Western Armenia

When Claude Debussy composed his piece, La Mer (Movement II, Play of the Waves) between 1903 and 1905, he found inspiration in Katsushika Hokusai’s artwork, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Because the song is based off of artwork, one with expect for it to be programmatic, and it meets those expectations. The title, La Mer, is customary for absolute music because it is telling of the idea that will be produced in the music. The music then follows through with the title by audibly depicting the sea…

When viewing Matisse’s Bonhuer de Vivre or Joy of Life as it is best known and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon it is quite evident that these paintings were influenced by Paul Cezanne’s The Large Bathers. All three of these paintings capture an uncertainty and vagueness in their subject matter and what they are trying to convey. Bonhuer de Vivre by Matisse, was one of the first paintings of its kind. He used such vivid and bright colors to exemplify his subjects along with the imbuing of…

Joseph Mallord William Turner was an English artist who gained notoriety from his landscape paintings that utilize the dynamic lights that illuminate the scenery he builds. Joseph Turner’s work innovated and popularized landscape painting, which laid the foundation for impressionism to come into prevalence after the Romantic period. This is observed in his painting Rockets and Blue Lights, painted in 1840 with oil on canvas. Rockets and Blue Lights displays a coastal view of the ocean that…

William Bouguereau is a French artist who had made this painting for a “ Gift of an Anonymous Lady in memory of her father”. William Bouguereau is a very important artist of his time from 1825-1905, he was part of the official art system. Graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, winner of the prestigious Prixe de Rome, and member of the French Academy, he was also a great favorite on the art market. He had made his paintings from meaning and personal experiences. His sophisticated style and color…

Robert Henri (June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. He was an organizer of the group known as "The Eight". It was an informal association of artists protesting against the restrictive exhibition of the powerful, conservative National Academy of Design. Having travelled to Paris to study at the Academie Julian, he was under the academic realist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. During this period of his life, he came to admire greatly the work of Francois Millet, and…

The floor scrapers is an oil painting that was done by Gustave Caillebotte, who was a French Impressionist. The painting measures 40.2 inches by 57.7 inches or 102 by 146.5 centimeters. In the year 1894, the Caillebotte’s family originally gave the painting to Muse du Luxembourg where in was later moved to Muse d’Orsay in Paris in the year 1986. This paper aims at doing thorough conceptual analysis on the painting named “The Floor Scrappers” by Gustave Caillebotte. The young painter…

Mary Cassatt was a renowned American painter who created a famous painting known as “The Letter”. At first glance, it portrayed an older women sitting at a desk simply mailing out a letter. After analyzing the painting for some time, I uncovered more then what was seen at first glance. The painting is very unique and was difficult to interpret in the beginning. When I visually analyzed the painting, I saw an older Japanese woman wearing traditional Japanese attire while sitting at what looks…

Modernism is characterized by the throwing out of the old, and embracing new ways of seeing, new ideas about art functions, and more experimentation. Yet no one seems to agree on when Modernism actually began. Some argue that Impressionism could be considered the first modern movement. In class, it was defined as a time frame of 1915 to 1940 . Other sources say it began after WWI, which ended in 1918. I theorize that it began before all of those. Prior to the 19th century, artists’ works were…

Humans have constantly been improving what they have already got. To achieve a more perfect version, they go through a number of eras or epochs where they try out different versions. Pablo Picasso, a Spanish painter in the 20th century, went through different periods where he drew in a specific colour to see how it affected the painting. He started off with the Blue Period, where he drew mostly blue colours (Pablo Picasso, 2015). This he used for a few years, until he switched to the Rose…

resigned role as a mark of impurity. Color prejudice has established a deep resentment within America’s roots. The disparity that lies between the teachings of early civilizations versus those taught now highlights the biased values advertised in Western society. The teachings of prior Ancient philosophers provide no scientific backing to…