The Oxbow
The Oxbow is a piece from the American landscape painting by Thomas Cole; Thomas Cole is often considered the founder of the Hudson River School, and consequently as the "father " of American landscape painting. English by birth, emigrated with his parents to Ohio when he was 17, and after a brief and unsuccessful career as a portraitist began to show interest in the landscape of his adopted country, particularly around the Hudson River. The landscape paintings inspired many artists for the following decades, as Asher Brown Durand or Frederick Edwin Church.
The landscape is the name of the pictorial genre depicting scenes of nature, such as mountains, trees, rivers, valleys, and forests. Almost always includes the sky and atmospheric
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conditions can be an important element of the composition. Besides the natural landscape, it is also, as a particular genre cityscape. (Roque 17) It was during the Baroque when landscape painting was established as a genre in Europe. It is a phenomenon in Northern Europe is attributed largely to the Protestant Reformation and the development of capitalism in the Netherlands. Many artists aspired to complete large-scale historical compositions, specially during the eighteen and nineteen century, most of those paintings that often had an informative moral message”.
(Zygmont 634)
National schools of art arose through landscapers who chose to paint their land, away from the Italian landscape. In the United States, Frederick Edwin Church, the great painter of panoramas made compositions that symbolize the greatness and magnitude of the Americas. The Hudson River School was important, mostly after the second half of the nineteenth century, were the most famous indigenous art demonstration landscapes. Most of the paintings of Thomas Cole, the founder of the school, express to have some identical philosophical ideas from the European landscape paintings.
Analysis of the picture, first of all it was a big frame like five by six feet, which really helps to appreciate the entire minor detailing that, is show in the painting. As the nature of the art seems to be a straightforward and easy piece to look at it and write how it looks? What is going on? However after seen it for a moment it is easy to find all the little details that Thomas Cole has done. The mixtures of all those little details are like a secret message behind the
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painting. The place where the artist had to be to realize the piece was a high point of view, view from Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm.
At the beginning the whole piece looks so connected, however if we compare and contrast the trees, land, clouds and atmosphere, we can quickly find that the is two sides or parts in a single picture.
“But when the image is seen through the lens of different perspective, the nineteenth-century political point of view, this painting eloquently speaks about the widely discussed topic of western expansion.”(Zygmont 629)
The left part of the picture looks darker, rainy like the storm is passing by, which makes the left side an uglier place to be. Some of the details that Thomas designed are the broken trees, dark clouds, lightings, and it looks like a primitive and untouched jungle.
The right side of the painting looks clearer than the left side, which makes it seem like a desirable place to be. The details are accurate because the land on this side looked civilized and settled be Americans. It seems that the new people are working on the land, building homes, and the storm has already passed, and now it looks like a peaceful place, which makes the civilized land a nice place to
be. Like in the book “Thomas Cole” by Powell, the author describes the painting like the American Colonization, but concerning art; Powell calls the left side (dark side) the sublime; the right side (clear side) the pastoral. (Powell 37) Another great detail in the painting is that Thomas Cole is included or self-portrayed in the painting, to be exactly he is like hiding in the bushes, and he is painting. However, he is looking back at us. “Cole was wearing a coat and also a hat; then stands before a stretched canvas placed on an easel” (Zygmont 630) To conclude The Oxbow is an entertaining painting, in which you need to get closer to the painting and see it slowly and thinking on a second meaning for each detail we find in the painting. Thomas Cole had his style, which made him unique and well known, also because he used to include himself in many of his paintings. Overall going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was a great experience, I never tough how good was the quality of the paintings in the Museum, which makes me want to go back and try to see everything. Works cited Pfluger, Carl. The Hudson Review. 4th ed. Vol. 47. New York: Hudson Review, 1995. Print. Powell, Earl A. Thomas Cole. New York: H.N. Abrams, 2000. Print. Roque, Oswaldo Rodriguez. “Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History.” “The Oxbow” By Thomas Cole: Iconography of an American Landscape, n.d Web. 02 Apr. 2016. Zygmont, Bryan. "Enlightenment and Revolution." Khanacademy. Khan, Aug. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
