In Girl with a Pearl Earring, Griet is intelligent and shows artistic knowledge much like Vermeer, but she cannot act upon it. When Griet and Vermeer first meet in the kitchen of her parent’s home, Griet is laying out and chopping vegetables. She puts them out in a very organized way, and Vermeer immediately takes notice. When he questions her for separating the colors as she has, she tells him, “the colors fight when they are side by side, sir.”(5). This shows she recognizes which colors look best together, and which clash. Most people would never bother to divide their vegetables in such a way. Griet speaks of other people, objects, places, and experiences in a very distinct and descriptive way. When she first hears Catharina’s voice, she describes it as “a woman’s, bright as polished brass.”(1) She doesn’t just use adjectives to describe her voice, she uses other objects to help paint a picture (pun intended). She also does the same with Vermeer, “a man’s, low and dark like …show more content…
When she is first given the task of cleaning the studio, Griet questions whether or not she should wash the windows in Vermeer’s studio. She recognizes that the value of light in his studio affects how everything looks and how it will change his painting. Later, once he’s between paintings, she cleans the windows and describes the difference to him by saying, “the light, it’s cleaner now.” When Vermeer asks Griet what color the clouds are, she first sees them as only white. Vermeer compares the situation to her vegetables, and Griet understands. There is more than just white in the clouds, she sees the blue and yellow and gray as he does. Vermeer says, “you will find there is little pure white in clouds, yet people say they are white,” (101) while trying to explain to Griet why he doesn’t need the blue paint
Firstly, the speaker brings up the fact that “the only two rooms in the house with the walls that reached all the way up to the ceiling and doors that opened and closed, were the bathroom and the darkroom.” Through addressing that the two rooms with the highest walls are the bathroom and darkroom, Kay is emphasizing the fact the darkroom is a private place which is why it is cut off from the rest of the house much like a bathroom. By including these details she is insinuating the fact that it is a sacred space. The bathroom is also a room that is an essential space in the house and so, by comparing the two rooms, Kay is demonstrating that the darkroom is an inherent need. To the speaker’s mother, the darkroom is more than just a hobby, it is an essential part of her life. Furthermore, by describing the darkroom in great detail Kay allows the reader to better visualize what the darkroom looks like, ultimately transforming the space into a main character of the poem. Additionally, by including the fact that the speaker’s mother “built herself a darkroom” and refers to it as her “home” she is once again reiterating the fact that photography used to be much more of an art and those who took part in the hobby put in an abundance of effort to master their
She indicated that the colors represent her contrasting feelings- anxious and calm- and how they sometimes exist at the same time. She noted that the image was a representation of her mind: her new experiences were bringing her anxiety to the forefront, and she felt trapped in her own mind, but there were also times that she felt calm and at peace with how things were going. The image had another meaning to her as well, as she stated that she gets shy and insecure and puts up defenses when meeting new people. She titled this image, “Mind
Georges Seurat used the pointillism approach and the use of color to make his painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, be as lifelike as possible. Seurat worked two years on this painting, preparing it woth at least twenty drawings and forty color sketched. In these preliminary drawings he analyzed, in detail every color relationship and every aspect of pictorial space. La Grande Jatte was like an experiment that involved perspective depth, the broad landscape planes of color and light, and the way shadows were used. Everything tends to come back to the surface of the picture, to emphasize and reiterate the two dimensional plane of which it was painted on. Also important worth mentioning is the way Seurat used and created the figures in the painting.
In the first few pages of The Girl With A Pearl Earing Catharina is presented as quite dominant and melodramatic. As she entered the room her husband was behind her and ‘following her’. This shows her dominance as her husband is following her and she is leading him. Husbands are generally the leaders of households, but in this case Catharina seems as if she is the leader. When she knocks the knife off the table ‘she cries out’, this shows her clear melodramatic nature. A knife falling on the floor is not a big deal, the way she cries out as if the knife had hit her shows that she makes a big deal of small things. Her character is very bold but she does have some insecurity. When her husband is chatting with Griet, she says ‘that’s enough prattle’
To begin, he uses an array of colors that allows each color in the sky to blend and transition harmoniously. Church also uses primary and secondary colors within the sky that consists of teal-green, reds, and bright yellow next to each other. This creates a contrast between the darker red shades in the cloud and the lighter shades of bright yellow in the sun. Besides the different shades that are being used, Church uses both neutral values and saturation. The neutral scheme can be seen in the black and gray-brown values of the trees and shadows in the bottom part of the painting. This, in comparison to the high saturation levels of the colors in the sky create a contrast. The colors in the sky are in their purest hue which means they are bright, and this being next to the dull and dark colored mountains and trees creates a contrast and more of an emphasis on the brightly colored sky. Those different colors also fall under complementary and analogous colors. The red cloud complement the blue-green colors of the sky they are in. There is also a heavy use of reds, oranges and yellows, all falling next to each other on the color wheel shows Church’s use of analogous
The halls of the Museum are set up in a long and slim rectangle with open doorways between all of them. The opening hallway to the Dutch gallery is modest in its wooden paneling until one turns and enters the first room on the right. Beautifully creased wood panels, line the walls, while intricately carved panels hold the grand window directly across from the door. Rich in color, the walls make one feel very comfortable in this intimate surrounding. The feel of the wood almost brings the viewer back to 17th century Holland. Reflecting off the V-shaped wood paneled floor, light flows through the window, illuminating the Dutch landscapes. A simple wooden throne sits against one wall, and a short dresser rests along the opposite wall. Instead of being labeled directly under or beside the painting, there are simply numbers which lead one to a book of descriptions. This groups the paintings together as one description of Dutch life, removing the initial need to find the name of the artist.
