Gauguin Where Do We Come From What Are We Where Are We Going
-Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
-Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
-1897
-Oil on Canvas, 5 feet by 12 feet
-Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?, is the self-acclaimed masterpiece of Paul Gauguins’ career. It represents the culmination of his ideas and beliefs that he acquired throughout his life as a painter. Many visual characteristics of the painting, such as the color, line, and light are unrealistic in nature, but serve to emphasize the tropical surroundings in which Gauguin loved to paint. Although the organization of the characters in this lush jungle clearing seem random, Gauguin intended this work to be “read” from right to left as if it was a story book describing the evolution of man.
The use of unique color in Where do we come from? is the most visible attribute of the painting. The background is comprised of intersecting layers of shades of blue and green, which act as a backdrop for the more intense colors in the foreground. The ground plane is made up of a mixture of dirt and rock, which disappears in an area of muddled color. Due to the drastic change in color between the surroundings and the characters, it is as if they have been superimposed onto the painting. Each character is unique in composition, but similar in tone. Gauguin uses an unrealistic mix of peach and earthy brown to represent skin. In some places an orange glow reflects off of the bodies, which is heavily accentuated on the central figure. On other figures, the skin tone is dull and almost blends into the ground color. Dark brown hair color is standard throughout the entire work as well as the use of white loin clothes and robes.
These color schemes hold true for most of the painting, but some exceptions are notable. At each end of the work the outermost character is considerably darker in skin tone than the others. It seems as if they are being shunned from the rest of the crowd because of their body language. The woman on the far right has her back to us as if she is trying to see what the others are doing, and the woman on the far left is holding her head in her hands as if she is upset about something. Another exception to the common coloring themes is the woman to the right of the idol in the distance. Unlike all of the other char...
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... apparent how much Gauguin had concentrated on this idea throughout his career.
I found Where Do We Come From? to be an inspiring piece of art. As I learned more and more about the artist and the individual painting, it began to make more sense. It is a beautifully orchestrated piece, which delves into questions that people are faced with in everyday life. Questions concerning birth, death, and life after death, are confronted, and Gauguin shows his feelings by expressing it in his art. It is a passionate expression of his deepest inner emotions and beliefs.
Bibliography
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Hunter, Jacobus, Wheeler, eds. Modern Art: Painting Sculpture Architecture. New York: Vendome Press, 2000
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Rewald, John. Post-Impressionism: From Van Gogh to Gauguin. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1978.
Royal Academy of Arts. Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European Painting. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979-80.
Thomson, Belinda. Gauguin by Himself. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993.
DeWitte, Debra J. et al. Gateways To Art. New York City, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2012. Print.
"An Artists's Life." Litzmann, Berthold. An Artist's Life. New York: Da Capo Press, 1979. 532. Book.
Most people know Leonardo da Vinci as only the painter of the Mona Lisa, but he did much, much more. He was born on April 15, 1452. There are many misconceptions about Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci was a Humanist who regularly challenged the church. Da Vinci is arguably the smartest man to live in his time.
Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest minds of his time. Most will remember him for his many masterpieces including The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and The Vitruvian Man. But he did more than just draw works of art; he was also an inventor and a mathematician who studied a large variety of subjects. Leonardo’s life is more fascinating than any one man could imagine. He may be dead, but his work still lives on.
"Modern art." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2011. Web. 02 Dec. 2011. .
Leonardo was born April 15, 1452 he was the son of Ser Piero and Caterina. Leonardo's father was a landlord, and his mother was a peasant and they both were not married at the time. Leonardo lived with his father and had an education. Later on his father moved the family to Florence( Heydenreich). At the age of 15 Leonardo was showing that he was a great painter. In 1467 he became an apprentist to Andrea Del Verrochio a very well known artist during that time period. He became a member of Verrochio's workshop where he received an education in a huge variety of areas.(Giorgio). In another workshop of Antonio Pollaiuolo, Leonardo studied anatomy, and animals. He was accepted into painters guild in Florence. An early work by Leonardo was an angel painting for the Baptism of Christ artwork.After Verrochio viewed the artwork he thought it was time for Leonardo to move on and do other things. Later on Leonardo became an independent painer and later moved to Milan where he worked for Ludovico Sforza. During that time Leonardo created one of his most famous artworks The Last Supper. Later on his career he became a journalist in which he would write down his obeservations , and findings. His notes showed that he knew about how rocks were formed.He was also fascinated with fossils and how to make tunnels through mountains.(Weingardt ).Years ...
