Preview

Analyzing Thomas Cole's 'Genesee Scenery'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
Artist Deconstruction Thomas Cole was a leader in landscape painting during the first half of the nineteenth century. Cole painted many landscapes, but the one that drew me in the most was the Genesee Scenery. My first impression of the painting was that it was beautiful, but as I looked closer I saw visual cues within the color, form, depth, and movement. The deconstruction of Genesee Scenery will explain how the physiology on the eye helped me to see the four visual cues. Genesee Scenery, at first glance is a beautiful landscape painting with green rolling hills, trees, rock cliffs, and a bridge crossing over a flowing waterfall. With using the four visual clues: color, form, depth, and movement, the painting seems to come alive even more. According to Dictionary.com color is defined as the quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by the object, usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation, and brightness of the reflected light, saturation or chroma. At looking at Genesee …show more content…

(Lester, 2006) “Leonardo da Vinci proposed that there were six primary colors and showed that by mixing those six colors in the form of paints in varying degrees, all the other colors capable of being seen by a normal human eye could be created.” (Lester, 2006) You can see that Cole mixed the colors within in themselves to create the different variations of the colors. The human eye is able to see color because of never fibers in the retina and explains how it physically sees color; the theory is known as the Young-Helmholtz theory. (Lester, 2006) Color can be defined into three methods, objective method, comparative method, and subjective method. Objective method is described by accurate measurements of the color’s wavelength and unique temperature. (Lester, 2006) Blues and greens, which are the majority of the colors within

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The variation of colors he used created an outstanding display of nature that I never thought possible. I believe his purpose was to create imagery, an illusion to the audience, as if they were looking into the American West, through his painting. The entity of light was the key element of this painting. The form of a fine white line amid a mass of water allowed the separation of the earth and the heavens. What is intriguing about the painting is that as quickly as the earth and heaves were separated, the two joined once again at the same location. The reflection of the lake elaborated on the purity of the water and the richness of life. The contrast of dark and light colors served a great importance in his painting.…

    • 679 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Franklin Carmichael’s “Hilltops” is a 25.4 x 30.4 cm oil on panel painted in 1943 located in the Art Gallery of Ontario. The painting is a depiction of a landscape consisting of rolling hills in the foreground and middle ground and sky with an overcast of clouds. Carmichael used flat areas of colour, bold horizontal lines, and simplification of objects that instils a sense of stability. In contrast, his use of thick, distinguishable lines, bright blue tones in the sky that is starkly juxtaposed with sullen grey clouds, as well as the mix of cool and warm colours of the hilltops in the foreground and middle…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ridge and gully in afternoon light is a distorted and strangely set out view of the traditions of a ‘regular’ landscape. The viewing area we are given is dominated by blended sections of different viewing perspectives filled with strangely shaped trees of varying different shapes, colour’s and sizes. All objects in the painting,…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Based on traditional landscape painting methods, Cropsey made clear observation of different landscapes of nature and drew sketches of them. He then combined them to create a larger, composite landscape painting. Here, we can see that he presents a Romantic panoramic landscape view in his canvas and organized spatial recession in this landscape with the use of light and color. The painting can almost be divided into three main parts: a dark foreground, a bright middle ground and a translucent background. In the foreground, he depicts the wilderness in a dark tone. In the center, Cropsey uses a warm golden yellow to brighten the cultivated hay fields of the family farm. Not only it creates a contrast with the dark surrounding wilderness, but it also was a recognizable style of the artist’s time. With that said, we can tell that this painting has a relative clarity, and that Cropsey might intend to make a focus upon the things in the middle. To recede the viewer’s eyes to the background, Cropsey uses a lighter and cooler color to portray the objects, for example, the grayish-blue mountains and translucent clouds. It creates an illusion of three-dimensional space and furthers the distance away from the viewer. The brushwork of the painting is evidently loose, which gives a painterly effect. Therefore, we can say that Cropsey depicts the scenery by…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arkansas Barley Fields

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The painting, Arkansas Barley Fields, by Louis Freund is illustrated with a landscape, covered in greenish, brown grass, barleys, dark green trees, sky blue water and mountains. The sky above the mountains is blue with a few clouds, which may indicate that the time of day is evening or afternoon. This painting was made in 1939 and its medium is oil on a board. It is currently being shown at the Arkansas Art Center and measures approximately 18 inches by 24 inches.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Usually when I flip through my art book I come across many beautiful pieces, but when my eyes landed on Thomas Cole’s painting I was blown away. The first thing I did when I came across it was touch the paper because you would believe that you can feel the leaves by the way they are painted, and don’t get me started on the values of green that he used to make the piece one harmonious view of nature. I love everything about this landscape piece because it tells a story and the use of space, line and texture made it seem like it was a realistic scene. Thomas Cole Painted this large piece from sketches that he drew from sitting and observing the looping bend of the Connecticut river from Mount Holyoke.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assignment 5

