What do these objects have in common? They are all small enough to fit on a table, and they are all motionless.

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1 SIXTH CLASS: STILL LIFE I. INTRODUCTION In today s class we are going to examine two examples of still life painting. Does anyone remember what type objects are often found in still life paintings? Fruit, vegetables, meat, flowers, books, clocks, chinaware, silverware, glassware, bottles, pipes, fabrics, etc. (If time permits, show students different examples of still life painting from an art history text or an art magazine.) What do these objects have in common? They are all small enough to fit on a table, and they are all motionless. Can anyone make up a definition of a still life painting? An arrangement of non-moving objects. These are typically shown close up. Who knows what the term "composition" means in art? The arrangement of shapes, lines and colors in a painting. Still life painting, because it focuses on a few objects at close range, is an easy type of art in which to study how an artist puts a picture together, i.e., how he or she arranges its composition. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists were attracted to still life painting, each for his own reasons and each with a somewhat different result. Before revealing today's artworks, let's get our eyes ready for looking. II. EYE EXERCISES VI. STILL LIFE PAINTING A. Vase of Roses Artist - Vincent van Gogh Dutch (l853-l890) Year Painted - l890 Medium - oil on canvas

2 Props - poster of painting; white paper and colored pencils, crayons or Craypas for each child; green vase; a pink or white rose (either fabric or real) for each student in the class; a green cloth or large piece of construction paper for the background. Activities - Arranging a still life; sketching a still life BACKGROUND INFORMATION (for the teacher) Van Gogh painted Vase of Roses in early May, l890 a few months before he took his own life. Our painting is part of a group of still lifes that the artist completed at the mental asylum in Saint-Rémy right before leaving for Auvers in the north of France. After van Gogh s long mental breakdown between mid-february and late April, 1890, he painted 11 canvases in 16 days, an extraordinary burst of energy and creativity. He painted two canvases of irises--we study the one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the first level Learning to Look course--and two of roses. Each pair contains one painting in a horizontal format and the other in a vertical format. They represent van Gogh at the height of his artistic powers. As the artist himself remarked, "And those last days at St. Rémy I still worked as in a frenzy. Great bunches of flowers, violet irises, big bouquets of roses..." In a letter to his brother Theo on May l3, l890, he described how at that moment he felt able to paint untroubled by psychic illness. "I tell you, I feel my head is absolutely calm for my work, and the brush strokes come to me and follow each other logically." Sadly, this period of mental tranquility did not last. DIALOGUE SUGGESTIONS (for classroom presentation) Show students van Gogh's Vase of Roses without revealing its creator.

3 Tell students that we saw another painting by this same artist in the last class. Who remembers his name? Vincent van Gogh (Students find it easier to identify van Gogh's pictures by his distinctive style of painting more than almost any other artist.) Last year we also looked at a still life by Van Gogh. Does anyone remember the flowers he used in that painting? Irises What does van Gogh show in the still life we are looking at today? A vase of flowers. Can you identify these flowers? They are roses. What does the rose symbolize? Love Can anyone find any rosebuds? Point them out. What might they stand for? A new beginning, new life. The name of this painting is Vase of Roses. It was done in l890 and is one of eleven large paintings that van Gogh did in the mental asylum at St. Rémy between the end of April and May l6. This is an amazing creative effort. Of these eleven paintings, four were still lifes of flowers, two of irises and two of roses. Here is the horizontal version of Van Gogh s Vase of Roses.

4 How many roses does van Gogh depict in the Metropolitan Museum of Art s version of this still life? Too many to count. Over 40 flowers! What covers the most space in this picture? The roses They extend almost to the top of the canvas and to each side. They are presented on a splendid, large scale. What feeling does this great mass of flowers create? One of energy, abundance, movement, vibration What two colors interest van Gogh most here and where do you find them? Green and pink. There are several shades of green: the light yellow-green of the background, the forest green of the faience vase, and the deeper green of the leaves. There are also several shades of pinkish-white: the roses and the tabletop. Do you know what happens to colors when exposed to sunlight for a long time? They fade. In this case, the roses were once pinker but the pigment faded. They were never very pink, however, because the artist referred to them as white once in a letter. They were probably closer to the color of the rose at the far left. The tabletop also appears pinker at the edges where the canvas has been protected from the light by the frame. What other colors has van Gogh used? Red, blue, yellow and purple, as well as black and white. Do you think the colors in this painting clash or harmonize? They harmonize. Because only two colors predominate, they subdued, peaceful effect. Into what two shapes has van Gogh divided the background? Two unequal rectangles of the green backdrop and the pinkish create a soft, table. Is the space in this painting shallow or deep? Very shallow There is little sense of depth and little shading. What prevents the roses from appearing to topple over? Hint: what balances the roses in the vase? Van Gogh has painted fallen leaves and bloom on the table as a counterweight to the flowers in the vase. They also don't appear top-heavy because the blooms cover almost the entire center space of the picture.

