Comparative Essay: Diaz and O'Keefe
Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña painted a landscape called Forest Pool in 1862, and Georgia O’Keeffe painted a landscape called Pink Moon Over Water in 1924. These painters from two different countries and periods in time each had a similar goal in mind: to express themselves in their work. Through their use of composition, color, light and space the artists convey to the viewer a sense of their time through the values their paintings depict; Diaz’s emphasis is placed on the imagination and emotions of the artist in a surreal yet realistic setting, while O’Keeffe’s focus was on her personal view of the world and a rejection of reality.
Forest Pool portrays a forest interior where the sun has penetrated the thick canopy of leaves and shines onto a pool of dark water, which also reflects the surrounding trees. The dense forest stretches far into the background of the painting where a patch of light hints at the possibility of a clearing. A lone man appears among the trees and bushes, perhaps gathering wood or food to return to an unseen family. Diaz painted Forest Pool during the time of Romanticism, when realism was a popular and valued trait in French works (Stokstad and Cothren, 2011, p. 944). The painting gives the viewer the sense of a real geographical location, untouched by the reach of humanity save for a single man. The painting depicts a kind of utopia during a time when forests were being harvested to feed the human desire for expansion. Romanticism occurred on the tail end of the European Industrial Revolution and considered a scene such as Forest Pool’s to be idealist and surreal, as it was rare to find such a place in nature. Pink Moon Over Water, on the other hand, depicts rolling hills that rise up in front of a large body of water. An oblong pink moon hovers over and is reflected by the dark water, which merges with the sky. There are no signs of human or animal life in Pink Moon Over Water. All vegetation that could be growing on the hills
Forest Pool portrays a forest interior where the sun has penetrated the thick canopy of leaves and shines onto a pool of dark water, which also reflects the surrounding trees. The dense forest stretches far into the background of the painting where a patch of light hints at the possibility of a clearing. A lone man appears among the trees and bushes, perhaps gathering wood or food to return to an unseen family. Diaz painted Forest Pool during the time of Romanticism, when realism was a popular and valued trait in French works (Stokstad and Cothren, 2011, p. 944). The painting gives the viewer the sense of a real geographical location, untouched by the reach of humanity save for a single man. The painting depicts a kind of utopia during a time when forests were being harvested to feed the human desire for expansion. Romanticism occurred on the tail end of the European Industrial Revolution and considered a scene such as Forest Pool’s to be idealist and surreal, as it was rare to find such a place in nature. Pink Moon Over Water, on the other hand, depicts rolling hills that rise up in front of a large body of water. An oblong pink moon hovers over and is reflected by the dark water, which merges with the sky. There are no signs of human or animal life in Pink Moon Over Water. All vegetation that could be growing on the hills
Bibliography: Stokstad, Marilyn and Michael W. Cothren. Art History. Fourth ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña, Forest Pool, 1862. Georgia O’Keeffe, Pink Moon Over Water, 1924.