The house is surrounded by green grass which makes the image more realistic and the trees in the background and the tree in the foreground create a sense of depth. The image is quite well spaced out, due to a vast amount of area situated between objects. There is a visual equality in the symmetrical image. There is a contrast between the colours of the image to draw attention to the house. The image looks to be taken in the dusk of the afternoon, where there is not much natural light, which creates a darker tone. The main emphasis of the image is the house, which seems to be quite different when the image is first seen by a viewer. The texture helps emphasize the main focal point seeing though it is quite smooth, the colour also creates a mood towards the image and atmosphere in the image. The line helps develop structure due to the tone being a medium darkness. In some places (the area surrounding the house) is a degree lighter and shadows are present to help form the line throughout this part of the
Fully skilled in many fields Charles Peale was known as an American Leonardo. Living from 1741-1827 Peale was the eldest of 5 children who grew up in Chestertown Maryland (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Because of being a scientist, artist, saddler, watchmaker, silversmith, upholsterer, soldier, politician and inventor, Charles Peale earned the title of a true enlightenment man. Inventing a new type of spectacles, porcelain false teeth, a steam bath and a stove that consumed its own smoke, Peale certainly was superiorly innovative (Strickland 72). While being trained in the trade of saddle making, Peale decided, at the age of 21, that painting would be a better route to take. In 1776 he settled in Philadelphia and during the American revolutionary war, Peale served as a militia officer from 1776-1778 and continued to paint throughout this whole time. With his three wives, Rachel Brewer, Elizabeth DePeyster and Hannah Moore, Peale had 17 children (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Due to his insatiable interest and curiosity Willson Peale founded a natural history museum...
They might not be very prominent, but they exist the painting and serve as the base for creation. For starters, the window pane contains lines that highlight its simple design. Simplicity remains as the core of this work. Moreover, sill is roughly represented by a thick brown line underneath the window as a boundary in a quietly brilliant fashion. The work has a wonderful color allocation to express the mood. The color is limited within the muted palette color range. Grey—the intermediate color of black and white, is the dominate color for both exterior view and the interior part, as a matter of fact, the observer notices that nearly all colors are mixed instead of natural this work. The cloudy sky corresponds to the grey color of the wall, yet the brightness is not influenced. However, this consistency has successfully created a cold, grave and silent environment for a crowded place such as New York. The whole environment of this painting seems to be surrounded by the negative and depressive
Beginning his career as an artist early in life, Turners father provided his young son his first exhibition space, hanging and selling Turners works in the family Barbershop. Turners’ early experiences in art were limited and largely self-taught until entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1789 at the age of 14. From 1790 onwards Turner was heavily influences by architectural draftsman and teacher of perspective, Thomas Malton, a man Turner described as his ‘real master.’ The influence of Malton is clear in Turners superb architectural renderings that frequent his landscapes, being praised by the London Times of the 3rd of May 1797 for his ‘exquisite architectural views. ’
When looking at the painting it gives us a glimpse of the past. It looks almost like a photograph. The fine detail from the building on the right with the statue on top. The citizens walking around.
“The St. Johns River Entering the Atlantic Ocean” painted by Hermann Herzog stands in American Art as the most ascetically illustrative picture inspired in the Florida coastline. Although, this German American artist settled in Pennsylvania, he painted primarily landscapes inspired in the areas he visited. He traveled and painted throughout Florida, Maine, California and the Northeast side of the country coast.
I came up with the idea to do my essay on The Third of May thanks to a class I took last fall called Art History 100. When the professor went over the painting, I immediately fell in love. The dark coloring, the emotions of the people, and the pure suffering this painting is able to show amazed me.
This work shows impeccably drawn beech and basswood trees. It was painted for a New York collector by the name of Abraham M. Cozzens who was then a member of the executive committee of the American Art-Union. The painting shows a new trend in the work of the Hudson River School. It depicts a scene showing a tranquil mood. Durand was influenced by the work of the English landscape painter John Constable, whose vertical formats and truth to nature he absorbed while visiting England in 1840.
