ART APPRECIATION

SESSION 14: PAINTINGS

DEDICATION

CLASSIFICATION OF PAINTING STYLES

Part of the desire in painting particularly in the 21st century is the variety of available art
styles. The style in painting is in two senses:
 it can refer to the distinctive visual elements, techniques, and methods that
characterized one’s artwork,
 can refer to the movement or school that associated to the artists. Such classifications
include the following styles:

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 A. Western Styles

 ABSTRACTION

It is an art in painting which does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a

visual reality but instead use colors, shapes, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect.
It may be formed by reducing the observable phenomenon, typically to retain only
information which is relevant for a particular purpose.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Originating in Europe in the late 19th century, Abstract art fully emerged in the early 20th
century when a decline in the appreciation of Realism became more common among Avant-
garde artists of the period. Likewise, the Abstract art movement which followed called for
works which allowed for lucid analysis and meaning via lines, colors and shapes that had not
been previously recognized in art. Impressionism was therefore one of the many other art
movements at the genesis of abstraction within art. Like Expressionism it focused on a few
key formal elements to manipulate and distort realistic representation with a clear emphasis
on portraying light. As with all artistic practices there too have been other underlying issues
influencing the works of art of this category, the majority of which are political and cultural
causes. The direct result of the First and Second World War, a disparate Europe, meant that
many of Europe’s leading artists had to flee their homes for America’s safe haven. Artists
such as Arshile Gorky and Marcel Duchamp are a few who created works which marked and

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signified their reactions to the shifts in their situations. Wassily Kandinsky, however, more
concerned with the spiritual qualities present in art, aimed to convey this within his in
artworks. Coming from a background in music he stated that like music visual art too could
harbour emotion, and elements such as form and colour were capable of doing so.
Accordingly, he created his first abstract art work in 1911. Another event which effected and
resulted in the emergence of Abstract art is the 19th century wave of independence given to
artists. Artists were given more freedom and power to produce work which allowed them to
develop their interests and capital within the new industrial and modern world. Now
commissioned by the public and patrons, artists were able to experiment more freely and
become recognised for the intellect and ‘abstraction’ behind works. This cultural shift saw the
start of a new era in experimentation of subject matter and composition which was a direct
influence and essential principle of Abstract art.

EXAMPLES:

The Untitled, (about 1916)

Historical Background:
The Untitled, (about 1916) is one of Kandinsky’s most exquisite works which was created at
the time when substantial changes were taking place in the artist’s life and work. After his
return to Russia in 1914, turbulent events of the World War I caused serious changes in his
technique: he mainly had to use gouache or watercolours on paper, with a few exceptions,
however, for example, his famous Moscow. Red Square painted in 1916.
The refined balance between the colour and form in the Untitled holds the visual power of his
Munich period (for example, refer to Composinion No. 7) but also comprises some new
liveliness and a sense of compositional unity. It is a whirlpool of colour that underlies it,
bursting with its sparkling yellow and blue and accentuated with thin black lines. Paul
Overoy wrote: “Those several works he created show an unceasing evolution, some
progressive reconsidering in colour. In the works painted in Russia geometrical shapes arise
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from gradual simplification of the amorphous shapes typical of Munich period paintings [...].
Painting elements seem to be in a state of tension; on the one hand, they show a way to
geometricity, and on the other – that to spontaneous bursting forms of his Munich works.”
The painting was sold at Sotheby’s on 8 February this year for $4.9 million.

Full Fathom Five, 1947 by Jackson Pollock

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Full Fathom Five is one of the earliest masterpieces of Pollock's drip technique. The actual
origins and initial development of this technique have never been fully explained, except by
reading back from fuller photographic evidence produced about 1950, two or three years after
this work was painted. Like other practical breakthroughs in twentieth-century painting,
'creative accident' seems likely to have played an important part, as Pollock probed and tested
methods of paint application which promote the continuousness of line rather than the broken
lines inevitable in the constant reloadings and readjustments of conventional brushwork. His
solution was to pour from a can of domestic paint along a stick resting inside the container, so
that a constant 'beam' of pigment came into contact with the canvas (which he left unstretched
on the studio floor). The character of the line was determined by certain physical and material
variables that could be combined in almost infinite permutations: the viscosity of the paint
(controlled by thinning and dilution); the angle and hence speed of the pouring; and the
dynamics of Pollock's bodily gestures, his sweep and rhythm, especially in the wrist, arm and
shoulder. 'Like a seismograph', noted writer Wemer Haftmann 'the painting recorded the
energies and states of the man who drew it.' In addition, Pollock would flick, splatter, and dab
subsidiary colors on to the dominant linear configuration.
The title, suggested by Pollock's neighbor, quotes from The Tempest by William
Shakespeare, wherein Ariel describes a death by shipwreck: "Full fathom five thy father lies /
Of his bones are coral made / Those are pearls that were his eyes."
Pollock has embedded nails, tacks, buttons, keys, coins, a torn cigarette, matches, and paint-
tube tops into the surface - witnesses of the accidental nature of the 'painting' process and of
the legitimacy of the trouser-pocket paraphernalia - as three-dimensional textural agents to
amplify the signifying potential of the image. These alien materials, however, are subordinate

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to the overall design. They are, interestingly, almost invisible in normal reproductions of the
painting; suffocated by the overwhelming presence of paint their function is analogous to the
smears and touches of color, providing resistance and difference in the optical pattern.

