Seurat's balance is carefully positioned and proportioned so that the full piece is fascinating to look at. The river to the left is full of yachts and rowing boats, while this balance is matched by the closely placed large figures to the right. In the center of the work is an outbreak of activity, which makes the painting's center as appealing to look at as the left and the right. Although the activity in the piece, however, the artist's placing of his figures lends a degree of formality and static to his piece. His choice to only depict people facing sideways or straight on makes the entire scene seem very rigid and like toy soldiers, which was a criticism leveled against the artist at the time
The lines within the composition draws the viewer into several directions. The ruffles draw the eyes upward to the Daniel’s finger as it points to the right. Daniel’s finger directs the viewer horizontally as it does the king. The table with its array of dishes is another example of a horizontal line. The king’s hands are holding a fork and knife. The fork is also pointing right where as the knife is pointing left diagonally towards the king. The courtesan, leaning against the king’s right shoulder, is another example of a diagonal line. The painting also has a vertical feel to it. This is evident in the composition of Daniel standing, the candle and the arm holding the cigar. Like every line, every color used draw attention to the object.
One of the aspects I believe unifies this painting is, as I talked about above, the continuation of the blue of the woman’s clothing continuing up into her hair, which gives the piece a sense of wholeness and relativity. There is also balance in this piece, for while the woman’s head is offset, this is balanced out by the elongation of her shoulder and arm in the right side of the image. Variety is also achieved in this piece through the use of a variation of hues and a lot of tonal difference. Emphasis is placed upon the hair with the use of an unnatural hair colour, as well as the face where light colours are used to highlight and pull the attention. Space is not so much of an active principle in this piece, but is still present nonetheless. Beryl is placed in the middle of the painting, with her taking up roughly 50% of the space, and the rest taken up by background.
If you look at the paintings in the background of this picture you see that they are very expression based. Overall the figures of the museum worker is naturalistic to me. He seems to have a very naturalistic body frame and expression. He is in kind of a contorted contraposto stance with relaxed shoulders and varying his weight instead of just being very rigid and stiff. The paintings in the background are different kinds of pieces. You see three different frames of artwork and then a sculpture all of the paintings on the wall are looking at the museum worker and faced towards him except the sculpture. This makes them have a more naturalistic feel as if they are alive by just watching every move he is making. To me that makes him the focal point of his whole piece. The sculpture in this piece is faced away from the museum worker in very fluid movement as if the museum worker could be following this sculpture if she were actually
Morisot uses a variety of techniques to illustrate a peaceful moment between a mother and daughter on the seaside. Throughout the piece, Morisot uses a series of short and spontaneous lines to create the figures and masses. The presence of these loose brush strokes throughout the piece create both rhythm and unity, making the piece simple and composed. However, variety is also created by the strong contrast between the foreground and background of this piece. The overlapping of the woman, child, and deck with the ocean and the disproportional shapes of the people and ships create an illusion of depth and space. This depth separates the masses present in the foreground from the background. The colors used in the foreground and background are also juxtaposed, with bolder and darker colors being used in the foreground and more bright and muddied colors being used in the background. This contrast establishes emphasis on the masses present in the foreground of the piece (the mother and child). The implied lines created by the gazes of the mother and child also contrast, with the mother’s view
We must also deduce whether the balance is symmetrical or asymmetrical. If one splits the painting in half, one can see it is not completely balanced. You have more “weight” on the right-hand side than you do on the left. However, regarding art, it is balanced. Even though there are more objects on the right, the values of the bright white shirt give it a sense of equal distribution. This uneven, yet balanced proportion of the art tells the viewer that it is asymmetrical. It is asymmetrical because it is unequally distributed, yet it is still
At the extreme right, a woman is falling and has not yet hit the ground. Further left, a woman is picking herself up after falling. The horse in the center is fatally wounded and will soon die. To the far left, the child in his mother’s arms has already died, and so has the warrior whose head rests at the bottom of the mural. But again, the strong right to left movement arises from the direction in which the subjects are looking.