5 What shape do the roses in the vase form? Almost a perfect circle. Where else do you find circular shapes and curved lines repeated? In the individual flowers and in the outline of the vase. All these curved lines create a rhythmic quality that make the roses seem as if they are still growing in nature. What other type lines add to the feeling of energy? Many of the leaves form sharp jagged or zigzag lines. How has van Gogh painted the leaves to make them appear even sharper? He has outlined them. What colors has the artist used for these outlines? Blue and green Where else do you see outlines? Around the edge of the vase and in some of the roses to describe their petals. Do you think this painting was done quickly or slowly? Very quickly yet with assurance. It is wrong to imagine van Gogh painting like a madman. He painted with great energy and intensity, but he was not able to paint at all when he suffered one of his attacks of mental illness. Here van Gogh seems relatively calm and sure of himself. How many brush strokes did he use to paint the flowers and leaves on the table? Count them. Eight strokes make up the leaves on the left and nineteen constitute the blossom and leaves on the right. Do you think the bouquet of real roses that van Gogh arranged in order to paint it looked like the finished picture? Why or why not? (Let your students discuss the role of the artist's imagination and vision for a while. Make sure to point out to them some of the ways that the painted version was different from the real bouquet by asking supplemental questions.) What is missing from the stems of the roses? Thorns! (If you are doing the still life recreation with fabric flowers, it would be helpful to bring in at least one live rose in order to point out how the rose petals are arranged and what the leaves and thorns look like.) In a bouquet this size, would all the stems be able to reach the vase in order to get water? Which probably wouldn't? The flowers in the top left corner seem too far away from the vase for their stems to reach the water. If this were true, they would die in a day or two.

6 What emotion does this painting make you feel? Energy, joy, happiness, beauty Earlier in his career Van Gogh wrote to explain why he painted: I have walked this earth for thirty years, and, out of gratitude, want to leave some souvenir in the shape of drawings or pictures not made to please a certain taste in art, but to express a sincere human feeling. So this work is my aim ACTIVITY: RE-CREATING A STILL LIFE Re-creating a still life helps reinforce the point that van Gogh's painting is not a totally realistic description of a bouquet of flowers, but rather emphasizes artistic concerns such as the balance of colors and shapes and lines. Hand each student a flower. Have them come up one at a time and place it in a green vase. Are they able to create the mass effect of so many roses at the center and hanging over the edge of the vase? Can they get flowers to reach so far out to the sides without unbalancing the vase? ACTIVITY: SKETCHING A STILL LIFE Once the students have re-created their still life of roses, invite them to try and sketch it using colored pencils, crayons or Craypas. Encourage them to use either van Gogh's own painting or the bouquet they created as inspiration but not to feel limited to copying here. Emphasize how each student's imagination will perceive the flowers in a slightly different way. These sketches are often worth framing. B. Bouquet of Flowers Artist - Odilon Redon - French (l840-l9l6) Year Painted probably ca. l905 Medium - pastel on paper Props - poster of painting; magazines and newpapers, paper, paste, scissors. Activity - Make your own still life

7 BACKGROUND INFORMATION (for the teacher) Odilon Redon was born in Bordeaux in 1840, the same year as Monet, but never went through an Impressionist phase as an artist. A shy and fragile child, Redon was sent to live with his uncle for much of his unhappy childhood. In 1858 he failed the entrance examinations for the Ecole des Beaux Arts, but traveled to Paris a year later to study architecture. He also studied with the painter Gerome, but suffered a nervous breakdown and had to return home. In l864 he learned the art of lithography (printmaking) from Rudolphe Bresdin in Bordeaux. From then until the 1890s, Redon worked exclusively in black and white, doing charcoal drawings, engravings and lithographs. His first volume of lithographs, Dans la reve appeared in l879. Many of them depict fantasy creatures, disembodied heads, and strange, dream-like images. Redon suffered a number of emotional crises in the 1880s, through which he ultimately found spiritual strength. During this same period his art underwent a transformation as well. By l890 Redon turned to oil painting and pastels and his canvases now vibrated with color. Redon always stressed the importance of imagination in art. "I have always felt the need to copy nature in small objects, particularly the casual or accidental. It is only after making an effort of will power to represent with minute care a grass blade, a stone, a branch, the face of an old wall, that I am overcome by the irresistible urge to create something imaginary. External nature, thus assimilated and measured, becomes, by transformation, my source, my ferment. To the moments following such exercises I owe my best works." Redon's art was more popular among the Symbolists writers in