The exclusionary rule evolved in U.S. law through a series of Supreme Court cases. Since 1914, the Supreme Court has been concerned with the use of illegal means by which the police seize evidence in violation of the constitution and then convict a defendant in court.
Leonardo da Vinci is perhaps the most famous artist of all time. Leonardo da Vinci was born April 15, 1452 in Florence, Italy. He was born out-of-wedlock to the wealthy father, Piero da Vinci, and peasant mother, Caterina. Little is known about Leonardo da Vinci’s early life, but he did receive an informal education where he mastered the subjects of Latin, mathematics, and geometry. As the years, progressed Leonardo became a master of his craft. Leonardo da Vinci pottered in the fields of sculpting, geology, engineering, music, architect, anatomy, cartography, writing, painting, and plant biology. Leonardo da Vinci was the ultimate Italian Renaissance polymath. Some of Leonardo da Vinci most notable works include The Last Supper, The Vitruvian Man, Lady with an Ermine, and Mona Lisa. Leonardo da Vinci worked on dozens of other projects, but with his broad expertise, he was only inclined to finish around six pieces. Arguably, one of Leonardo’s best pieces is the Mona Lisa painting. The Mona Lisa painting is not admired solely for its beauty, but its breakthrough technicality in the art world and its ability to keep the mind wondering what Leonardo da Vinci was trying to communicate to his viewers.
1. Hunter, Sam and Jacobs, John. Modern Art, 3rd Edition. The Vendome Press, New York, 1992.
The Exclusionary rule requires that any evidence taken into custody be obtained by police using methods that violates an individual constitutional rights must be excluded from use in a criminal prosecution against that individual. This rule is judicially imposed and arose relatively recently in the development of the U.S. legal system. Under the common law, the seizure of evidence by illegal means did not affect its admission in court. Any evidence, however obtained, was admitted as long as it satisfied other evidentiary criteria for admissibility, such as relevance and trustworthiness. The exclusionary rule was developed in 1914 and applied to the case of Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, and was limited to a prohibition on the use of evidence illegally obtain by federal law enforcement officers. Not until 1949, in the caw of Wolf v. Colorado, 38 U.S. 25, 27-28, did the U.S. Supreme Court take the first step toward applying the exclusionary rule to the states by ruling that the Fourth Amendment was applicable to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which states: the security of one’s privacy against arbitrary intrusion by the police-which is at the core of the Fourth Amendment- is basic to a free society. It is therefore implicit in the “concept of ordered liberty” and as such enforceable against the States through the Due Process Clause.
In conclusion we can see that even worlds apart artists can still find inspiration from unlikely subject matter. Watteau’s from the theater. Picasso’s from the street. Both artists not only showed their era in their art but also themselves and others. Even when it comes to entertainment it seems that not artist can escape the idea of shaping their own worlds into their piece of art. As well, both also showed not only the similarities but also differences of their era and how art was viewed.
DeWitte, Debra J. Gateways To Art. (2012). New York: New York. Thames & Hudson . 244. Print.
In a small town near Florence called Vinci, on the 15th of April, 1452 Piero Da Vinci, and a peasant girl, Caterina bore a son who would become the start of a new era, the Renaissance. Leonardo Da Vinci was a illegitimate son this meant that he could not have a prestigious position such as a notary or a doctor. In a sense this was in his favour as he had the chance of perusing his own interests. Da Vinci was born in the Province of Florence. At the time Da Vinci was born, Florence had become a fast growing city, which was wealthy enough to fund many acknowledged craftsmen. This gave Da Vinci the chance to become the apprentice of the famous artist, goldsmith and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. Verrocchio at that time owned an important workshop in Florence and he shared his workshop with fellow colleagues such as; Domenico Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticello and Lorenzo de Credi. These men would have been scholars in; art, science and engineering. This granted Da Vinci to observe other professional fields of work and to get in contact with the different professions
The colors used in this painting are blue, white, yellow, brown, black, green, light blue. The colors Birch used seem dark in order to relate to the storm. By making it seem dark it really captures the mood of the composition. In general the quality of light in this painting is low.
Barnett, Peter. “The French Revolution in Art”. ArtId, January 7th 2009. Web. 5th May 2013.