de Young Museum

Is this painting similar to the other paintings that we have looked at? The artist of this painting, Henri Rousseau, had a very individual style. Different from his Post-Impressionist contemporaries, Rousseau did not paint with large, visible brushstrokes. Instead, he painted long, smooth lines as seen in the grass and leaves in the foreground of this painting.

Rousseau did not receive a formal art education; he worked as a customs officer in Paris. Rousseau, unlike many of his contemporaries, did not paint Parisian cityscapes or the French countryside. Similar to Gauguin and Cézanne, Rousseau wanted to escape the bustling, modern world. Unlike these painters Rousseau did not leave Paris to find inspiration. Rousseau found inspiration within his imagination. Rousseau expressed his individual vision of the world through dreamlike paintings composed of flat forms and saturated color.

Where did the artist stand to paint this painting? Cézanne painted Sainte-Victoire mountain near his home in Provence more than sixty times in one decade. Because Cézanne enjoyed painting geometric forms, this mountain was a perfect muse. In this painting the mountain is composed of different shades of gray. The horizontal and parallel brushstrokes show the texture of the landscape.

Cézanne painted during the 1800s, around the time that the automobile, airplane, camera, and telephone were invented. As you can imagine, these inventions had a dramatic impact on daily life. Some people enjoyed the comfort and efficiency that modernity brought while Cezanne fled the new, fast-paced, materialistic life style. Cézanne preferred to live in the south of France, where the pace of life was slower.

Does this painting remind you of others that you have seen before? The artist of this painting admired the work of Paul Cézanne. Both Serusier and Cézanne frequently painted still lifes: paintings of fruit, flowers, or other inanimate objects. Serusier created a sense of warped perspective in Still Life, the Artist’s Studio. The knife, vase, and bowl of fruit seem to teeter on the tilted table’s surface. Like Cézanne, Serusier was interested in exploring perspective.

How would you paint yourself? A self-portrait is a way of visually expressing both what you look like and who you are. How would you accomplish this? The subject and creator of this portrait, Vincent van Gogh, used passionate brushstrokes and emotional color to illustrate his feelings and character. Van Gogh was a troubled man who struggled with depression and psychological unrest. His anxiety and fervor are expressed through his use of large, bold brushstrokes. The dark shadows beneath the artist’s eyes are composed of only three solid lines. One can imagine Van Gogh feverishly striking a canvas with his paintbrush. The many thick lines that compose this painting create a likeness of the artist as well as a sense of chaos and unrest.