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 that makes you say that?
- What more can you find?
If you have another idea, run with it.
Special Update! The New York Times website does this same exercise every Monday with a news photo that is uncaptioned and contains no text (click!). The Times asks viewers the same three questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What more can you find?
However, at the end of the week, the Times posts the background information on the picture. So, I’ve decided to do the same. I’ll still post an unlabeled piece of art on Thursday. But return on Sunday (for the Sunny Sundays post!) and you’ll find an update on the artwork here.
Note: To embiggen the image, click on it!
The Fairgrounds
Date: 1884
Geography: Paris, France
When did women start wearing high heels? That’s what this picture makes me think about. Also the woman in the orange/brown dress looks like it’s hitched up in fold after fold. That’s a nice style someone should do again.
Sun’s off to the left again. Yes the women are in heels and their skirts seem hitched up. Is that the man’s real nose and mustache? What is he inviting them to see or hear? Is he very good on the violin? He’s showing them a paper that seems, because we see it from the back side, like a map. The streets are cobblestone so it’s good that the women’s high heels are not stilettos. The heels get wider as they approach the earth. The rooftops in the background all have multiple chimneys.
Looks like a fun time
The main color is brown and there is some blue like the man’s pants.