Module 9

1) Key Concepts

The Great Wave

• Toward the end of his life, Hokusai experienced a final burst of creativity which he channeled into painting.
• Hokusai's depiction of a woodcutter may be based on a form of Japanese theater called Noh plays in which an imperial emissary sent to find the spring of eternal life and the woodcutter shows him the way.
• There is an ancient Chinese story in which a woodcutter and fishermen discuss the meaning of life because both are men of nature who are in tune with the world and represent balance.
• In the depiction of Hokusai's fisherman, the feathers in the basket upon which he is sitting have puzzled scholars and could be another Noh play reference, possibly stolen from the robe of a heavenly being.
• Hokusai exhibited movement and texture within his art.

Early Photography: making daguerreotypes

• Louise Jacques-Mande Daguerre was the creator of the formula for daguerreotypes which he sold to the French government so that it could be made available to the public without patent restrictions. 
• Daguerreotypes as a new medium swept across Europe and made an impression on the populations.
• Viewers took daguerreotypes as "completely faithful depictions of nature."
• Daguerreotypes became perhaps the most popular in America and allowed for all types of people to be able to have their portrait done.
• Producing daguerreotypes was a laborious process.
• Early exposure times were often uncomfortably long.
• The assembly work of daguerreotypes was often done by women and children.

Death of Marat

• The Death of Marat was painted during the French Revolution and depicts a contemporary event.
• Jacques-Louis David was a proponent of the French Revolution and a "minister of propaganda."
• David was asked to depict three martyrs- there was an important shift from Christian to political martyrs.
• The French Revolution was meant to secularize the nation and abandon the superstitions of the church.
• The Death of Marat has a stark background which is in contrast to Rococo paintings.

Manet

• A Bar at the Folies Bergere by Manet depicts a woman standing at the bar and she is positioned in front of a mirror and he reflection is also visible.
• The woman's gaze is a typical Manet depiction with it being direct yet also unreadable.
• The painting features open brushwork which is loose, visible strokes of paint that do not create clear contours.
• Manet also features willful distortion in his artwork which upends expectations and muddles the relationship of the viewer to the painting.

Delacroix

• Liberty Leading the People is a depiction of romanticism.
• The painting has a contemporary subject but large paintings such as this were typically reserved for religious subjects.
• Liberty is an allegorical figure; a symbol of an idea that lead the revolutionaries.
• The depiction of Liberty is a classical profile that pays homage to ancient Greek and Roman art.
• The painting subjects symbolize all classes coming together for the sake of revolution.
• The entire scene of the painting is filled with chaos and energy, showcased by loose brushwork and brilliant colors which is in contrast to the muted colors which were prevalent at that time.

Monet

• Monet sometimes had as few as seven minutes to create a depiction on canvas before the light changed the effect he was looking for was gone.
• Monet had a hypersensitivity to specific effects of light.
• Monet worked to forget what he knew to create shapes and colors.
• Monet's paintings represent the momentary but have been built up over time which is visible by thick paint from multiple layers.

Cassatt

• The topic of mother and daughter and the intimacy of their relationship is uncommon throughout art history.
• The attention of the subjects in The Child's Bath is on each other which draws the viewer into the experience.
• The unexpected angle of the painting depicts how we might actually see the scene in real life.

2) The videos and text both give information into the artists' renderings and the symbolism, techniques, and subject matter they used.

3) I enjoyed the films because it gave insight to things I would have never noticed among the artwork.