Joseph Henry Boston was an American Painter and is well known for his involvement in the Brooklyn art scene, and for having took part in founding the Brooklyn School of New Art.
Henry Bostons involvement in many art circles and communities largely attributed to his fame. Although, the natural and learned skills he possessed allowed him to move up in these art communities and allowed him to have a larger impact. Some of the main pieces that he is known for are landscapes ,genre scenes, as well as societal portraits. In addition, Henry Boston is also well known for his painterly and contemporary use use of shadow. Using oils on canvas, he was able to produce just that.
Moonlight landscape and Harbor by Joseph Henry Boston is believed to have
…show more content…
been completed around the turn of the 19th century and as a result has an Impressionist feel to it. In this particular piece, the majority of the canvas is taken up by the sky. The lower third is taken up by land where a few trees and a couple small dots of light and a larger body of water is shown. The clouds seem to become the main focus and inside the the clouds is a moon whose light is reflected on the body of water below. The light from the moon also highlights the bank of the harbor that is not shadowed by the hill in the foreground. The moon provides the main source of light for the landscape and is consistent throughout the piece. As a result of the source of light being the moon, a darker shadow is shown in the foreground. In addition to the moon being reflected on the harbor, the artificial lights on the horizon are also reflected. In contrast to the moon, the small artificial lights are not a main source of light. Henry Boston applied the paint with “Impressionistic broken brush strokes (Gardner 825).” The paint is heavily applied and when looking at the piece up close the observer is able to see the brush strokes. The strokes seem to have been applied with a coarse brushes that vary in size. The bigger brushes, logically- seem to have been used for the larger subjects of the piece such as the clouds; whereas the smaller brushes seem to have been used for the smaller more detailed parts, i.e the lights. The lights that are seen on the horizon are actually small dots of paint. The small dots of paint vary in color and create a luminous effect due to the visual mixing that happens while looking at them. Just above the lights are hills/mountains that are able to come across as hazy although they have the same consistency in brush strokes as the rest of the painting. Despite the fact that they seem to be hiding in the clouds, all the paint is opaque. Henry Boston was able to create a look of transparency by changing the tint slightly. Despite the fact that the hills seem to be in a haze, they also appear to be following a line. However, there is no clear pattern to his strokes and they appear to not follow any linear guidelines. The organization of the painting, similar to the brush strokes is fairly simple. It can be broken down into thirds and does not have a strong sense of symmetry. However, the trees on the hill in the bottom left create a sense of balance and keep the sky from being too overwhelming. As a result of the sky not being overwhelming, the vast sky is able to create a sense of spaciousness. Throughout the painting there is a strong usage of contour lines. These lines are seen around the harbor, hills and the rocks in the foreground. Although, the contour lines are not interrupted they are mostly rigid. A few of the lines in the work imply that they continue outside the picture plane. This is most evident with the harbor. The harbor is not completely shown and suggests that it is bigger and goes outside of the frame. In addition, the mountains in the back seem to be following in suit with the harbor. The lack of formal lines makes sense with a piece that has such strong painterly. However, the colors that Henry Boston used are able to really make the piece feel more organized. Throughout the upper third of the work, Henry Boston has used an array of greys and blues.
The greys and deep blues, as well as the thickness of the paint, give the clouds a greater texture. Within the large amount of cool colors, he has used more natural and warmer colors. The small amount of orange that speckles the sky implies that the moon has just fully risen and the last bits of color from the sunrise are fading. There is also a slight sense of complementary harmony that is created by putting the orange in with the blue. Although the effect is not as strong as Claude Monets Sunrise, It still makes them stand out and seem to have a more pure color. This effect is also seen with the artificial lights on the horizon, because the oranges of the lights are put next to the blue they appear to be brighter than they actually are. Within the piece there is not a great sense of contrast. Arguably the greatest contrast is seen between the shadow stricken foreground and the lightness of the sky. In addition, similar cool and neutral colors in the clouds are seen as a reflection in the harbor. However, surrounding the harbor are darker neutral colors such as black, green and different variations of brown. These create a greater sense of contrast throughout the whole …show more content…
piece. Overall, colors that are used in the piece are fairly cool colors and as a result there is not a large spectrum of color. With the limited spectrum that is used, there are not a lot of saturated colors. A majority of the colors that are seen in this piece are dulled and a bit desaturated. However, the spectrum of color that has been used allows the piece to keep its moonlite feel and provides it with a sense of consistency. The darker and neutral colors around the harbor are used to create a sense of depth. In the foreground there is a small hill at which a handful of trees sit. The hill is able to produce a shadow because the main source of light- the moon- is ‘behind it.’ This shadow that is created virtually creates space between itself and the banks of the harbor. This directly draws the viewer into the painting. Now after the view has been drawn into the painting they reach the harbor and behind the harbor seems to be a town or civilization of some sort. Just behind the artificial lights are the hazy mountains. The hue of the mountains is significantly lighter and has a faint purple look to it. As a result, the hazy mountains in the background give the painting a sense of depth as a result of aerial perspective. Although, there is a sense of depth I would argue that the large amount of sky offsets the painting, making it seem more shallow. If the orientation of the painting would have been landscape as opposed to portrait I believe that it would have a bigger sense of depth. As far as presentation goes, the wood frame that surrounds the painting is fairly thick and possesses a simple design on the portion closest to the painting. The frame starts thick then gets thinner as it gets closer the the painting. I believe that this helps provide a greater sense of depth because the frame gradually leads the viewers in much like the the shadow in the foreground does. Subject matter is the nail of the painting, the color, texture and line work is the hammer. They are what ensures that what is produced is what the artist was going for. Had Henry Boston not used heavy paint or used such a cool spectrum of colors I don't believe the piece would have had as strong of an affect as it did when I initially saw it. Although this particular work is not assumed to be completed during the impressionist period, some of the most distinct features of this painting, such as the thick application of paint- is consistent with that of Impressionism paintings. Also, the title, Moonlight Landscape and Harbor, implies and further pushes, that the subject of the piece is the moonlight and its reflection on the landscape and harbor. Impressionists had a fascination with light and believed that the subject should be light, and its reflection off objects. They also kept and ___ed complimentary colors and used them to create stronger saturations in their works. As previously compared, Henry Boston’s piece shares a lot of similar qualities with Claude Monet’s, Impression Sunrise. The similarities being the brushstrokes, reflection of the light on the water and the spectrum of colors. However, when the two are compared side by side the viewer can easily see the influence that was put upon his painting based on the time period it was believed to be created in. This period of 1890-1910 lays right between Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Although some qualities of Impressionism is carried over to Post- Impressionism, there are a few Post-Impressionist qualities consistent in Henry Bostons piece that wouldn't be see as evident in pure Impressionistic works.
In Post-Impression, there is a belief that art has been starting to stray too far from structure and should have some structure returned. There seems to be a more consistent structure in Moonlight Landscape and Harbor. Another key concept to Post-Impressionism is more of the artist is seen within the painting. Henry Boston, according to A History of Long Island: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time by Peter Ross, he spent most of his time in New York and many of his paintings were based there. In addition, Ross also mentions that Christianity was practiced in Henry Bostons family. This leads me to believe that the sky does not just take up three quarters of the page for no reason. Based on the Post- Impressionistics fascination with the sky and its link to the divine; I believe that this is why nearly the whole painting is taken up by the sky. Although there are not any sources to confirm that Henry Boston held the divine close the composition of the painting and the time period it is believed to be created in suggests
otherwise. Overall, the time that Moonlight Landscape and Harbor by Joseph Henry Boston is estimated to have been completed in has had an influence on the subject of the painting and the way that it was composed.
Hmmm…this was a very interesting letter written by John Winthrop to Sir Nathaniel Rich and is definitely very different from Sebastian Brandt’s letter describing Jamestown. Winthrop is the first governor (and very proud!) of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and clearly wrote this letter with authority and confidence. As the governor, he also had the “burden” to prove to the audience, in this case, Sir Nathaniel Rich, a wealthy Puritan sympathizer in England, that the Colony was thriving and in good condition. In contrast, Winthrop’s 1631 letter to his wife had a much different tone. In it, he wrote that the Massachusetts colony was not faring well until a ship bearing supplies finally arrived. It is clear that Boston wasn’t faring as well as it
For example, he uses texture, color and organic forms to make the landscape look as real as possible. Most of the shapes are formed by shifts in colors and line because the canvas are two-dimensional. The viewer can observe that the painting is dominated by greys, browns, ochers, and other natural colors such as green and yellow to give the scene a more nature-like look. All the components and objects painted in this piece appear to have the same texture and color as the ones found in real life, such as rocks suggesting a rough hard texture and clouds being soft, which probably means that Vernet took in consideration real landscapes and places he might have seen in real life. While using different shades of grey, and painting dark clouds, Vernet was able to convince that a storm was approaching but he also decided to add source of light coming from the upper left corner by using a golden yellow color to create a sense of warmth, which creates a nice contrast between the light and the coldness from the overall shadows that seem to dominate the artwork, creating variety; however, the repetition of colors such as greys gave the whole piece a sense of unity and they also express the shadows of a stormy day. We
Looking at the early English colonies in the Chesapeake Bay region, it’s clear that the English had not learned any lessons from their experiences at Roanoke. Poor planning, a bad location, unrealistic expectations, flawed leadership, unsuccessful relations with the local Indians, and no hope of finding the mineral wealth the Spanish found in Mexico, all contributed to failure. The first colonists in the Chesapeake region were not only ignorant, lazy and unambitious, but their attempts were hampered before they had begun. However, a solution to these problems was found in a single plant: tobacco. Nevertheless, this cash crop ultimately created numerous problems for the colonists. The ignorance and indolent acts of the Chesapeake colonists to unsuccessfully restore the colony by themselves led to the demise of the colony as a whole especially regarding the planting of agricultural goods for food.