The main figure in the painting, Adele, is depicted very realistically, standing in the middle of the painting, dressed in an elegant dress and scarf, topped with an enormous hat, holding a passive expression; as a whole, the depiction of an extremely lavish figure, suggesting strength and confidence in the woman, solely for remembrance of future generations, the usual attributes of a portrait. On the other hand, the background really captures Klimt’s abstract style, filling up the negative space of a white canvas with a blur of color. Adele stands in a blooming garden, composed of forms ranging from roses to clusters of paint that look like flowers next to definite petals. Farther in the background, the formless field of flowers keeps going until ending sharply in a straight line, separating it from what looks like a village. In the rustic-looking background a herd of horses seem to march in parade, people running alongside, their faces lost in movement but their exited expressions evident in their actions.
All of the men who are pictured in the painting are dressed in elaborate non-Western clothing, the greatest indication that the painting is resembling a scene from a different lifestyle and world. The figure to the front and left has his back facing towards the viewer, focusing intently on the game of chess that is taking place. His elbow juts out at the viewer indicated by Gérôme’s use of a brighter and lighter color to indicate a different plane of space being occupied. His white turban and white skirt are used to pull the viewers gaze in as both pieces of clothing are two of the brightest elements in the painting.
Pollock explicates that the once again the reason for these differences goes back to the fact of the differences of men and women in the social realm. She describes the fact that the proximity of figures in their works of art, such as Morisot's painting The Harbor at Lorient. In this painting the figure is seated in the extreme right of the picture, isolated. To Pollock, Morisot was trying to show "...the boundary between the spaces of masculinity and of femininity inscribed at the level of both what spaces are open to men and women and what relation a man or woman has to the space and its occupant (Pollock, 251)". Pollock goes on to state how Cassatt does the same thing, just in a different way. Cassatt uses proximity in her works usually by making the figure dominate the work, therefore "The viewer is forced into a confrontation or conversation with the painted figure while dominance and familiarity are denied by the device of the averted head (Pollock, 251)".
• Vertical balance can be seen with the firm horizon line that separates a bleak landscape with a bleaker sky, where most of the visual weight in the composition occurs in the lower half of the painting.
The artist creates a sense of unity by using shades and colors. He aims at bringing an atmosphere of emotions, energy and almost a mysterious glow .Also, the artist creates an emphasis on unity due to the repetition of yellow and green colors in the back ground. There is also emphasis on the man’s mask, his half glove, and the accordion’s grille and strap .The artist stresses variety by exaggerating different colorsauras rather than having all colors be the same.being similar among this image. This is obvious in the differencent in color between the treble keyboard and the player’s is fingers. Tthere is an asymmetrical balance because of the reflection of the keyboard on the treble switch which bears different shapes, colors and shades.
Claude Monet’s use of the illusionary space in this image is actually quite amazing. At first glance, your eye is drawn towards the left side of the painting, due to the amount of large and bulky objects in the foreground. Suddenly though your eyes turn to Camille; the woman gazing into the distance. As she stares off into the distance she acts a point to redirect the focus of the piece past the water and into the village across the river. This painting has a surprising power in that it is ability to fully mesmerize and captivate the viewer in a way few pieces of art can.
The variety of elements of art and principles of design both establish the center figure as the focus of attention. Both principles and elements guide the audience’s attention towards the main center figure. The assortment of lines, colors, and shapes determine the movement and proportion of this piece, putting emphasis on the center women
Klimt has, in this artwork, synthesized a number of influences of the time: an ornamental process of Art-Nouveau inspiration, the rejection of a representation with perspective, as well as a post-impressionist inheritance. Klimt forms the composition of the painting by stacking different frames on top of each other, making it two-dimensional and preventing any impression of depth and perspective just like Japanese prints, which had a strong influence on European art of the end of the 19th
because of the odd position of his body and feet - it looks as if he