8 France at the end of the l9th century, than among the Impressionist and Post- Impressionist painters. His canvases are often hailed today as precursors of surrealism. DIALOGUE SUGGESTIONS (for classroom presentation) Show the poster and tell students that this still life is called Bouquet of Flowers and is by the French artist, Odilon Redon. Redon is not considered a Post-Impressionist, but rather a Symbolist painter. He was interested in depicting hidden meanings, symbols and the spiritual in his art. Looking at this still life, what element of art do you think was most important to Redon? Color! Is his color bright and pure or subdued and toned down? Very bright Redon uses pure, intense colors. Point out all the places Redon used primary colors? Red flowers and in background; blue flowers and blue in vase; and yellow in vase. yellow flowers What colors move your eye around the painting? The red flowers are arranged in a circle around the center of the picture. The white flowers form a larger circle around the outside of the bouquet. Both colors create rhythms in the painting. There is a wonderful story about how Redon adopted such strong colors in his art. For the first part of his career, he worked only in black and white making charcoal drawings and lithographs. Then in the 1890s his art underwent a transformation and he began painting in vibrant hues. Some art historians attribute this change to the sale of his uncle's home in l897. Redon's parents had sent him to live in the isolated home of his uncle where he was lonely and desolate. After its sale, it seems as if there is a shift in Redon's personality and works from depression to joy. Redon also learned the principles of color from Seurat, with whom he founded the Salon des Independents in l884. Redon began to paint new motifs as well: particularly flowers, which seemed to express his newfound happiness and success. Can you identify the flowers Redon has included in this still life? Point out the red and black poppy in the center, the white and purple lilacs, the small blue bottles or bachelor s buttons, tulips, purple anemone, and daisies. What about the pink flower with the blue center. Have you ever heard of a flower in these colors? No, because Redon invented it. Redon mingled imaginary flowers with real ones. He paints some of the flowers as blurred patches of color.

9 Redon called for the use of imagination in art. He wanted to observe nature closely and was still concerned with the elements of art, but he used his artistic talents in order to create images that are mysterious and filled with hidden meaning. He said that "true art lies in a reality that is felt," and that he wanted to use "the logic of the visible at the service of the invisible." Let's look at what other aspects of this still life make it seem not real. Where is the vase set? There is no separation between table and background the way there is in the van Gogh Vase of Roses. The background here is undefined and flattened. The space is ambiguous. We don t know where the vase of flowers is located. How is light used in this painting? It is a bright, overall light that highlights the individual flowers, yet the background is lighter and darker in places. This is not naturalistic or real. What about the high color tone of the painting. Would you find this in nature? Redon used pastels on paper to create such bright colors. He painted "a bouquet of the mind." Redon transformed nature, he didn't copy it. The high colors, light and ambiguous background all create a mood of dreaminess and mystery. The artist included certain objects in this still life that re-enforce this visionary mood. Does anyone know what a symbol is? Something that stands for something else. Traditionally, flowers and animals have been thought to symbolized certain qualities. Redon was interested in what is known as the language of flowers and even studied with a botanist. Most of you know at least one flower that is usually associated with love. Can you name it? The rose Redon often used poppies in his art. Can anyone guess what their symbolic meaning is? They are the flower of dreams. Some students may remember the scene in the movie The Wizard of Oz in which Dorothy and her companions run through a field of red poppies which makes them fall asleep. Redon also gave personal meaning to his flowers. The blue flowers suggest the sky and contact with heaven. Look very carefully. Can you find anything flying around this bouquet? Butterflies! There are five of them.

10 They traditionally symbolize the soul. Redon's still life is an image of nature endowed with a mysterious charm that suggests more than it reveals. Modern artists in the 20 th century were influenced by the relationship between nature and imagination in Redon s art. ACTIVITY: MAKE YOUR OWN STILL LIFE Ask each student to bring in some magazines from home. Have the students cut out pictures of objects that they think might belong in a still life. Then have them arrange the objects and paste them on a piece of construction paper. Students may want to draw a picture of a table first on which to place the objects. Do their objects all relate to a theme? Do any of the objects have symbolic meaning? Can the students describe the choices they made in deciding how to arrange their objects? What principles of design concerned them (i.e. balance, movement, symmetry etc.)? Younger students could use stickers of flowers and butterflies to re-create Redon s Vase of Flowers instead of making their own still life.