Look at art. See a little further.
Paintings, exhibitions, performances and everyday design. Notes on the things that shape our taste.
In Dong Qichang's landscapes after old masters, where is the likeness?
Mt. Qingbian (1617) and Shaded Dwellings among Streams and Mountains (1620s) both say they follow the tenth-century painter Dong Yuan, yet they look different. Four works by Dong Qichang at Cleveland and The Met, read for what changed and what stayed, and set beside his own words on painting.
Into the painting ↗Explore the notes28
In Dong Qichang's landscapes after old masters, where is the likeness?
Mt. Qingbian (1617) and Shaded Dwellings among Streams and Mountains (1620s) both say they follow the tenth-century painter Dong Yuan, yet they look different. Four works by Dong Qichang at Cleveland and The Met, read for what changed and what stayed, and set beside his own words on painting.
Why isn't the main figure at the centre of a Degas picture?
In Degas's 1865 painting the middle of the canvas belongs to a bouquet, and the woman is cut off at the right edge. Four paintings at The Met show what his edges cut and where they leave space empty, and Duranty's 1876 pamphlet The New Painting puts the method into words.
Why are Ruisdael's fields bright only in patches?
Where the bright patches fall in four paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael from 1646 to about 1670, measured on the images, and how to count the bands of dark and light from front to back.
In Kōrin's screens, is the gold ground or water?
Ogata Kōrin's Irises at Yatsuhashi has a bridge but no water, only gold. Follow the borders across three screens and the same gold moves between ground, water, wave and air; a drawing with no gold offers the comparison. Then come three things to check in front of any gold ground.
Where did the line go in Seurat’s pictures?
As a teenager Seurat copied a hand by Ingres in pencil, but a few years later his conté drawings had no outlines, and in his dotted painting the line was buried under the paint. Enlarging the edges of four works, and reading the difference through Wölfflin’s linear and painterly.
How small do people become in Turner's paintings?
In Saltash of 1811 you can see the folds of a man's shirt; in Whalers of about 1845 you cannot count a single person. Measuring the figures on four canvases of almost the same size, and reading the difference through Burke's sublime.
Is Sargent's white paint or paper?
Two oil paintings and two watercolours by John Singer Sargent, enlarged at their brightest places, snow, a white skirt, marble, to tell where the white was laid on as paint and where it was left as paper.
How far back must you stand before a Chardin takes shape?
Four paintings by Jean-Siméon Chardin from about 1728 to 1735, each looked at once from a distance and once up close, to follow the distance at which an object breaks into brushstrokes and becomes an object again.
Which way do Van Gogh's brushstrokes run?
Four works by Vincent van Gogh from 1887 to 1889, a self-portrait, a drawing, a wheat field and cypresses, set in order to follow which way the strokes lie and where their kind changes.
When do the edges of things disappear in Monet's paintings?
Four paintings by Claude Monet, from 1864 to his last years, set in date order to follow where the edges of petals, a face, a cliff and lily pads loosen into brushstrokes.
Where do the ruled lines of Eakins's drawings survive in his paintings?
Two finished pictures by Thomas Eakins set beside the perspective drawings beneath them: where the ruled lines survive in the paint, and where they vanish under it.
Where does a person turn into a brushstroke in Pissarro's streets?
Find the line where people become brushstrokes in four paintings Camille Pissarro made in 1874 and 1897–99, and use its height to judge where the painter was looking from.
Every note27
Every title in this box, by year.
202620 notes
- In Dong Qichang's landscapes after old masters, where is the likeness?Art
- Why isn't the main figure at the centre of a Degas picture?Art
- Why are Ruisdael's fields bright only in patches?Art
- In Kōrin's screens, is the gold ground or water?Art
- Where did the line go in Seurat’s pictures?Art
- How small do people become in Turner's paintings?Art
- Is Sargent's white paint or paper?Art
- How far back must you stand before a Chardin takes shape?Art
- Which way do Van Gogh's brushstrokes run?Art
- When do the edges of things disappear in Monet's paintings?Art
- Where do the ruled lines of Eakins's drawings survive in his paintings?Art
- Where does a person turn into a brushstroke in Pissarro's streets?Art
- Does the table edge in a Cézanne still life carry on under the cloth?Art
- Where does a leaf end in Corot’s trees?Art
- Where are you standing in Winslow Homer's seas?Art
- Where is the first bright place in a Vermeer interior?Art
- Where Is Mount Fuji? Following the Lines in Three Hokusai PrintsArt
- Why do Sorolla's paintings dazzle? Reading light on a beach and in two gardensArt
- Where Are the People in the Painting Looking? Three Scenes by Carl BlochPainting
- What to Look at First in an Abstract Painting: Reading Color, Line and RhythmPainting
20257 notes
- 🎨 Marc Chagall: The Magician of Color Paints Dreams and LovePainting
- 🎨 Beyond The Scream: Edvard Munch, the Painter of EmotionPainting
- 🍃 The Quiet Poet of Nature, Henri-Joseph HarpigniesPainting
- 🎭 Musical Review: Welcome to the Hyunam-dong BookshopPerforming Arts
- 🎨 Maurice Vlaminck, the Fauvist Master Who Made Emotion Explode Through ColorPainting
- Marc Chagall Special Exhibition & a Visit to Terarosa 🎨☕Exhibitions
- SUPREME WITH CW&T pen-type-cDesign