 EXPRESSIONISM

It is sometimes called emotional realism. In this style, the artists sought to express
meaning or emotional experience rather than physical truth.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
As a movement, the term expressionism usually denotes the late-19th century, early-20th
century schools of emotive or interpretive art, which emerged in Germany as a reaction to the
more passive style of Impressionism. The word expressionism was first used in 1850, mostly
to describe the paintings where an artist’s strong emotions were clearly depicted. The
popularity of Expressionism increased when Antonin Matějček in 1910 coined the term. With
this word the Czech art historian intended to denote the opposite of Impressionism and
indicate one of the main currents of art that expresses highly subjective, personal,
spontaneous self-expression typical of a wide range of modern artists. Whereas the
Impressionists sought to express the majesty of nature and the human form through paint, the
Expressionists, according to Matějček, sought to express their feelings about what they saw.
Expressionism first emerged in 1905, when a group of four German students guided by Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner founded the Die Brücke (the Bridge) group in the city of Dresden. A few
years later, in 1911, a like-minded group of young artists formed Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue
Rider) in Munich. Kandinsky and Franz Marc where its founders, whilst Paul Klee and
August Macke were amongst its members. These two groups became the foundation of the
German Expressionism movement. Since then, Expressionism became a widely recognized
form of modern art.
Expressionism had its most direct impact in Germany and continued to shape the country's art
for decades after the First World War. While certain artists rejected Expressionism, others
continued to expand its innovative art and style. Other forms of the movement developed in
France, Paris, and Austria. The Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement was

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influenced by the highly emotional tenets of Expressionism, while the Neo-Expressionists
emerged in Germany and then in the United States reprising the earlier Expressionist style.

EXAMPLES:

THE STARRY NIGHT

PAINTING BY VAN GOGH
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Vincent van Gogh painted Starry Night in 1889 during his stay at the asylum of Saint-Paul-
de-Mausole near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Van Gogh lived well in the hospital; he was
allowed more freedoms than any of the other patients. If attended, he could leave the hospital
grounds; he was allowed to paint, read, and withdraw into his own room. He was even given
a studio. While he suffered from the occasional relapse into paranoia and fits - officially he
had been diagnosed with epileptic fits - it seemed his mental health was recovering.
Unfortunately, he relapsed. He began to suffer hallucination and have thoughts of suicide as
he plunged into depression. Accordingly, there was a tonal shift in his work. He returned to
incorporating the darker colors from the beginning of his career and Starry Night is a
wonderful example of that shift. Blue dominates the painting, blending hills into the sky. The
little village lays at the base in the painting in browns, greys, and blues. Even though each
building is clearly outlined in black, the yellow and white of the stars and the moon stand out
against the sky, drawing the eyes to the sky. They are the big attention grabber of the
painting. Notice the brush strokes. For the sky they swirl, each dab of color rolling with the
clouds around the stars and moon. On the cypress tree they bend with the curve of the
branches. The whole effect is ethereal and dreamlike. The hills easily roll down into the little
village below. In contrast, the town is straight up and down, done with rigid lines that
interrupt the flow of the brush strokes. Tiny little trees soften the inflexibility of the town.
Bringing nature into the unnaturalness of buildings.
One of the biggest points of interest about this painting is that it came entirely from Van
Gogh’s imagination. None of the scenery matches the area surrounding Saint-Paul or the

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view from his window. As a man who religiously paints what he sees, it’s a remarkable break
from Van Gogh’s normal work.

EMIL NOLDE DANCE AROUND THE GOLDEN CALF

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Emil Nolde painted Dance Around the Golden Calf, in 1910. This piece is arguably his most
famous painting. He, like Kandinsky, uses bright colors and forms for his subject matter.
Nolde had a strong religious background that is reflected in this work. The subject matter is
reminiscent of the Old Testament story of Moses’ people dancing around the golden calf that
they constructed as an idol. The golden calf was meant to fulfill spiritual needs of the people.
There are figures that look to be partially naked women dancing around the calf. Nolde’s
expression in this painting is describing the pagan practices of mankind. The exuberant colors
condemn the dancers as having pagan acts. Nolde’s painting can be interpreted as how
humanity has not changed since the Old Testament times. People still turn to pagan ways and
rely on selfish ambitions to fulfill themselves.
 BAROQUE.

It is characterized by dynamism (a sense of motion), which is augmented by extravagant

effects (e.g., sharp curves, rich decoration). Among the most significant Baroque painters
are Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, Poussin, and Vermeer.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The Baroque is a period of artistic style that started around 1600 in Rome , Italy, and spread
throughout the majority of Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. In informal usage, the
word baroque describes something that is elaborate and highly detailed.

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The most important factors during the Baroque era were the Reformation and the Counter-
Reformation, with the development of the Baroque style considered to be linked closely with
the Catholic Church. The popularity of the style was in fact encouraged by the Catholic
Church, which had decided at the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious
themes and direct emotional involvement in response to the Protestant Reformation. Baroque
art manifested itself differently in various European countries owing to their unique political
and cultural climates.
The Baroque style is characterized by exaggerated motion and clear detail used to produce
drama, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, and
music. Baroque iconography was direct, obvious, and dramatic, intending to appeal above all
to the senses and the emotions.
The use of the chiaroscuro technique is a well known trait of Baroque art. This technique
refers to the interplay between light and dark and is often used in paintings of dimly lit scenes
to produce a very high-contrast, dramatic atmosphere. The chiaroscuro technique is visible in
the painting The Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens. Other important Baroque
painters include Caravaggio (who is thought to be a precursor to the movement and is known
for work characterized by close-up action and strong diagonals) and Rembrandt.
The Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens: Chiaroscuro refers to the interplay
between light and dark and is a technique often used in paintings of dimly lit scenes to
produce a very high-contrast, dramatic atmosphere. This technique is visible in this painting
by Peter Paul Rubens.
In the Baroque style of architecture, emphasis was placed on bold spaces , domes , and large
masses , as exemplified by the Queluz National Palace in Portugal. In music, the Baroque
style makes up a large part of the classical canon. Important composers include Johann
Sebastian Bach, George Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi. In the later part of the period, the
Baroque style was termed Rococo, a style characterized by increasingly decorative and
elaborate works.

EXAMPLES:

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 PETER PAUL RUBENS – THE GARDEN OF LOVE
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The Garden of Love is a vibrant figurative painting from Peter Paul Rubens, completed
around 1633
Rubens dedicated this work to Helena Fourment, his second wife, as celebration of their
marriage. Helena was termed "the most beautiful woman in Antwerp" and is included in the
painting itself.
There is a clear use of symbolism throughout this outdoor scene, with the fountain
representing a happy and healthy marriage. It sits in the foreground, but to the right hand side
of the composition. The overall style of this painting has a very specific label as part of the
Merry Company genre, which can be seen throughout the Baroque movement. Early on it is
believed that this artwork was actually titled The Garden Party.
The clothing of those in the garden is luxurious, oozing wealth and elegance. There are
mythological elements in this painting with the cupids which fly around in the sky at the top
of the canvas. It was in the Renaissance and Baroque eras that architecture was to be depicted
accurately as background elements to complex outdoor scenes. You will find here the use of
achitectural styling at the background of the painting, increasing the feeling of status and
opulence of those celebrating with their garden picnic.
The Garden of Love is one of a number of Rubens paintings on display at the Prado Museum
in Madrid, alongside The Three Graces and The Immaculate Conception.
The early to mid stages of the Renaissance were famously dominated by artists from the
Papal States of Italy, but it wasn't long before the flemish region of Europe would start to
have its own influence. Rubens was just one of several significant figures to come from this
region in and around the Baroque period. No introduction is required for Rembrandt, whilst
Vermeer and Hieronymus Bosch were also exceptional artists who left a huge impact on
North European art.

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 THE ROKEBY VENUS (1647-51) BY DIEGO VELAZQUEZ
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The Rokeby Venus (named after Rokeby Park, the home of its 19th century owner John
Morritt) is also referred to as "The Toilet of Venus", "Venus at her Mirror", "Venus and
Cupid". It depicts Venus (goddess of Love and the personification of female beauty) reclining
languidly in a sensual pose on her bed, looking into a mirror held by her son Cupid (god of
physical love). The composition is actually a combination of two models popularized by the
Venetian Renaissance - 'Reclining Venus' and 'Venus at her mirror with Cupid'.
The leading figure during the era of Spanish Baroque art, Velazquez excelled in all genres
including, narrative history painting and genre painting, as well as portrait art for the Spanish
court. Spain was a strong supporter of Catholic Counter-Reformation art and was determined
to combat the spread of Protestantism. As a result, Spanish painting was heavily influenced
by religious scruples, a policy which was policed by the Spanish Inquisition, which meant
that female nudes were strongly discouraged, unless painted for royalty or other influential
nobles. Fortunately for Baroque art, The Rokeby Venus appears to have been commissioned
by the famous aristocratic womanizer Gaspar Mendez de Haro, 7th Marquis of Carpio and a
close associate of King Philip IV. Completed in all probability during the artist's second visit
to Italy in 1648-52, it is his only surviving nude, although three others by him are mentioned
in 17th-century Spanish art collections - a Reclining Venus, a Venus and Adonis, and a
Psyche and Cupid. Two were in the Royal collection, but were burned in the 1734 fire that
destroyed the Royal Alcazar Palace of Madrid. A third was recorded in the collection of the
Spanish painter Domingo Guerra Coronel (c.1595-1651).

 IMPRESSIONISM

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It is a type of art presenting the real-life subject with emphasis on the impression left in the
artist’s perception, particularly the effect of light on the object used as a subject.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Impressionism coalesced in the 1860s when a group of painters including Claude Monet,
Alfred Sisley and Pierre-Auguste Renoir pursued plein air painting together.
American John Rand never joined their ranks as a preeminent artist, but as a painter living in
London, he designed in 1841 a device that would revolutionize the art world: paint in a tube.
His clever new technology offered easily portable, pre-mixed paint, and allowed painters to
bring their process outdoors.
Rand’s technological leap allowed spontaneity and a casual quality to the work of
Impressionists. Over time, other artists joined in the practice, and their exploration together
moved from indoor studios to outdoor cafes, with regular get-togethers to discuss their ideas
Realist painter Edouard Manet was part of this crowd and is often referred to as an
Impressionist because of his early influence on and close friendships with the members of the
movement. The Impressionists took many of Manet’s techniques to heart, particularly his
embrace of modernity as subject matter and the spontaneity of his brush strokes, along with
his use of color and lighting. All these qualities are displayed in his 1863 painting Le
Dejeuner sur l’Herbe.
The movement made its official debut in 1874 in a show hosted by the Paris photography
studio of Félix Nadar. This show was an alternative to the Académie des Beaux-Arts’ Salon
de Paris, which had been the official exhibition and overseer of art world standards since
1667.
Comprised of works submitted to the Salon that were rejected by the Académie, the group
calling itself “The Cooperative and Anonymous Association of Painters, Sculptors, and
Engravers” featured 30 artists showing work, including some of the most now-famous names
in art: Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro.
The Impressionist took their name from an insult hurled by the press at one of Monet’s
paintings, Impression, Sunrise. Critics heaped scorn on the work presented in the show as
“unfinished” and compared it unfavorably to wallpaper.

EXAMPLES:

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 IMPRESSION, SUNRISE, BY CLAUDE MONET
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
This famous painting, Impression, Sunrise, was created from a scene in the port of Le Havre.
Monet depicts a mist, which provides a hazy background to the piece set in the French
harbor. The orange and yellow hues contrast brilliantly with the dark vessels, where little, if
any detail is immediately visible to the audience. It is a striking and candid work that shows
the smaller boats in the foreground almost being propelled along by the movement of the
water. This has, once again, been achieved by separate brushstrokes that also show various
colors "sparkling" on the sea.
From the 15th April to 15th May 1874 Monet exhibited his work together with Camille
Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and some other thirty
artists. They organized their exhibition on their own as they were usually rejected at the Paris
Salon. Most visitors were disgusted and even outraged over such a graffiti. Monet's
Impression, Sunrise enjoyed the most attention and some visitors even claimed that they were
absolutely unable to recognize what was shown at all.
A critic who attended the exhibition, M. Louis Leroy, wrote a now-famous article in Le
Charivari in which he used the term "Impressionist" based on the title of this painting.
Despite the fact that Leroy had used the word derisively, the group decided to adopt it and
painters such as Renoir and Degas were happy to be called Impressionists
Despite its notoriety, the painting is in some ways untypical of Monet's own work of this
period and of Impressionism more generally. It shows little of the Impressionist treatment of
light and colour. The colours are very restrained and the paint is applied not in discrete
brushstrokes of contrasting colours but in very thin washes. In some places, the canvas is
even visible and the only use of impasto is in the depiction of the reflected sunlight on the
water. The painting is strongly atmospheric rather than analytical and has a spirit somewhat
akin to Turner's works. Nevertheless, it does illustrate particularly well one of the features of
an Impressionist painting that was thought so revolutionary. The technique is very 'sketchy'
and would have been seen as a preliminary study for a painting rather than a finished work
suitable for exhibition. (Monet himself saw the work as unfinished, and it was for that reason
that he adopted the title 'Impression' to distinguish it from such works as his other view of Le
Havre in the same exhibition, though this too lacks the finish than expected.) In this work,
Monet stripped away the details to a bare minimum: the dockyards in tile background are