    • 1021 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I truly enjoyed the paintings of Robert S. Duncanson. To me, Duncanson’s landscape paintings are powerfully attractive to the eye. I find it interesting that he taught himself about art. He did this by lots of studying and copying engravings of famous European paintings. Before long, he was titled the best landscape painter in the west and being the first black to receive international recognition. Duncanson’s first large income came from Nicholas Longworth, who of this time was one of the most wealthiest entrepreneurs in the country and known as one of the most prominent are patrons and abolitionists. Duncanson’s eight murals were rediscovered in the early 1900’s, which were mostly in the style of Hudson River School. Which is a label that was used since the late 1800’s that signifies a group of artists who specialized in landscape paintings. Out of Duncanson’s rediscovered paintings, I liked the salon painting (large-scale history paintings) of Land of the Lotus Eaters from 1861. This was the work that ultimately earned him international fame. This landscape painting portrays a panoramic view of lush tropical land overgrown with delicately rendered exotic…

    • 1021 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This beautiful piece of art was inspired by Yosemite National Park. The nature and wildlife is a beautiful picture to be painted. You cannot see his brush strokes or lines in this painting but you can see how he integrated the colors so well to bring this picture to life to make it look almost real. It too looks like a photograph taken when it is really a painting.…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arthur Wesley Dow’s, Cosmic Cities, Grand Canyon of Arizona, highlights his use of gestural marks, combined perspectives, and color to explore the awe inspiring grandeur of this natural landmark. In addition, he uses strong gestural marks combined with straight color application create a sense of emotion and the sublime, while capturing the immensity of the canyon. His composition is large scale and uses long diagonals and short quick strokes to strengthen the rock formations. There is a prominent use of complementary colors that makes everything pop in contrast to his use of less vibrant colors. The colors evoke a sense of wonder and mystery. There is dominant and clear interest in light reflecting on the rock formations. All of these element…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    High above the broad valley of the Mississippi reposes an expansive and indestructible mansion. The view it possesses is extraordinary. In autumn the valley blazes with gilded trees, swept with scarlet. The winter’s display is scarcely less lovely, for the valley’s forest is wrapped in the finest lace, while in the spring and summer, it alive with song. Along the brim of the valley lies Summit Avenue, lined with a collection of the stateliest homes in the Mid-west. But the grandest of them all is the wide, Romanesque style mansion. The owner of this manor was an “Empire Builder” of the American sort; James J. Hill, Emperor of the northern railroads.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout history, many artists have tried their best to capture the mood of their time period. In 1865, Albert Bierstadt created an incredible art piece named “Looking Down Yosemite Valley”, which illustrates the glorious mountain landscape of the California valley. He was so inspired by what he had seen, he decided to reimagine it by using oil on paperboard. While painting, he chose to make the skies light blue and the plantlife brighter than usual. In addition, he painted the valley mountains larger than everything else in the oil painting to emphasize the valley’s size. Bierstadt showed an unbelievable understanding of light and reflection, which brought the entire piece together. Furthermore, this inspired people to move to California to be able to experience the inspiration for Bierstadt’s artwork and have a better life.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Disegno and Colore

    • 3110 Words
    • 13 Pages

    To grasp and appreciate what colore means we have to travel back to the source, to cinquecento Venice. A city built entirely on top of a lagoon with an atmosphere that is hefty and humid. If one could picture it, it would be unmistakable that the reaction of water, light and dampness would create the illusions of unfocused figures and shapes. Venetian artists were trained, if one could say, with an eye to perceive these ‘receptions of light’. Thus making them more attentive to the change of atmosphere and how this in turn would change how a something would appear - unlike the Florentine artists who preferred to paint figures “more as they knew them to be.”(ibid)…

    • 3110 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Adams was the last and defining figure in the romantic tradition of 19th century american landscape painting and photography. He claimed he wasn’t influenced but consciously or unconsciously he was in the tradition of Thomas Cole. Adams subject matter was the magnificent natural beauty of the west! His vast archive of papers, memorabilia, correspondence, negatives…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Andy Goldsworthy - Paper

    • 1767 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Andy Goldsworthy was born in 1956 in Cheshire England. He was raised in Yorkshire England and attended both Bradford and Lancaster art college from 1974-1978("Andy Goldsworthy - Biography"). I was first introduced to this artist in class the other day when we watched his video “Rivers and Tides”. During the opening scene of the video Goldsworthy discussed a very unique obsession with the shape of winding rivers. The way that he talked about these rivers and their mere existence in nature was unlike anything I have ever encountered before…. I understand that the purpose of this writing assignment is to focus on one artist, and one single work of art the artist created. I regret to inform you that I have decided to stray from the guidelines you have provided for us in an attempt to challenge my own understanding of true art, and the beauty that is flushed through your body when you encounter it. I have struggled through most of the semester to connect with you and the other classmates while discussing art. It is not because I am an arrogant person; it is because I had to find my own meaning and place of belonging in the art world. I am a firm believer that until you make a true personal connection with art you can never gaze upon it the way that I saw you did every day. In order to become truly passionate about art, you have to grasp its concept and what it means to you and you alone. It took me a while to realize that what you are expected to think or know about a particular piece of art makes no difference. It is what you can pull together, understand, and make meaning of for yourself. Understanding and appreciating art goes very far past the physical world. I used to think that if I assimilated myself to merely looking at art and learning about its history and more technical features I would get it. I was terribly wrong; art goes far beyond the physical world.…

    • 1767 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Colors fall into the secondary qualities category, according to Locke. Locke defined quality as the power to produce any idea in our minds. Secondary qualities are the qualities that have the power to produce various sensations in us by their primary qualities. Locke mentioned that colors are like sensible qualities such as smell and touch. In other words, secondary qualities are what we sense when we see or touch an object.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays