle, chapter III.” (7-8), a biblical reading that preaches the act of suffering for God’s will and the obedience of a woman to her husband as she is the “feebler vessel”. However, Gwynn points out the flaw of this instruction when he portrays what a sinner her husband is as he “grabbed [his] pitchforks, donned [his] horns, / and sped to the contravene the hopes of heaven, / Sowing the neighbors’ lawns with tares and thorns.” (10-12).

When comparing the lines in the Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night painting and Sol LeWitt’s the Wall Drawing No. 681, the lines are the opposite. In the Starry Night painting the lines of the sky are very curvy and flowing, but the lines of the buildings are very straight. The artist in this painting is showing you a vision he has had during the time he was in the asylum. The lines of the sky are erratic, and it shows how the artist was feeling very unstable during the time he painted the piece. You can feel how peaceful the buildings are, but the sky is not peaceful. The artist is fighting with himself, and it shows in the painting. The Wall Drawing No.681 shows very straight and precise lines.

Jean-Francois Millet’s Potato Planters is a portrayal of two farmers; more likely husband and wife, planting seeding to grow potatoes during the day on their farm. This art has a lot of emphasis, movement, color, line, light, and depth.

One could imagine it to be difficult to see God in a dark factory, but, many of the girl’s spirituality was not suppressed by the living and working environments of the mills. Lazerow discusses how despite the fact that some of the articles of the Offering were used as propaganda to represent the girls as “virtuous,” and how the mill owners strove to structure a “morally upright community of factory operatives;” these facts do not take away from many of the girl’s sentiments about religion. Earlier, when a young woman explained the plants surrounding the factory in which she worked, she continued by stating, “it is there we inhale the sweet perfume of the rose, the lily, and geranium; and, with them, send the sweet incense of sincere gratitude

The art of painting dates back to pre-historic times, the finger used as a paintbrush on the canvas of cave walls. When it comes to painting, artists have many mediums to choose from: acrylics, oils, gouache, fresco, and watercolors. Watercolors is one of the toughest mediums to achieve, its transparent streaks almost impossible to cover up and its various techniques prestigous and precise, but satisfying when accomplished. The incentive a watercolor artist has to get a taste of perfecting their talents is impecable; therefore, striving for perfection can only be accomplished with the understanding of the watercolor history, the use of the tools of the trade, the practice of techniques, and observation of former artists’ approaches.

The artwork was created on 1887 during the Realist time period. Knight was known for his realistic portraits and landscaping in his paintings. In the painting the main subject of matter is the lower class family working in the fields and are about to have their daily noon meal. There are quite a few things happening in the painting, such as the main and woman in the back that are probably trying to fit all the potatoes they have collected into the bad, and also a woman cooking from a pot around the fire, while there is still a child still picking potatoes also. The image depicts a very realistic scene during the day, and the landscaping is very spot on also. The painting has a very good balance of colors worked into, ranging from brown to green. The landscaping is very well drawn from up close and even from distance and up to the skies and clouds. I found this painting to be very similar to The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet, as they both share the same medium and are both very good representation of realism. In the painting by Millet, it also depict the lower class working out in the field and a very well painted landscaping too. Both paintings give off the same feeling of sympathy towards the lower class in rural

The son of one of the mill owners Clark Kirby, a physician Doctor May, and two other visitors take a tour of the mill. It is during this visit that they encounter Hugh’s Korl sculpture of a nude woman. The narrator describes the strangely beautiful sculpture as having a muscular form “grown coarse with labor,” the limbs are “powerful” and “instinct with some one poignant long,” and the “tense, rigid muscles, the clutching hands, the wild, eager face” resembles that of “a starving wolf’s” (Davis 1716). When asked the meaning of his work of art, Hugh simply reasons that the woman is hungry. However, the woman’s form --- as Doctor May points out --- does not appear starved. Eventually Hugh admits that the woman is not hungry for food, which suggests that the woman is hungry for more --- just as Bartleby and Hugh seem hungry for more out of life. In spite of Hugh’s artistic potential, the visitors ultimately choose to not help Hugh rise from his impoverished state. Instead, they support the capitalist ideology that justifies their negligence. Kirby, without any hint of shame, admits that perhaps there is “some stray gleams of mind and soul” among the poor workers, but it is not his responsibility to nurse “infant geniuses” (Davis 1717). Kirby’s only responsibility lies in paying the workers on Saturdays, and he further asserts that is up to the workers to climb the capitalist ladder.

