Read pages 679-684 on Photography, pages 687-697 on Impressionism and pages 699-703 on Post-Impressionism and Van Gogh.
Also watch the two short videos on Degas and Ukiyo-e Prints Posted on the Moodle page
Using the information in the textbook and the Youtube videos and the PowerPoint of Images
for questions 2, 3, and 5, answer the following questions:
1. a. Comment on three factors that made the new invention of photography popular with the public?
b. How did artists react to this new invention?
c. How was the new technology used both artistically and scientifically? Discuss an example of artistic
photography and an example of scientific photography using the photographers illustrated in the
textbook.
d. Consider what technical aspects of the photographic process did these artists exploit for expressive
and / or documentary effects.
2. a. What was new about the method of painting en plein air (p.689)?
b. What did Impressionist painters observe about the color of shadows? How did this impact the
way they painted the whole scene? How is this approach or method different from the style of the
French Academy exemplified by Jacques Louis David’s painting, Oath of the Horatii?
c. On page 687 Kleiner discusses Impressionism in relation to the influential essay by poet and critic,
Charles Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life.” Using Monet’s painting Sainte-Lazare Train
Station, and Renoir’s painting Le Moulin de la Galette point out how these paintings show
different aspects of modern life in Paris?
3. From viewing the video advertising the exhibition, Degas and the Ballet, Picturing Movement, at the
Royal Academy of Arts, London.
a. Why was Degas interested in drawing, painting and sculpting ballet dancers?
b. How was his approach to depicting ballet and ballet dancers related to the up-to-date trends in
photography?
4. a. What is the meaning of the terms ukiyo-e?
b. What were the popular subjects of Japanese woodblock prints?
c. Who bought and collected Japanese prints in Japan? and outside Japan?
d. What is the origin of the term manga?
5. Using the textbook, and the images on the PowerPoint posted on the moodle page, answer the following questions about the change in Van Gogh’s painting style and his use of color and brushwork.
a. How does van Gogh convey the mood of scene of the peasants eating their evening meal
in his early work, The Potato Eaters? What Baroque painter do you think he admired?
b. What did van Gogh learn about shape and color from copying Japanese prints?
c. How does van Gogh use what he learned about color in his painting, Night Cafe?
d. What does van Gogh say about his use of color and what he wanted to communicate about
the Night Cafe in his letter to his brother Theo?
