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Title page

Art reflection paper

Jon Koesters

Sinclair community college

11/23/2020
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Body

For this assignment I went to the National Gallery of Art Website on the 23rd of

November 2020, the National Gallery of art is located in Washington DC on Constitution

Avenue NW Washington, DC 20565. It took me about maybe an hour and a half to two hours

before I could find a piece that I liked and was in the appropriate time range. After clicking

through page after page, I finally came across a piece of art that was done by Théodore Rousseau

a French painter who was born in the year 1812 and passed away at the age 55 in 1867. He had a

distinct love for nature, and it was a big theme that he tried to incorporate into most of his works.

I guess he tried to use nature to try and capture some sort of emotional empathy. The piece I

found is entitled “After the Rain”, it’s an oil painting on canvas that was done in the year 1850

(see photograph at the bottom). I thought that the overall landscape in the piece had a few

connections with some of the concepts we’ve been covering over the semester, and I think I’ve

identified one or two connections with the individual on the horse in the center of the painting.

One of the biggest concepts I could connect to this painting in Yin and Yang a concept

developed by the Tao or Dao. Since this artist using the earth and it’s nature to his advantage I

though it was an easy connection to make. In the text book it states “ Heaven in earth constitute

a single reality, a sort of heaven earth, rather than two diametrically opposed and separate

realities; Nature consists of the continual interaction of two opposing, but not separable, forces

known as Yin and Yang ” (Soccio , 2016). Yin is recognized as the earth in this painting you see

the dirt the plants the trees all the natural things that grow in the physical earth. Yang is

recognized as heaven; in this case you could think of the Sky and the clouds and even the sun or

moon as they are sitting in the sky and represent light and metaphysical meaning. And It is
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believed that these two forces work together in a way to create our reality, an example I could

give might be the rain in the clouds is returned to the earth too help everything grow.

Another concept that can be connected with really everything in the painting would be

atomism. “atomism is the materialistic view that the universe consists entirely of empty space an

ultimately simple entities that combine to form objects” (Soccio, 2016). This idea was first

developed by Leucippus of Miletus an later on was further developed by Democritus, And as I

just stated in my quote it basically is the idea that these little particle like things called atoms

make up all things we see in the universe And as this theory has been proven long ago we're able

to know this as a fact.

A connection that I made with the man on the horse was one of the Buddhist concepts

called Nirvana. Nirvana is “Annihilation of the ego, a state of emptiness, or no thingness”

(Soccio, 2016), It’s a state of bliss and utter detachment where you have no sense of

individuality, or separateness, or discrimination. When I read that definition, it makes me think

of a desired state of peacefulness and soundness of mind. I know to some people riding

horseback alone through the countryside would be a good way to find yourself some tranquility,

to clear your mind, and find peace and consciousness with yourself.

A couple of other universal concepts that I was able to connect to this painting include

Monism, It kind of has the same premise or idea as atomism, Monism is “ the belief that reality

is essentially one reality, one process, one substance, one structure, or one ground” (Soccio,

2016). Essentially this idea was developed by Thales who is said to have possibly been the first

western philosopher, and it Argues that everything consists of only one ultimate unique

substance like matter or spirit. Well this may in a way contradict the atomism concept monism is

just another general concept that you could connected the entirety of the painting with. Pneuma
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is another concept that can be incorporated again with the entirety of the painting. pneuma or air

“is the ultimate, pervasive spirit that holds the world together” (Siccio, 2016), this idea was

thought of by Anaximenes. It claims that air when it’s pure becomes more denser through

condensation and it then creates a chain of things along the way from like fire to stone. This

brought the conclusion that the ongoing cosmic and natural forces provide a single underlying

world order that remains that same through all change, and you can think of the idea of pneuma

as was it holding the world in the painting together.

I wouldn't say that there are any distinctive features in this painting that I could connect

to Rousseau’s French ethnicity or culture. But in the biography, I read about Theodore I

mentioned before that It talked about his naturalism and how it was the product of meditative

study. It was saying that Rousseau had a deep understanding of nature and that he saw it as a

process of growth and dissolution. Essentially what I'm trying to say is the nature in the

environment of this art piece most of his other works reflect his understanding and love for

nature, and his desire to for his work to “reconcile emotional empathy with objective sight”

(NGA, 2020). The piece reflects distinctive features that connect more personally with Rousseau

rather than his ethnicity or culture.

I would like to add that I did enjoy doing this assignment once I got through the struggle.

This is my first experience in a philosophy course and or studying philosophy in general, and it's

been pretty interesting so far. I thought this was a pretty unique and fun assignment, and I wish

we weren't in this ridiculous pandemic for it. I love any chance I can get to visit a museum and

read about history, art, and different cultures. However, having to do it online instead I found to

be more challenging than I thought it was going to be, but other than that it was a very interesting

assignment.
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After the Rain by Theodore Rousseau

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Bibliography

of Art, National Gallery. “After the Rain.” Art Object Page, 2020, www.nga.gov/collection/art-
object-page.195088.html

Soccio, Douglas J. Archetypes of Wisdom: an Introduction to Philosophy. Cengage Learning,

2016.