Landscapes: Real and Imagined

Questions

Why might an artist choose to paint abstractly instead of representationally—depicting figures, shapes, objects, or scenes?

What kinds of choices do artists make when painting?

MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme

Take a close look at Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor, by Seurat.

• What is going on in the foreground, the middle ground and the background?

• What is the mood of this place?

Georges-Pierre Seurat. Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor. 1888


Now, take a close look at The Starry Night, by van Gogh.

• How is it similar to Port-en-Bessin? How is it different? What details do you notice?

• Why might this be considered a ‘Symbolis’ work of art?

Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. June 1889


• How are these paintings similar?

• How are they different?

Let’s compare Seurat and van Gogh

MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined

Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. June 1889Georges-Pierre Seurat. Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor. 1888

Now, take a close look at Melancholy: Evening on the Shore, by Munch.

• What is happening with the figure in this landscape? What mood is being conveyed?

• Would the mood be the same without the figure? Why or why not?


Edvard Munch. Melancholy: Evening on the Shore. 1896

Now, take a close look at Evening, Honfleur, by Seurat.


Georges-Pierre Seurat. Evening, Honfleur, 1886

• What is happening in the foreground, middle ground, and background? What mood is being conveyed?

Let’s compare the moods of Munch’s Melancholy: Evening on the Shore to Seurat’s Evening, Honfleur.


Georges-Pierre Seurat. Evening, Honfleur, 1886

Edvard Munch. Melancholy: Evening on the Shore. 1896

Questions

Now that you have generated descriptive words for each image, use them to have a conversation with a partner:

How did these modern painters convey a sense of mood or interior, psychological space in their landscapes?



Henri Rousseau. The Dream. 1910

Let’s look at these two landscapes by Matisse.


Henri Matisse. Study for "Luxe, calme et volupté". 1904

Henri Matisse. Landscape at Collioure. 1905

Vasily Kandinsky. Picture with an Archer. 1909



Paul Gauguin. The Moon and the Earth. 1893

Joan Miró. The Hunter (Catalan Landscape). Montroig, July 1923-winter 1924.


Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. 1931.


• What is your definition of a landscape? Does this painting qualify under that definition?

• Think of five words that describe the place in this painting.

• Which elements are natural, and which from the artist’s imagination? Are there some that straddle the line between natural and imaginary?

Let’s look at The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí.

Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. 1931.

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Max Ernst. Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale. 1924.


• Does knowing the title of this work change what your think of this painting?

• Which figures are the two children? Who might the other figures be?

• How might this relate to the artist’s interest in dreams?

Let’s look at Two Children Art Threatened by a Nightingale by Max Ernst.

Max Ernst. Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale. 1924.

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Landscapes: Real and Imagined

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