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!
John Singer Sargent
Mountain Stream, ca. 1912-1914, water color and graphite on off-white wove paper.
There’s a naked young man getting into the sunny portion of a rushing river. What is really impressive however are the beautiful colors to this picture. I opened the screen and “wow” escaped from my lips.
I’m really curious to know if the water is bracingly cold or just cool.
Sun seems off to the right.
As the naked young man is on the right side of the painting, this leads me to believe that the painter wanted to focus as much on the water and rocks which comprise the majority of the space. Each stone, each detail is like a treasure. And there are so many colors.
What’s going on in this picture? Two things: the man, with his back to us, is slowly helping himself enter the rushing waters. Is the issue that the water is cold? the rocks are slippery? He seems to be taking care, supporting himself on his hands and arms.
The other thing is the water rushing leftwards. Such rapid movement among the many colorful rocks, which is a kind of contrast: the permanency of the stone, the fluidity of the water.
Again, the colors are stunning. It’s a fantastic painting.
Is he just going to sit in the rushing rapids? Is he just cooling off on a hot day? Will others join him? Oh, to feel water rushing over me like that !