Introduction to PaintingsIntroduction to Paintings

By Cathy Chang

Jean-François Millet: The Gleaners

General QuestionsGeneral Questions

• When you look at the painting, what do you see?

• What is the focus of the painting?• Is the painting a positive portrayal of

the women or a negative one?• Do you like the painting?

Jean-François MilletJean-François MilletMillet was born the son of farmers in a small town in

Normandy. His father loved singing and carving, but he gave these things up to meet the needs of his family. As a child, Millet often helped his parents in the field or read at home. He was especially attracted to beautiful illustrations in the Bible and tried copying them. He would also use a piece of charcoal to draw farmers or horses in a small notebook.

His father and townspeople noticed his talent. At the age of twenty, with their support, Millet left for Paris to fulfill his dream of studying art.

Millet’s art became highly valued after his death. Though he left behind only about eighty paintings, his style inspired many other great artists, such as Monet and van Gogh. Today, the world remembers Millet as a painter who devoted himself to showing country life as noble and beautiful.

(Stevenson)

VocabularyVocabulary

• Normandy 諾曼第 • Carving 雕刻 • Field 田地 • Charcoal 木炭 • Inspire 賦予靈感 • Devote 將 ... 奉獻 ( 給 ) • Noble 高貴的

Claude Monet: Impression, Sunrise

General QuestionsGeneral Questions

•What do you see in the painting?

•What time of day is the painting?

•What is unique about it?

Claude MonetClaude MonetClaude Monet also known as Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude

Oscar Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise.

Characteristics of Impressionist painting include visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as an important element of human perception and experience.

Monet was born in Paris, but moved with his family to Normandy when he was just a child. His father wanted him to go into the family grocery store business, but Claude Monet wanted to become an artist. His mother was a singer.

Monet died of lung cancer when he was 86 years old. Monet had insisted that the occasion be simple; thus about fifty people attended the ceremony.

(“Claude Monet”)

VocabularyVocabulary• Consistent 始終如一的 • Prolific 多產的 • Practitioner 從事者 , 實踐者 • Movement ( 政治 , 社會 , 思想 ) 運動 • Perception 感知能力 ; 洞察力 • Plein-air (“in the open air“) 外光畫法的 • Composition 構圖 • Accentuate 強調 ; 使更突出 • Inclusion 包括 ; 包含 • Element 要素 , 成分 • Grocery store 雜貨店 • Occasion 場合 , 時刻

Vincent van Gogh: The Starry Night

General QuestionsGeneral Questions

•What do you seen in the painting?

•What kind of atmosphere does the painting give off?

Vincent van GoghVincent van GoghVincent van GoghVincent van GoghVincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of

expression, was born in Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, van Gogh was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence.

The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit. In Paris, van Gogh began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health.

During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years during which time he cut off part of his left ear following a breakdown in his friendship with Paul Gauguin. After this he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide.

(Van Gogh Gallery)

VocabularyVocabularyVocabularyVocabulary

• Symbol 象徵 , 標誌• Expression 表現力 • Pastor 牧師 • Cultured 有教養 ; 有知

識的 • Atmosphere 氣氛 • Emotional 易動情的 ;

感情脆弱的 • Self-confidence 自信 • Somber-toned 暗淡

• Sharply 明確地• Palette 獨特色彩 • Temperament 喜怒無

常 ; 急躁 • Companion 同伴 • Undermined 逐漸損害 • Breakdown 崩潰 ; 破裂 • Recurrent 一再發生的 • Bouts 發作

Pablo Picasso: Guernica

Background to GuernicaBackground to Guernica

Guernica is a monumental painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain, by twenty-eight bombers, on April 26, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The attack killed between 250 and 1,600 people, and many more were injured.

Guernica presents a scene of death, violence, brutality, suffering, and helplessness without portraying their immediate causes. The choice to paint in black and white conveys the chronological nearness of a newspaper photograph and the lifelessness war affords.

(“Guernica”)

Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Picasso (1881 - 1974) was a Spanish artist whose

name is almost synonymous with 20th century art. No artist was ever as famous as Picasso was in his own lifetime, or has been since. The controversies over his personality, arrogance, affairs with younger women, and unwillingness to be classified in the art world only added to his fame. Picasso was able to create incredibly complex and powerful paintings with a few strokes of the brush, or capture the essence of someone's face from many different angles all at once. Most of all Picasso was an individualist. He was a founder of art movements, such as Cubism. Picasso was incredibly proficient, especially near the end of his life, when he would often complete three paintings in one day. It was as if he believed he could delay his death through painting. At the time many of these works were dismissed. It wasn't until long after Picasso's death that critics took a new look at his later works and realized that Picasso had invented neo-expressionism and was, as usual, decades ahead of his time.

(Cooper)

VocabularyVocabulary• Monumental 重要的 ;

留存於歷史上的• Depict 描述 ; 描寫 • Brutality 暴虐行為 , 蠻

橫行為 • Immediate 直接的 • Causes 原因 ; 起因 • Chronological 依時間

前後排列而記載的 • Afford 提供 , 給予 • Synonymous 同義的 • Controversies 爭論

• Arrogance 傲慢 ; 自大 • Classified 分類的 , 類別

的 • Complex 複雜的 ; 由各

種部分所構成的 • Essence 本質 , 實質 • Individualist 個人主義

者 • Cubism 立體派 • Proficient 精通的 , 熟練

的 • Dismiss 不考慮 • Neo-expressionism新表現主義

ReferencesReferences“Claude Monet.” Wikipedia. 2008. 30 June 2008. <h

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet>.Cooper, James. “About Pablo Picasso.” artst.org. 1

0 July 2008. <http://www.artst.org/picasso/bio/>.

“Guernica.” Wikipedia. 2008. 10 July 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_%28painting%29>.

Stevenson, Sean. “Jean-François Millet: A Simple Heart.” English 4U. 6 (2008): 12-16.

“Vincent van Gogh: Biography.” Vangoghgallery. 2008. 30 June 2008. <http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.html>.