Additionally, Lie placed tall trees in the foreground of the painting to give a sense of the scale between the observer’s perspective and surrounding objects. Furthermore, Lie used dark, cold colors, such as purple, blue and black, to depict the feeling of a winter’s afternoon. Lie also used snow on the ground as an obvious indicator of the time frame in which the painting is occurring. However, in contrast to the dark cold colors used, Lie also used subtle hints of orange, yellow and red to show that there is some presence of light in the piece. The background of the painting is a sheen of yellow, suggesting the presence of light and the forming sunset.
At the left-bottom corner of the painting, the viewer is presented with a rugged-orangish cliff and on top of it, two parallel dark green trees extending towards the sky. This section of the painting is mostly shadowed in darkness since the cliff is high, and the light is emanating from the background. A waterfall, seen originating from the far distant mountains, makes its way down into a patch of lime-green pasture, then fuses into a white lake, and finally becomes anew, a chaotic waterfall(rocks interfere its smooth passage), separating the latter cliff with a more distant cliff in the center. At the immediate bottom-center of the foreground appears a flat land which runs from the center and slowly ascends into a cliff as it travels to the right. Green bushes, rough orange rocks, and pine trees are scattered throughout this piece of land. Since this section of the painting is at a lower level as opposed to the left cliff, the light is more evidently being exposed around the edges of the land, rocks, and trees. Although the atmosphere of the landscape is a chilly one, highlights of a warm light make this scene seem to take place around the time of spring.
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
Blue is used to represent the water as well as the sky and both similar and range in different tones. All of the colors in this piece are washed out but still have a bright quality to them. The colors aren’t brightly pigmented however; Hiroshige does a satisfying job of drawing in the viewer with the color choices used and the little details. The sun in the sky is simply the white of the paper and almost looks as if the color burns through. Pops of red, show in blocks on the right side of the work wit Japanese writing inside each one, which contrasts with the large amounts of blue and helps the writing stand out.
Color is used to draw attention to important characters and objects in the painting. The red of Mary’s shirt emphasizes her place as the main figure. A bright, yellow cloud floating above the room symbolizes the joy of the angelic figures. De Zurbaran uses warm colors in the foreground. The room, used as the background for the scene, is painted in dark colors utilizing different hues of gray and brown.
At first glance, the cheerful bright blue sky on the upper portion of the painting caught the most attention. The second dominant feature is the small sailboat with seagulls on the background where Monet illustrated in brightest white. Examining closely in that particular area, it is noticeable that the artist intended to incorporate a sheer layer of white surrounding the sailboat to create the illusion of sheen light breaking through the clouds and reflecting into the ocean. Monet used a variation of values along with the combination of heavy and light individual brushstrokes to create uneven tones to show the movement of the water caused by the weather and the sun. Several layers of underpaint can also be seen as the artist’s intention for the waves to appear fuzzier. The fuzzy wave in the foreground to the right is slightly bulged from the canvas showing the finer brushstroke slightly dabbed on the surface. Dense cracking is present all over the painting possibly due to the painting being very
The two focal figures are illustrated with complementary colors, the woman 's dress being orange, and the man’s pants being blue. Benton uses these colors to bring life into the painting. The background is made up mostly of earthy colors like, greens, browns, and greys and a light blue for the sky. Benton seems to add white to every color he uses, which gives the painting an opaque look. The deepest hues found in this painting are the blue one the man’s pants and the orange on the woman’s dress, everything else around them looks washed out and Benton does this to emphasize his focal points
Around the 1700's there were two regions of English colonization, New England and the Chesapeake Bay. These two regions varied greatly. Physical, religious, political and social differences separated them. The seeds of diversity in America were planted in the early days of colonization when they grew into distinctive societies. Early on it was apparent that the Colonists came to America with different motives. Some came for religious reasons while others came to get rich. Religion was the basis of the people's lives in New England, but in the Chesapeake region, money and producing tobacco dominated life. This would affect the colonies economically, socially, and politically. Puritans left England because they wanted a place where they could have religious
The colours used in the artwork are earthy tones with various browns, greens, yellows, blues and some violet. These colours create a sense of harmony on the...
-In these frames Moore uses a blue color scheme, almost black, to depict the time of day. The dark colors indicate that this scene takes place at night and the clouds give you the feeling of a storm approaching, literally and figuratively.
...f the shadows is sprinkled with the orange of the ground, and the blue-violet of the mountains is both mixed with and adjacent to the yellow of the sky. The brushstrokes that carry this out are inspired by the Impressionists, but are more abundant and blunter than those an Impressionist would use.
In art, color is a very vivid element that attracts the audience’s attention, and allow us to think deeply about our innermost feelings. Van Gogh’s use of light and dark colors used in the night sky provide great contrast in order to capture our attention. The darker blue gives the art a gloomy feeling and could perhaps represent isolation. The lighter blue helps to draw attention to the swirls that Van Gogh made in the sky. The yellow accentuates the swirls even more because it is the brightest color found in the art piece. Blue and