Snow By Gustave Courbia

This painting signifies both implied time and implied motion. They are both used because this is a non-moving image that shows movement through the attributes present in the image. The time is captured at the right moment as the fox arches its back to scoop up the mouse on the ground and it his mouth. Motion shows as the fox turns its head and the opening of his mouth as he chews on its prey. The fox’s hide legs are up while the chest of his body is lying flat on the ground with his hands on the mouse. There is no motion or time described within the mouse, as it lies dead and bleeding on the ground. Courbet has captured a moment that emphasizes the fleeting quality of life.
The composition and placement of arranged objects in this painting …show more content…
The fox in general creates a sense of unity and the snow, rocks, and the background sky interfere to give it a real nature scene. The unity is organized very clearly as you can make out the different elements portrayed throughout the painting as I described before. This painting would be classified under nature because of the snowy scenery and the ways for animals to survive by finding prey. The snow on the ground, the rocks, and little sprigs of grass is what makes this painting complete.
Gustave Courbet displays a clear sense of variety in this painting. He made many different hues, values, lines, textures, and shapes. At the same time he kept the same size while changing the color also shows variety in the painting. The variety of sizes of rocks displays realness because not all rocks are the same size. The variety of colors shown such as the fox’s fur that has brown, black, light orange, and white all blended in together like a real fox should have. The sizes of things change as you look at the front of the picture with the fox and going back as you see things start to decrease in the …show more content…
There is only one focal point. The area of the fox in the composition has the most significance and draws attention to the most important aspect: the fox eating its prey. Subordination is used as the rocks, snow background, and sky are all toned down to bring attention to the focal point. The fox appears sharper, clearer, and more detailed compared to the other elements.
Only rhythm is used in this painting. A combination of different sized rocks help the viewer to move their eyes through the composition. With rhythm, whenever there is more than one point of reference there is rhythm, from the fox to the rocks to the distance, it creates a sense of visual rhythm. None of the rocks have the same size or proportion, but helps to give a landscape behind the fox. The rhythm of rocks helps to make all other elements fall into place and organized. Rhythm of little sprigs of grass on the ground are randomly placed to make it look realistic and give the ground more emphasis and