Liberal Arts Blog — Sunrise (Monet) Versus Sunset (Van Gogh, Munch) Which Fascinates You More?
Liberal Arts Blog: Friday is the Joy of Art, Architecture, Design, Film, Fashion, and All Things Visual Day
Today’s Topic: Sunrise (Monet) versus Sunset (Van Gogh, Munch) which fascinates you more?
No painting remotely captures the beauty of a rising or setting sun. But painters keep trying.
What attempt do you find most moving? most unforgettable? How about Bierstadt’s “Sunset in the Rockies”? or “Ship at Sea, Sunset” by Edward Moran? or Monet’s take on the Houses of Parliament or San Giorgio Maggiore at sunset? Today, three samples with a few notes.
From a science perspective, sunsets have more red than sunrises as the light travels through more of the atmosphere and the air tends to be warmer. Pollution adds to the effect.
Sunsets are prelude to the glory of the night. Sunrises to the glory of the day.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
SUNRISE — hope, a new beginning — Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” (1872) is in the Musee Marmottan in Paris, it “is credited with inspiring the name of the Impressionist movement.”
1. “Monet visited his hometown of Le Havre in the Northwest of France in 1872 and proceeded to create a series of works depicting the port. The six painted canvases depict the port “during dawn, day, dusk, and dark and from varying viewpoints, some from the water itself and others from a hotel room looking down over the port.”
2. “Impression, Sunrise became the most famous in the series after being debuted in April 1874 in Paris at an exhibition by the group “Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc, Inc.” Among thirty participants, the exhibition was led by Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissaro, Pierre-August Renoir, and Alfred Sisley and showed over two hundred works that were seen by about 4,000 people, including some rather unsympathetic critics.”
3. Highlights of Monet’s long career included “his series of Haystacks (1890,1891), paintings of Rouen Cathedral (1892–1894), and the paintings of water lilies in his garden in Giverny, which occupied him for the last 20 years of his life.”
SUNSET — Edward Munch’s “The Scream” has been called the Mona Lisa of modern times; the Norwegian name is “Skrik” and the German used in the original exhibition is “Der Shrei Der Natur” (The Scream of Nature)
1. “Munch recalled that he had been out for a walk at sunset when suddenly the setting sun’s light turned the clouds “a blood red”. He sensed an “infinite scream passing through nature”.
2. “Scholars have located the spot along a fjord path overlooking Oslo and have suggested various explanations for the unnaturally orange sky, ranging from the effects of a volcanic eruption (Krakatoa) to a psychological reaction by Munch to his sister’s commitment at a nearby lunatic asylum.”
3. “Munch created two versions in paint and two in pastels, as well as a lithograph stone from which several prints survive. Both painted versions have been stolen from public museums, but since recovered. In 2012, one of the pastel versions commanded the highest nominal price paid for an artwork at a public auction at that time.
“POLLARDED” WILLOWS AT SUNSET (1888) — VAN GOGH
1. Pollarding is “a pruning technique where a tree’s main branches are cut back to short stubs, encouraging dense regrowth from these points. It’s often used to control a tree’s size and promote new growth, particularly in urban environments where trees might interfere with infrastructure like power lines or buildings.”
2. “Not long after his arrival in Arles, Van Gogh starts making studies “in the wheat and grass” to familiarize himself with his new surroundings. To him, the region seems just as beautiful as Japan “for the clearness of the atmosphere and the gay color effects” and it reminds him of Japanese prints.”
3. “Color doesn’t need to be “locally true,” but should be “suggesting some emotion, an ardent temperament.”
NB: “Van Gogh paints Pollard Willows At Sunset” in March, just as the new leaves are sprouting on the trees.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression,_Sunrise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream
Willows at Sunset, 1888 by Vincent van Gogh
https://krollermuller.nl/en/vincent-van-gogh-pollard-willows-at-sunset
Capturing the Awe: 5 Famous Sunset Paintings That Transcend Time |1st Art Gallery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Giorgio_Maggiore_at_Dusk
Can you tell the difference between sunrise and sunset?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollarding
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
Updating PDFs: 2023 — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned recently or ever related to art, sculpture, design, architecture, film, or anything visual.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to cement in your own memory something cool or important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that is close to your heart.
