Every Thursday, as part of my personal “enriched environment” initiative, I post a piece of art, usually from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which recently released online some 400,000 high-resolution images of its collection. All artwork will show a sun (or sunlight) somewhere.
I won’t name the piece or the artist, but instead invite you to study the art and post a comment addressing one or more of these questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see in the picture?
- What does it make you think of?
- What observations can you make?
Note: To embiggen the image, click on it!
It is indeed strange how a picture about the sun is all brown.
Thank you for sharing this painting.
I have many questions. Where is this place? Is it real or imaginary? Why do you have Oriental-looking temple buildings on the island on the far right, and more Western buildings on the island next to it? What culture has these kinds of boats with the hooped awning over them? Oriental or WEstern? Is the sun setting into the actual body of water? It appears to be located between the land mass in the foreground and the mountain range in the background. Is it dawn or dusk? The water is so quite and serene I think it must be dawn.
Thank you again! REally enjoyed it !!!
This is very peaceful and serene. Because I am “a morning person,” I choose to see this as a sunrise 🙂
I see that the clouds on the upper left create part of a ring around where the hidden sun is, and this curved motion is reflected in the line of the exposed rocks on the mountain below the clouds.
OK, I was out with some girl friends tonight and when I see this oil painting I think, it must really be a lovely pastel-colored landscape with pinks and dark greens and pale blues….except I’m looking at it through a pitcher of beer !
It’s all amber !!!
Ms. Gabby : I feel like a fly in amber when I look at this painting and read your commentary about amber beer. I love beer so much I had to quit drinking it.
PS The painting does have a warm glow to it; just like a cool beer that gives you a warm glow !
Everyone seems to be drinking beer with this one. What’s up with that. Huh??? Crazy!!!!!!
When I squint my eyes and look at the picture, I mostly see the two layers of mountains in the foreground (on the left) and the two islands, plus a glowing source of light behind them. The boats on the right get reduced to the status of large bugs. The mountains in the far background disappear.
My art teacher taught me to squint at paintings to get a “key sense” of what the picture was really about. This is in terms of composition and color.
I agree with the others here that the picture is all about brown. But, when I squint its more about bronze and gold. WIth a slice of dark chocolate cake on the left (the foremost landform.)
Yes. Bronze and gold.
Autumn colors.