There is a lot of repetition of the vertical lines of the forest in the background of the painting, these vertical lines draw the eye up into the clouds and the sky. These repeated vertical lines contrast harshly with a horizontal line that divides the canvas almost exactly in half. The background, upper portion of the canvas, is quite static and flat, whereas the foreground and middle ground of the painting have quite a lot of depth. This static effect is made up for in the immaculate amount of d...
In January of 1826, Cole had become to be known for founding the National Academy of Design. During this time, many would comission him to paint pictures of American scenery, but his primary desire and goal, he says, was to create a “higher style of landscape that would express moral or religious tones.” In 1836, Cole married Maria Barstow and settled in Catskill, New York. Catskill would obviously become the inspiration for his piece, “Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River”. From these paintings he influenced many other artists. Among these artists were Frederick Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt.
..., the broader feel of the scene. He wants us to take in the entirety of the painting but have a moment to catch the individual scenes within it, like the couple dancing, the man in the corner rolling his cigar, or the women in the front talking to the man. We do get places where our eyes can rest, but in general your eye takes in the swirl of modern life and pleasure.
Landscape architecture has been around since the beginning of time, but it was not until Frederick Law Olmsted came along that the idea of integrating design into the landscape with plants, water, and structures that it turned into a thriving profession. To many, Olmsted is considered “a pioneer in the profession of landscape architecture, an urban planner, and a social philosopher, one of the first theoreticians and activists behind the national park and conservation movements” (Kalfus 1). Growing up, he did not ever graduate from formal schooling and just sat in on a few classes while at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. Instead, he acquired his education from being out in the world through traveling and reading. He had a hard childhood. His mother died when he was just four years old and on his journeys around the world to Europe and China, he became sickly with seasickness, paralysis of the arm, typhoid fever, apoplexy, sumac poisoning, and at times suffered from depression. For many years he went on a journey within himself to find out whom he really was and what he wanted to do with his life, career wise. Frederick had one brother, John Hull, who died in 1857. This left Olmsted feeling empty and at loss of what to do. That was when Calvert Vaux came and filled the space in Olmsted’s life that his brother left. Vaux convinced Olmsted to enter the Central Park Commissioner’s design competition with their design entitled the “Greensward Plan.” With the success in that project, Olmsted figured out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, which was to become a landscape architect. Olmsted practiced from the years of 1857 up until he retired in 1895. Olmsted’s two boys, adopted son John Charles and biological son Frederick La...
From the piece of artwork “Rain at the Auvers”. I can see roofs of houses that are tucked into a valley, trees hiding the town, black birds, clouds upon the horizon, hills, vegetation, a dark stormy sky and rain.
This painting by Vincent Van Gogh is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago Museum, in the Impressionism exhibit. There are many things going on in this painting that catch the viewer’s eye. The first is the piece’s vibrant colors, light blues and browns, bright greens, and more. The brush strokes that are very visible and can easily be identified as very thick some might even say bold. The furniture, the objects, and the setting are easy to identify and are proportioned to each other. There is so much to see in this piece to attempt to explain in only a few simple sentences.
Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, who was a pioneer in the modern style, is considered one of the greatest figures in 20th-century architecture. Wright was born June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin. When he entered the University of Wisconsin in 1884 his interest in architecture had already acknowledged itself. The university offered no courses in his chosen field; however, he enrolled in civil engineering and gained some practical experience by working part time on a construction project at the university. In 1887 he left school and went to Chicago where he became a designer for the firm of Adler and Sullivan with a pay of twenty-five dollars a week. Soon Wright became Louis Sullivan’s chief assistant. Louis Sullivan, Chicago based architect, one of America’s advanced designers. Louis had a profound influence on Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was assigned most of the firm’s home projects, but to pay his many debts he designed ‘Bootlegged Houses’ for private clients in his spare time. Sullivan disapproved, resulting in Wright leaving the firm in 1893 to establish his own office in Chicago.