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merely suggested by a few brushstrokes as are the boats in the foreground. The whole
represents the artist's swift attempt to capture a fleeting moment. The highly visible, near-
abstract technique, compels almost more attention than the subject-matter itself, a notion then
wholly alien to viewers.

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON ON THE ISLAND OF LA GRANDE JATTE

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is both the best-known and largest
painting Georges Seurat ever created on a canvas. It depicts people relaxing in a suburban
park on an island in the Seine River called La Grande Jatte, a popular retreat for the middle
and upper class of Paris in the 19th century.
Executed on a large canvas painted in 1884, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande
Jatte reveals everything magical about Seurat's world - it's beautiful and disturbing, sunlit and
shadowed, silent and noisy, all at the same time. The painting's dimensions are approximately
2 by 3 meters (7 by 10 feet), representing a truly huge size for pieces painted during this
period.
When he painted this work, Georges Seurat was a mere 25-year-old who had only seven more
years to live. He was an ambitious young man with a scientific theory to prove, something
totally unique for the elite of the modern art world. Seurat's theory was an optical one - he
had the conviction that painting in dots was able to produce a brighter color than painting in
strokes.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was painted in two sessions, the first
between May 1884 and March 1885, and the second from October 1885 to May 1886. Seurat
claimed he sat in the park for hours upon hours, creating numerous sketches of the various
figures in order to perfect their form before he even thought about starting the actual painting.
Extremely disciplined and private to the point of almost complete secretiveness, Georges
Seurat concentrated primarily on issues of color, light and form. Gustave Kahn often spoke
about how Georges used the Panathenaic procession in the Parthenon frieze as the main
visual model for this work - yet, there was not a lot of classical in the completed painting.

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  MODERNISM

It is characterized by a cautious rejection of the styles of the past and emphasizing

innovation and experimentation of materials and techniques instead to create better
artworks.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
In the visual arts the roots of Modernism are often traced back to painter Édouard Manet,
who, beginning in the 1860s, broke away from inherited notions of perspective, modeling,
and subject matter. The avant-garde movements that followed—including Impressionism,
Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Constructivism, de Stijl, and Abstract
Expressionism—are generally defined as Modernist. Over the span of these movements,
artists increasingly focused on the intrinsic qualities of their media—e.g., line, form, and
colour—and moved away from inherited notions of art.
By the beginning of the 20th century, architects also had increasingly abandoned past styles
and conventions in favour of a form of architecture based on essential functional concerns.
They were helped by advances in building technologies such as the steel frame and the
curtain wall. In the period after World War I these tendencies became codified as the
International style, which utilized simple geometric shapes and unadorned facades and which
abandoned any use of historical reference; the steel-and-glass buildings of Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe and Le Corbusier embodied this style. In the mid-to-late 20th century this style
manifested itself in clean-lined, unadorned glass skyscrapers and mass housing projects.

EXAMPLES:

AMERICAN GOTHIC BY GRANT WOOD

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
American Gothic is a painting by American artist Grant Wood in 1930. Shown is a farmer
and his spinster daughter in front of their house. The models on the painting were Wood’s
sister, Nan, wearing a colonial print apron mimicking 19th century Americana, and Wood’s
dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby from Iowa.
Wood painted the house along with the people he imagined might live there. The house
actually exists in Eldon, Iowa. It was built in the American Gothic style. The models never
sat in front of the house, and each element was painted separately. The painting measures
29.25 inches by 24.5 inches, which is equivalent to 74.3 cm by 62.4 cm.
The painting is obviously fictional in many ways. First, it has a 19th century theme painted in
the 20th century. Second, the title itself refers to the architecture of the house, with the artist
taking liberty to add the type of people he believed who may live there. The house’s medieval
style window looks like one you may find at a church, in fact the potted plants on the porch
and the decorative blind distinguishes the wooden house from a church.

NIGHTHAWKS, 1942 BY EDWARD HOPPER

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Nighthawks are 1942 painting by Edward Hopper that portrays people sitting in a downtown
diner late at night. It is Hopper's most famous work and is one of the most recognizable
paintings in American art. Within months of its completion, it was sold to the Art Institute of
Chicago for $3,000, and has remained there ever since. Starting shortly after their marriage in
1924, Edward Hopper and his wife, Josephine (Jo), kept a journal in which he would, using a
pencil, make a sketch-drawing of each of his paintings, along with a precise description of
certain technical details. Jo Hopper would then add additional information in which the
themes of the painting are, to some degree, illuminated. For one thing, the diner's plate-glass
windows cause far more light to spill out onto the sidewalk and the brownstones on the far
side of the street than is true in any of his other paintings. As well, this interior light comes
from more than a single lightbulb, with the result that multiple shadows are cast, and some
spots are brighter than others as a consequence of being lit from more than one angle. Across
the street, the line of shadow caused by the upper edge of the diner window is clearly visible

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towards the top of the painting. These windows and the ones below them as well, are partly
lit by an unseen streetlight, which projects its own mix of light and shadow.
B. MODERN STYLES