Flowers of different colors not only paint a picture of contrast but the underlying meanings of the difference displays “the mesh of good and evil” in the truth of human nature. The
The Girl with the Brown Crayon tells a simple, yet deeply connected personal story of a teacher and a student, as well as other students that embrace themes of race, identity, gender, and the essential human needs to create, and to belong. It is about maintaining order, though a sense of self, one’s own knowledge, capabilities, exposing the strengths and weaknesses while forming one’s own identity in school for the teacher and the students. Becoming a part of something greater than self, but not losing oneself, and how educational interaction can take place between teachers and students, all in an effort to fit in, belong, yet keeping one’s own identity through the growth of change and acceptance
When entering the room, one cannot help but feel pulled into each and every painting. The realization that the artwork hanging on the walls was created hundreds of years ago, and still exists in pristine order, to me makes these pieces of art, relics. Gazing around the still and almost silent gallery, I could not help but think that each of these paintings are windows into the past. In his essay Ways of Seeing, John Berger states that “An image became a record of how X had seen Y” (136). At the time the paintings in this gallery were painte...
Edna seeks occupational freedom in art, but lacks sufficient courage to become a true artist. As Edna awakens to her selfhood and sensuality, she also awakens to art. Originally, Edna “dabbled” with sketching “in an unprofessional way” (Chopin 543). She could only imitate, although poorly (Dyer 89). She attempts to sketch Adèle Ratignolle, but the picture “bore no resemblance” to its subject. After her awakening experience in Grand Isle, Edna begins to view her art as an occupation (Dyer 85). She tells Mademoiselle Reisz that she is “becoming an artist” (Chopin 584). Women traditionally viewed art as a hobby, but to Edna, it was much more important than that. Painting symbolizes Edna’s independence; through art, she breaks free from her society’s mold.
Before delving into the philosophy of color and the questions posed by different pieces of art, the biological basis process of HOW color is seen should be explained. The retina is a neural sheet, containing the photoreceptors called rods and cones that is located at the back of the eye. Between the retina and the optic nerves leading to the brain are a series of cells that create a lateral inhibition network of the light/dark signals from the photoreceptors (1). This throws away a lot of the information generated by the photocells and gives the brain a "picture" of the edges of light and dark. The contrasts are created, leaving the brain to fill in the rest. Color vision is even more complex. Cones (the light adapted photoreceptor) contain three different photopigments, red, green, and blue, each corresponding to a particular wavelength of light (2). Color is a property of three things: the ratio of red/green activation, blue response, and value or lightness (3). The brain utilizes visual inputs to determine each of these, thus generating the characteristic color.
Best known for his use of color, Henri Matisse cleverly cultivated his status as a modern artist using many different styles of painting from Impressionism to Fauvism. The artwork of Matisse has been a milestone in the history of painting. Henri Matisse’s self-proclaimed masterpiece, however, a chapel in Vence, France, is a small, minimalist building. The amalgamation of modern art and the sacred creates a unique spiritual experience in that it welcomes Christians and non-Christians alike to appreciate the artist’s religious symbolism. The elegantly simple architecture of the chapel, the use of light in the space, and the binary of colors on opposite walls have a calming, cleansing, and transformative effect that is undeniable.
In their most famous paintings – The Scream and Starry Night respectively – bold strokes are clear. Munch’s use of vivid reds and blues—alongside pair mysterious dark figures who appear to get closer to the viewer – deepens the alarming scream of his main character. In Starry Night, Van Gogh depicts a mesmerizing night sky. Intense yellows and blues fill the sky with swirling motions, making the painting feel alive, as if moving. This expresses the artist’s admiration of the sky in a dream-like manner. However, work on Bulb Fields, and his extensive collection watercolors are more subdued in nature – expressive strokes are lost, and earthy, dull colors
When I saw Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring about five years ago at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., I felt something about the painting that I had never felt before when looking at artwork. I felt as if this girl, this young woman in the painting was real, hiding in the museum behind this canvas. She was in the flesh. Her skin was still dewy from three hundred-something years ago, the light across her face still glowing. She was in the round, her eyes followed mine, she was real. She was about to speak, she was in a moment of thought, she was in reflection. This girl was not crimson red or titanium white, she was flesh. Vermeer caught her, a butterfly in his hand. She was not just recorded on canvas, she was created on canvas. She was caught in a moment of stillness. Vermeer creates moments in his paintings. When viewing them, we step into a private, intimate setting, a story. Always, everything is quiet and calm. I realize now it is no wonder I had such a strong reaction to Vermeer the first time I saw him: he is a stillness seeker.
Throughout “The Necklace” it is clearly obvious that Madame Loisel is not satisfied with the