Activity 5: Themes and Purpose - RE-EDIT 2

The first image is Van Gogh "The Harvest" Pen and Brown Ink over Graphite ["Pencil"] (1888). Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art Online Museum in Washington, D.C. Copyright 2007.

Vincent van Gogh "The Emperor Moth" Oil Painting on canvas (1889), Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) Historical Gallery of Art - Washington, D.C. Copyright 2007

The theme of art in Vincent van Gogh's "The Harvest" is art in daily life, looking outward: in the here and now. Van Gogh employs contrast, line, value, and balance in two-dimensional linear perspective showing images of haystacks on each side and humans in the center harvesting a wheat crop in the field larger than the town positioned in the center on the horizon in the foreground. The wide, smooth empty space positioned in the middle of the piece adds the value of texture depicting the long, winding road directing attention to the central focal point of the piece, the wheatfield. The town in scale and proportion is in the distant foreground drawn in thin, broad, and straight line with pencil and black ink depict stalks of wheat cut and dispersed about on the ground and compiled in haystacks awaiting transport. Van Gogh drew in black ink with a "quill pen made from the tail or wing feathers of a goose, swan, and crow that was cut at an angle in different lengths to give it a fine or broad point." The rural town sketched across the horizon has a railroad engine to the right, emphasized by a long trail of smoke outlined with contour lines and shaded gray in areas. He employs short to medium straight lines to depict a variety of geometrically shaped buildings as well. Visual values of lightness and darkness add less intensity than in "The Emperor Moth" but thick dynamic brushstrokes of black ink in areas provide pattern and variety to buildings made by thin and thick parallel lines(like hatching and cross-hatching without color). Clouds are outlined by contour lines of thin applications of black ink in swirling curlicues that are seen rising from smokestacks of factories, the trains engine, and from chimneys of homes suggest that the workday is not over. The random series of dots and dashes sketched with pen and brown ink adds the visual element of lightness, in contrast to darkness of "Emperor" and adds a bumpy appearance in areas on the ground that are not smooth textured. In conclusion Van Gogh has exhibited art in daily living in the here and now. This well-balanced asymmetrical landscape composition is created in scale and describes a theme of daily living in art depicting the everyday human experience of the harvest, in the town, and in the factories.

In contrast, the theme of art expressed in Van Gogh's "The Emperor Moth" is art and nature as in oneness of the here and now by the title and central figure, a colorful moth. It is common in nature, the male species of most non-humanoid animals are distinguished by a beautiful, bright coloring. Also, in contrast to the first this piece, Van Gogh's main figure is a brightly multi-colored in a variety of complementary color harmonies of green in its wings with four black ink dots adding natural beauty to the non color black and white pattern of a jagged-shaped thick line across the back of its wings. Van Gogh positions the title figure off center and adds interest of color and variety by inserting a cluster of brightly colored red berries at the top edge. The eyes are attracted to the group of three triangular-shaped, tertiated yellowish-green colored leaves directly above the moth that makes it the focal point and first attracts the eye to the moth. They direct the eyes upward to a cluster of vividly-colored red berries hanging above the moth at the top edge of the canvas. The background is covered in a variety complementary shades of dense foliage outlined in thin and thick contour lines resembling geometrical pattern adding a value of texture in a variety of green, green-blue leaf ed motif in this piece. The different color properties of tints and shades add the visual element of lightness as implied moonlight to the scene, relates the fact moths are nocturnal. In conclusion, Van Gogh expresses a balanced asymmetrically composition that creates a more dynamic feeling in this less formal piece. He shifts the small elements of the berries away from the center while he uses the intensity of colorful green shades and unusual shapes to pattern the background. Perhaps, he suggests a vision of its life cycle by providing the wild berries as a food source. Nonetheless, the brevity of life is envisioned in this interesting theme of art in nature of one of it's most illusive and mystical creatures of the night.

Gwendolyn Lane

Additional Works Cited

1. Artcyclopedia. MasterScans Online. URL located at, http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/van_gogh_vincent.html.

2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Timeline of Art History. New York. URL located at, http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/van_gogh/glossary.html.