 REALISM

It is a style of painting practiced before the invention of the camera, where artists depicted
landscapes and humans with as much attention to detail and precision as possible. The
artist’s primary goal is to describe accurately and truthfully as possible what is observed.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Realism was an artistic movement that began in France in the 1850s, following the 1848
Revolution. Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated French literature and art
since the late 18th century, revolting against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated
emotionalism of the movement. Instead, Realists sought to portray “real” contemporary
people and situations with truth and accuracy, including all the unpleasant or sordid aspects
of life. Realist works depicted people of all classes in ordinary life situations, which often
reflected the changes brought on by the Industrial and Commercial Revolutions.
The Realists depicted everyday subjects and situations in contemporary settings, and
attempted to depict individuals of all social classes in a similar manner. Classical idealism,
Romantic emotionalism, and drama were avoided equally, and often sordid or untidy
elements of subjects were showcased somewhat, as opposed to being beautified or omitted.
Social realism emphasized the depiction of the working class and treated working class
people with the same seriousness as other classes in art. Realism also aimed to avoid
artificiality in the treatment of human relations and emotions; treatments of subjects in a
heroic or sentimental manner were rejected. Important figures in the Realist art movement
were Gustave Courbet, Honore Daumier, and Jean-Francois Millet.
Realism was an artistic movement that began in France in the 1850s, after the 1848
Revolution. The movement arose in opposition to Romanticism, which had dominated French
literature and art since the late 18th century. Realism revolted against the exotic subject
matter and exaggerated emotionalism and drama typical of the Romantic movement. In favor
of depictions of real life, Realist painters often depicted common laborers, and ordinary
people in ordinary surroundings engaged in real activities as subjects for their works. The
chief exponents of Realism were Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, Honoré Daumier,
and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
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 A BURIAL AT ORNANS (1849) BY GUSTAVE COURBET
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
In France, the year 1848 witnessed the overthrow of King Louis Philippe and the June Days
Uprising. Little had changed since the French Revolution of 1789, and workers took to the
streets in protest. Against this backdrop, Gustave Courbet was developing a radical new style
of modern art that venerated the working man and his environment. Known as Realism, this
new style of French painting challenged the conventions of academic art - the traditional style
of painting taught by the Ecole des Beaux Arts and promoted by the French Academy - by
placing the lives of ordinary working men and women on a par with highbrow subjects such
as classical mythology, heroic historical events, formal portraiture and picturesque or
dramatic scenery. Instead of these supposedly sophisticated subjects, Courbet painted
unidealized workers and peasants in mundane scenes of everyday urban or rural life, often on
the sort of grand scale normally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects.
Against a background of social unrest, many art critics were outraged by Courbet's radically
new aesthetics and the left-wing philosophy behind them. Unlike the placid certainties of
Victorian art, and the nostalgia of the German Biedermeier Style (1810-60), French art was
marked by a number of conflicting movements - including Classicism (Ingres), Romanticism
(Delacroix), Orientalism (Jean–Leon Gerome), Realism (Courbet) and Naturalism (Theodore
Rousseau) - out of which would emerge French Impressionism and other major styles of
modern art. For more background, see: Realism to Impressionism (1830-1900). For more
about Courbet's art, see his later masterpiece: The Artist's Studio - A Real Allegory (1855,
Musee d'Orsay, Paris).

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 DR. SAMUEL D. GROSS (THE GROSS CLINIC)
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The Gross Clinic is recognized as one of the greatest American paintings ever made. The
young and little-known Eakins created it specifically for Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial
Exhibition, intending to showcase his talents as an artist and to honor the scientific
achievements of his native Philadelphia.
Choosing the city’s world-famous surgeon and teacher Dr. Samuel Gross as his subject,
Eakins sets the scene in Jefferson Medical College’s surgical amphitheater. Dr. Gross is
shown leading a clinic of five doctors operating on the left thigh of a patient. At the same
time Gross is demonstrating to students the relatively new surgical procedure he had
developed to treat bone infections. In contrast to the recoiling woman to the left—
traditionally identified as the patient’s mother—Gross embodies the confidence that comes
from knowledge and experience. Casting himself as a witness, Eakins can be seen seated to
the right of the tunnel railing, sketching or writing.
The artist’s plan to promote himself and the city of Philadelphia faltered, however, when the
fair’s art jury rejected The Gross Clinic, perhaps deeming the subject too bloody and brutal
for display in the art building. The painting appeared instead in a model US army field
hospital exhibit, provoking one art critic to comment in the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph
(June 16, 1876), “There is nothing so fine in the American section of the Art Department of
the Exhibition and it is a great pity that the squeamishness of the Selection Committee
compelled the artist to find a place in the United States Hospital Building.”
The subject shocked viewers unused to seeing such a frightening event depicted in such
realistic detail. Bright red blood colors the surgeon’s fingers and scalpel, and the gaping
incision is fascinating, repulsive, and confusing because it is so hard to read the position of
the patient’s body. Although some viewers admired Eakins’s command of composition,
color, and detail, and praised his convincing creation of form and space, many were repelled
by what was considered ugly and inartistic realism.

 SYMBOLISM

It is an art that represents the subject symbolically. For instance, the “Spolarium” painting
of Juan Luna depicts the suffering of the Filipino people from the hands of the Spaniards.

18
Many works of art included by some writers who cover the Symbolist era were produced in
the middle of the century, or even before.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Symbolism first appeared as a literary movement that opposed rationalism and materialism
that dominated Western culture in the late 19th century. The beginnings of the movement can
be traced back to 1886 when writer Jean Moreas published his famous Symbolist Manifesto.
The manifesto proclaimed that every person, natural element and object should be used to
represent a symbol of a deeper idea or emotion. Moreas believed that, rather than replicating
reality, artists should suggest it with symbols. Though it began as a literary movement,
Symbolism was quickly adopted by a group of young visual artists who followed its rules.
Symbolists’ artworks are marked with unpopulated colors, broad brushwork and flat, abstract
forms. It's important to mention that Symbolists were a loose group of artists who had
different artistic styles and techniques. But they all emphasized the importance of
imagination and emotions over realism and rationalism, which made them members of the
Symbolists movement.
And while Gustave Moreau painted detailed ornamental paintings inspired by mythology,
Odilon Redon painted surrealist black and white drawings of body parts. James Ensor created
a unique style based on grotesque, distorted figures. The art of Gustav Klimt and Edvard
Munch combined Symbolism with Art Nouveau and Expressionism.