One day in 1893, Pierre Bonaire strolled on the streets of Paris. Many years later, he will be the post-impressionist Zongjiang, founder of the Nabi School of painting and the world, but then, he was just a 26-year-old solo painter. In the street, he helped a girl cross the road, and then occasionally began to chat: she said he was 16 years old, called Mardel de Mellini, first came to Paris, working in the flower shop. Later she became Bonnard's model, and then naturally become the lover of Bonnard.

In the Poem, “The lady of Shallot”, the main character, Lady of Shallot spends the entirety of her life perceiving the outside world through the reflection of her window through a mirror. As the Lady of Shallot observes the obscured reality, she weaves all that she sees in the mirror to create a quilt. However, what the lady sees in the mirror is not an accurate representation of the real world outside of her castle. Thus, by this action, the Lady of Shallot is an accurate representation of how all artists create their artwork. In other words, the layers behind reality that is not palpable to human eyes are what artists visualize and then illustrate on their canvas. To illustrate the emblem of Lady of Shallot, famous artist, Vincent van Gogh,

Large, dominating, and firmly grasping the wooden pew, the hands are very important. The central character's hands are shaded much darker than the rest of his body and they look to be wrinkled and cracked. The shading technique used on the hands suggest that this individual is a working class man. This idea is backed up by the fact that the man is wearing a shirt with an actual blue collar. In and of themselves blue collar shirts are not that special or important, but working class men are often characterized as blue collar workers and in the picture the man is wearing a blue collar. Also, the man is wearing a tattered jacket that is shaded. This implies that he has had the coat for a while and has worked long and hard hours in this coat, further supporting the idea that this man in the painting is a working class man. Now, the image of a working class man alone is not that incredible, as many people can identify as belonging to the working class or being a blue collar worker themselves. It is not the fact that the man is working class that makes this image so iconic, but it is who he is

This painting by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze illustrates the crossing of the Delaware River, lead by General Washington, with his soldiers from the continental army. Even though this painting was painted years after the war of independence, it was a time period when art was booming in the Americas, and it captures everyone’s emotions and details clearly in the painting.

Millet used an oil medium and centered the subject matter on canvas with dimensions measuring at around thirty-three inches in height and forty-four inches in width. This piece appears to be photorealistic because in the center of the work, the three peasant workers come across in an almost life-like representation of a mundane task. The Gleaners is an excellent depiction of the daily struggles of the of the lower income class. Paul de Saint-Victor, an essayist and literary critic of the time bestowed on this work of art to be “The three Fates of pauperism.” Millet used the appearance of a sunset and his use of color seems to illuminate on these women as they work. The color and the fact that Millet placed the three women so much in the foreground placed emphasis on the work and the strength that they carry. This painting was displayed in the Salon in 1857 and has had exposure all over the world. Currently The Gleaners is on conservation at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris,

"A picture can paint a thousand words." I found the one picture in my mind that does paint a thousand words and more. It was a couple of weeks ago when I saw this picture in the writing center; the writing center is part of State College. The beautiful colors caught my eye. I was so enchanted by the painting, I lost the group I was with. When I heard about the observation essay, where we have to write about a person or thing in the city that catches your eye. I knew right away that I wanted to write about the painting. I don’t know why, but I felt that the painting was describing the way I felt at that moment.