EXAMPLES:

THE CRYING SPIDER BY ODILON REDON

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Redon drew The Crying Spider in 1881 when he was 41 years old. A dedicated but unsung
artist for the previous decade, Redon worked in almost exclusively in charcoal, switching
occasionally to lithography to reproduce his drawings in albums. His 1879 album Dans le
Rêve, In The Dream, had won him minor acclaim but at the time of the Spider he was still
largely unknown.

19
The spider itself is a perfect example of the contrasting feelings Redon's work invokes—a
pendulous, hairy body crouches under eleven spindly legs, each rendered quickly and with
little detail. Emerging from the unsettling thorax is a human face. It's a disquieting
juxtaposition that could be used to shock or disgust, but Redon's sensitive, detailed rendered
of the face invites sympathy instead. A broad nose, wide almond eyes looking upward, and a
wreath of dark bristle-brush hair. It is not a face contorted with rage or pain, and the single
tear on its cheek is one of gentle sadness.
Redon drew monsters, but they are monsters that feel deeply, and while they float most often
alone, viewed together they invite us into a surprisingly quiet, sweet-natured dreamworld
that's difficult to leave, and impossible to forget. Redon described this world as his own
retreat, saying:
“I have often, as an exercise and as a sustenance, painted before an object down to the
smallest accidents of its visual appearance; but the day left me sad and with an unsatiated
thirst. The next day I let the other source run, that of imagination, through the recollection of
the forms and I was then reassured and appeased.”

YOUNG WOMAN ON THE BEACH, 1896 BY EDVARD MUNCH

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Edvard Munch first used this figure of a solitary woman standing on a shoreline in a painting
of 1891-92 known as The Lonely Ones. Although this early painting has been lost, the
significance of the subject was such that he revisited it throughout his life in both painted and
printed form. In these versions the woman is accompanied by the figure of a man, who stands
apart and slightly behind her. The physical distance between the two figures and their pensive
body language suggest lovers who have argued and this the fragile moment where
reconciliation is either effected, or love lost. Munch's fraught view of the relationship
between the genders is paralleled in the isolated setting in which he places his lovers; the
infinite, restless interactions between tide and shoreline a potent metaphor for their mutual

20
need and yet more profound incompatibility. Young Girl on the Beach is a gentler meditation
on loneliness. The man is removed from the scene, and our gaze rests solely on the fragile
figure of the girl, lost in a reverie as she looks out to sea. Whereas The Lonely Ones evokes
the very particular experience of isolation in human relationships, Young Girl on the Beach is
more enigmatic. With her back turned to us she appears calm and composed, her white dress
shimmering in the wan light, her hair gently waving in an evening breeze. The absence of any
visible horizon emphasizes the enormity of the natural world which surrounds her,
heightening our sense of her fragility and of the precariousness of life.
The print was made in Paris in 1896, an intensive period of printmaking in which Munch
produced some of his great prints, including a small group of burnished aquatints of which
Young Girl on the Beach is the masterpiece. Using zinc plates pre-prepared with aquatint the
image was made in the manner of a mezzotint, with delicately modulated highlights scraped
into the aquatint with a burnisher. After 1897 Munch never worked in the medium again and
his colour aquatints are amongst his rarest and most sought after graphics.

 FAUVISM

It refers to art that used brilliant primary colors or color illumination on subjects like
pictures to emphasize comfort, joy, and leisure. It comes from the French word fauves,
meaning “wild beasts” (this name refers to a small group of painters in Paris who
exhibited works notable for the bold and expressive use of pure color).
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Fauvism was the first of the avant-garde movements that flourished in France in the early
years of the twentieth century. The Fauve painters were the first to break with Impressionism
as well as with older, traditional methods of perception. Their spontaneous, often subjective
response to nature was expressed in bold, undisguised brushstrokes and high-keyed, vibrant
colors directly from the tube.
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) and André Derain (1880–1954) introduced unnaturalistic color
and vivid brushstrokes into their paintings in the summer of 1905, working together in the
small fishing port of Collioure on the Mediterranean coast (1975.1.194; 1982.179.29). When
their pictures were exhibited later that year at the Salon d’Automne in Paris (Matisse, The
Woman with a Hat, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), they inspired the witty critic

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Louis Vauxcelles to call them fauves (“wild beasts”) in his review for the magazine Gil Blas.
This term was later applied to the artists themselves.
The Fauves were a loosely shaped group of artists sharing a similar approach to nature, but
they had no definitive program. Their leader was Matisse, who had arrived at the Fauve style
after earlier experimenting with the various Post-Impressionist styles of Van Gogh, Gauguin,
and Cézanne, and the Neo-Impressionism of Seurat, Cross, and Signac. These influences
inspired him to reject traditional three-dimensional space and seek instead a new picture
space defined by the movement of color planes (1999.363.38; 1999.363.41).
The Fauvist movement has been compared to German Expressionism, both projecting
brilliant colors and spontaneous brushwork, and indebted to the same late nineteenth-century
sources, especially the work of Vincent van Gogh. The French were more concerned with the
formal aspects of pictorial organization, while the German Expressionists were more
emotionally involved in their subjects.

EXAMPLES:

LUXE, CALME ET VOLUPTÉ, 1904 BY HENRI MATISSE

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Luxe, Calme et Volupté takes its name from the refrain of Charles Baudelaire's poem,
Invitation to a Voyage (1857), in which a man invites his lover to travel with him to paradise.
The painting shares the poem's subject: escape to an imaginary, tranquil refuge.
From late 1899, Matisse spent a great deal of time in the museums, but also in avantgarde
galleries such as Ambroise Vollard's, wherein 1899 he bought a drawing by Van Gogh, a
painting by Gauguin ('Young Man with Tiare Flower'), and Paul Cezanne's Three Bathers.
From 1900 to 1904, Cezanne was a decisive influence on Matisse, and over the years, Three
Bathers remained an immense inspiration and affirmation to Matisse.
In 1904, Henri Matisse participated in a joint show at the Salon d'Automne (founded in 1903)
and in 1904 had his first solo exhibition at Ambroise Vollard's gallery. In 1905 at the Salon
des Independants he exhibited the painting Luxe, Calme et Volupté, which was promptly

22
bought by Paul Signac. Matisse had got to know Signac one summer in St. Tropez, and had
read his book 'From Eugene Delacroix to Neo Impressionism' as early as 1898 or 1899
Signac's method of analyzing colour appealed to Matisse, and he adopted it as a means of
modeling light through colour. For his conception he was indebted to Three Bathers of Paul
Cezanne, but his use of colour was an analytic separation into small planes. If Matisse had
hoped that this mosaic approach would create a new unity of effect he was to be
disappointed, and himself wrote: "Breaking up colour leads to the breaking-up of form and
outline. What you are left with is an all-too-apparent surface, nothing but a tease of the retina
that destroys the repose of surface and outline."
The forms in the painting - the figures, tree, bush, sea and sky - are created from spots of
color, jabs of the brush that build up the picture. Matisse favored discrete strokes of color that
emphasized the painted surface rather than a realistic scene. He also used a palette of pure,
high-pitched primary colors (blue, green, yellow, and orange) to render the landscape, and
then outlined the figures in blue.
Matisse said, "What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling
or depressing subject matter." Matisse wasn't interested in conflict or politics. This is an early
painting by Matisse, and yet the idea of balance and serenity found here would remain a
consistent theme in his work throughout the next 50 years.

MAURICE DE VLAMINCK (FRENCH, 1876–1958) THE RIVER SEINE AT

CHATOU, 1906
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Born in Paris to a Flemish father and a French mother, Vlaminck grew up in a musical
household that was virtually impoverished. At the age of sixteen, he left home and moved to
Chatou, where he later supported his wife and two children by working as a professional
cyclist and an itinerant violinist. Although now considered a suburb of Paris, Chatou was then
a small village situated to the west, along the Seine. Opposite it lies the Île de Chatou, a long,
narrow stretch of land in the center of the river. The scene shown here appears to have been
observed from a point on the island facing the village of Chatou, with its red-roofed houses,
on the mainland. Vlaminck shared a studio on the island with fellow artist André Derain in
1900. Together, they formed what has been called the "School of Chatou," and their painting
style—characterized by bright colors and bold brushstrokes—was a harbinger of Fauvism.

23
The self-taught Vlaminck embraced painting with the same unbridled passion as he did life
itself, spontaneously choosing the most straightforward forms and basic hues to express his
feelings: "I try to paint with my heart and my guts without worrying about style." After the
Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard purchased Vlaminck's existing stock of paintings early
in 1906, the artist was able to devote himself fully to painting, and his work became more
lighthearted and exuberant. He spent the summer of 1906 in and around Chatou, painting
pictures such as this one, in which he emulated the undisguised brushwork and intuitive
application of paint of Van Gogh's late, expressive style, which he so admired. Combining
the primary colors of blue and red with white, Vlaminck applied them directly from the tube
in daubs and swirls of pigment, employing these conventional hues for the white houses,
green leaves, reddish-orange tree trunks, and the blue, red, and white trawler in the
background.

 CUBISM

It is a form of abstraction wherein the object is first reduced to cubes and then flattened
into two-dimensional shapes. It has been considered the most influential and powerful art
movement during the 20th century in Paris established by Georges Braque and Pablo
Picasso.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque first met in 1905, but it wasn’t until 1907 that Picasso
showed Braque what is considered the first Cubist painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. This
portrait of five prostitutes draws heavy influence from African tribal art, which Picasso had
recently been exposed to at the Palais du Trocadéro, a Paris ethnographic museum.
Breaking nearly every rule of traditional Western painting, the work was such a huge leap
from his previous blue and pink periods, which were far more representational and emotional.
Picasso was hesitant to display the work to the public, and it went unseen until 1916.
Braque, who painted in the Fauvist movement, was both repelled and intrigued by the
painting. Picasso worked with him privately on the implications of the piece, developing
together the Cubist form. Braque is the only artist to ever collaborate with Picasso, and over a
period of two years, they spent every evening together, with neither artist pronouncing a
finished work until agreed on by the other.

24
Braque’s response to Picasso’s initial work was his 1908 painting Large Nude, noted for
incorporating the techniques of Paul Cézanne as a sobering influence. Thus began the first era
of Cubism, known as Analytical Cubism, which was defined by depictions of a subject from
multiple vantage points at once, creating a fractured, multi-dimensional effect expressed
through a limited palette of colors.
The term Cubism was first used by French critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908 to describe
Braque’s landscape paintings. Painter Henri Matisse had previously described them to
Vauxcelles as looking comprised of cubes. The term wasn’t widely used until the press
adopted it to describe the style in 1911.
In 1909, Picasso and Braque redirected their focus from humans to objects to keep Cubism
fresh, as with Braque’s Violin and Palette.

EXAMPLES:

VIOLIN AND CANDLESTICK BY GEORGES BRAQUE

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
George Braque was a French sculptor and painter and known as one of the co-founders of the
cubism movement along with Picasso. The painting uses disjointed images to create variable
viewpoints.
It is painted in a monochrome style using various shades which Barque believed would
accentuate the subject matter.
In places it is clear what the subject is supposed to be while other parts are a lot harder to
decipher, the method used gave the painting a three dimensional feel and Braque described
his style as “a technique for getting closer to the object” It is said that Braque had an
fascination for order and method and wanted the audiences mind to travel around without
restrictions within the painting.

25
To achieve his desired result Braque would heavily crowd the objects at the centre of frame.
In his early career Braque was remarkably ground-breaking, producing works using collage,
printmaking and sculpture. Braque also found the primitive art style influential.
Paul Cezanne was a significant influence on Braque which led him to create a type of Cubist
painting in landscapes. He then worked with Picasso and the two of them began painting in
the style of Analytical Cubism and would later go on to create Synthetic Cubism.
Braque enlisted in the French army in 1914 ending the pairs working relationship. in 1915 he
got injured in World War 1 and it took him nearly two years to fully recover.
Braque never really took to being a big personality in the art world and would much prefer
spending solitary phases in his workshop. Braque died in Paris in 1963 aged 81.
Violin and Candlestick is currently on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

THE OLD GUITARIST, 1903 BY PABLO PICASSO

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The Old Guitarist was painted in 1903, just after the suicide death of Picasso's close friend,
Casagemas. During this time, the artist was sympathetic to the plight of the downtrodden and
painted many canvases depicting the miseries of the poor, the ill, and those cast out of
society. He too knew what it was like to be impoverished, having been nearly penniless
during all of 1902. This work was created in Madrid, and the distorted style (note that the
upper torso of the guitarist seems to be reclining, while the bottom half appears to be sitting
cross-legged) is reminiscent of the works of El Greco.
This bent and sightless man holds close to him a large, round guitar. Its brown body
represents the painting's only shift in color. Both physically and symbolically, the instrument

26
fills the space around the solitary figure, who seems oblivious to his blindness and poverty as
he plays. At the time the painting was made, literature of the Symbolist movement included
blind characters who possessed powers of inner vision. The thin, skeleton-like figure of the
blind musician also has roots in art from Picasso's native country, Spain. The old man's
elongated limbs and cramped, angular posture recall the figures of the great 16th-century
artist El Greco.
A perfect companion piece is Wallace Stevens's poem, "The Man with the Blue Guitar." The
poet puts words to Picasso's belief that art is the lie to help us see the truth. Stevens writes:
"They said, 'You have a blue guitar, / You do not play things as they are.' / The man replied,
'Things as they are / Are changed upon the blue guitar.'" As a metaphor for the need to
immerse oneself fully in one's grief in order to heal, Denise Levertov's poem, Talking to
Grief is also apropos.

 SURREALISM.

It is a type of art wherein the artist creates dreamlike paintings that filled with mysterious
objects. It is the opposite of abstraction that attempts to portray the conscious mind
through unconventional means.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Surrealism is an artistic movement that has had a lasting impact on painting, sculpture,
literature, photography and film. Surrealists—inspired by Sigmund Freud’s theories of
dreams and the unconscious—believed insanity was the breaking of the chains of logic, and
they represented this idea in their art by creating imagery that was impossible in reality,
juxtaposing unlikely forms onto unimaginable landscapes. Though it waned as an organized
movement, Surrealism has never disappeared as a creative artistic principle.
Surrealism officially began with Dadaist writer André Breton’s 1924 Surrealist manifesto, but
the movement formed as early as 1917, inspired by the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, who
captured street locations with a hallucinatory quality.
After 1917, de Chirico abandoned that style, but his influence reached the Surrealists through
German Dadaist Max Ernst. Ernst moved to Paris in 1922 as the Dada movement ended and
was crucial to the beginning of Surrealism, especially because of his collage work at the time.

27
The disorientating illogic of Ernst’s collages fueled Breton’s imagination as he became more
entrenched in Sigmund Freud’s ideas.

EXAMPLES:

JOAN MIRÓ – HARLEQUIN’S CARNIVAL (1924 – 1925)

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Harlequin’s Carnival, painted between 1924 – 1925, is perhaps Miró’s most recognizable
artwork, a raucous celebration of life, with all sorts of shapes floating and bouncing around.
The carnival we’re witnessing is supposed to be Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”, in French), the
Christian celebration before the Lent, when people eat rich, fatty food, before giving up
animal products until Easter.
Poet André Breton, a leading figure of Surrealism, had designated Miró “the most surrealist
of them all” and Harlequin’s Carnival stands proof to the Catalan’s talent. There is a deluge
of imagination in this painting, of unrecognizable, almost cartoonish, biomorphic shapes
splattered all over, as if the artist had somehow managed to turn on the tap of his
subconscious.
And yet, in spite of all this randomness and chaos, there is some symbolism to what we’re
looking at. Let’s start with the Harlequin himself. You may have missed him initially,
because he doesn’t truly look the part. Now, look to the left from the center of the painting,
where you see the elongated white shape with a blue-red ball as a head. The Harlequin,
represented as a guitar with a very long neck, unveils his identity with the presence of the
checkered pattern on his chest. His eyes look very sad, and that might have something to do
with the hole in his stomach. It’s known that, at the time, Miró was a struggling artist in Paris,
barely managing to get money for food. The more you look at the Harlequin, the more
humane he seems, with his long mustache, smoking pipe, collar and tie, arms and feet.

28
To the left, we have a long ladder, a motif that Miró used later on in his career as well.
Signaling his fear of being trapped, the ladder is a tool that provides him with the escape he
longs for. The presence of an eye and an ear next to the ladder, suggests that in order to
escape, he must use his senses.
Now, if we look at the window to the right, that black triangle is likely to show us the Eiffel
Tower, a view that Miró admired in his city of dreams. Below the window, the dark green
sphere is said to symbolize the Catalan’s ambitions in conquering the world with his art.
Music, present at all celebrations, is suggested by the small guitar and the musical notes on
the wall, left from the window. There are many other fascinating elements to this painting,
some looking like insects, while others are reminiscent of party decorations.

FOREST AND DOVE, 1927 - BY MAX ERNST

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Max Ernst created Forest and Dove in 1927. It depicts a nocturnal scene of a forest of bizarre,
abstract trees. In the thick of the forest is a childlike depiction of a dove.
Both the forest and dove themes have appeared several times in Ernst's works. Max Ernst was
haunted from childhood by a feeling of enchantment and terror induced by the all-enveloping
atmosphere of the forest near which he was born.
This painting has a heavily textured and three-dimensional appearance. This is owed to a
technique called grattage. Grattage was invented by Ernst and the Spanish surrealist Joan
Miro. This technique involves scraping the paint across the canvas so that the paint takes on
the imprints of objects placed beneath the canvas.
Following his discovery of the technique of Grattage in 1925 he made many paintings in
which he explored these hallucinations. Some of the pictures in this series include the rising
or setting sun; this is one of a number in which the only sign of life is a solitary bird.

29
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30
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