“Inspired by the Masters”

The objective of this project is for the student artist to take inspiration from the artistic style and

composition of a famous master painter. Students will be learning from the best history has to offer:

The Masters!

Andrew Wyeth Kaitlin Shinn

Edward Hopper Maggie Smith

In this Unit:You will explore influences and changes that took place in the world of

painting after Manet rejected the French Academy in the 19th century. The many movements or “isms” of art paved the way for personal expression with a variety of paint mediums. Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism and Surrealism, and so forth offer many interesting artists to study. After finding a style or period you like, you will research masters of your chosen period or style and follow up with a studio application.

You will be given several class days to work on the research part of this

assignment.

This study will lead to a project in which you apply your research. Selecting a work of art (by your chosen master) for inspiration, you will set up a similar composition. Inspired by your painter’s style and color choices, you will paint a personal version--a method for learning as old as art itself!

Below is a starting point when considering famous painters to choose from for your report.

Check out this timelinehttp://en.wahooart.com/A55A04/w.nsf/Timeline

Here is a helpful overview to read:

www.wahooart.com

Magritte, Picasso, Sargent, Homer, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Pissarro, Monet, Manet, Kandinsky, Dali, Degas, Morisot, Cassatt, Seurat, Matisse, Vermeer, Frieda Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Hopper, Wyeth, Lautrec, and other great masters are worth investigating as you explore the world of painting.

You will choose an artist after researching famous painters.

Part 1:

Research, take notes in your journal and then write a report on a famous artist answering the questions provided on the handout “Inspired by the Masters” assignment.

Create a PPT to show your classmates that addresses the questions asked in the handout. Also include pictures of your artists’ work.

* In your presentation, include a personal photograph you took to use for this project (this should be a personal photo you deliberately took to mimic or the artists’ style of composition). * see part 2

Part 2:

After selecting your favorite work by your chosen artist, you will

1. set up a similar scene or similar composition

2. sketch thumbnails in your sketchbook and plan your composition

3. execute your composition in a style that is similar (giving homage) to the famous artist you are learning from

http://www.paul-gauguin.net/

About Paul Gauguin…

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a leading Post-Impressionist painter.

Paul Gauguin was a major influence on the direction art took in the modern era.

One of the most respected post-expressionists, his bold use of color and ability to manipulate form have since become iconic.

Pissarro’s influence on Gauguin, Cezanne and other artists of the time

Gauguin had been interested in art since his childhood. In his free time, he began painting.

He also visited galleries frequently and purchased work by emerging artists.

Gauguin formed a friendship with artist Camille Pissarro, who introduced him to various other artists. As he progressed in his art, Gauguin rented a studio, and showed paintings in Impressionist exhibitions held in 1881 and 1882.

.

By Camille Pissarro

Over two summer vacations, he painted with Pissarro and occasionally Paul Cézanne.

Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France to journalist Clovis Gauguin and a half-Peruvian mother.

In 1851 the family left Paris for Peru, motivated by the political climate of the period. Clovis died on the voyage, leaving three-year old Paul, his mother and his sister to fend for themselves.

They lived for four years in Lima, Peru with Paul's uncle and his family.

The imagery of Peru would later influence Paul in his art.

Early life and influences on Gaugain

At the age of seven, Paul and his family returned to France. They moved to Orléans, France to live with his grandfather. He soon learned French and excelled in his studies.

At seventeen, Gauguin signed on as a pilot's assistant in the merchant marine to fulfill his required military service. Three years later, he joined the navy where he stayed for two years.

In 1871, Gauguin returned to Paris where he secured a job as a stockbroker. In 1873, he married a Danish woman, Mette Sophie Gad. Over the next ten years, they would have five children.

Gauguin’s painting of Van Gogh Like his friend Vincent Van Gogh,

with whom in 1888 he spent nine weeks painting in Arles, Paul Gauguin experienced bouts of depression.

Disappointed with Impressionism, he felt that traditional European painting had become too imitative and lacked symbolic depth.

By contrast, the art of Africa and Asia seemed to him full of mystic symbolism and vigor.

There was a vogue in Europe at the time for the art of other cultures, especially that of Japan.

Living in Mataiea Village in Tahiti, he painted "Fatata te Miti" ("By the Sea"), "Ia Orana Maria" (Ave Maria) and other depictions of Tahitian life.

Frustrated by lack of recognition at home and financially destitute, Gauguin sailed to the tropics in 1891 to escape European civilization

and "everything that is artificial and conventional.“

He moved to Tahiti in 1897, where he created the masterpiece painting "Where Do We Come From" and then lived the rest of his life on the islands, returning to France only once.

His works of that period are full of quasi-religious symbolism and an exoticized view of the inhabitants of Polynesia.

Gauguin’s classification• Gauguin is considered a

Post-Impressionist painter. His bold, colorful and design oriented paintings significantly influenced Modern art.

• Gauguin's influence on artists and movements in the early 20th century include Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, André Derain, Fauvism, and Cubism, among others.

How do artists learn their craft? Early paintings by Gauguin include typical subject matter painted in

a traditional style to help Gauguin learn his craft and, moreover, to assist him in developing his own style.

Later painting…notice background and less Impressionist influence

(L) Early work (R) Later work

Both images of children but significantly different in style:

How did his work evolve?

Women at rest: How many

differences can you point out?

Strong influence of Peru seen in later work (research Freida Kahlo’s work)

Which image is your favorite and why?

Page from his sketchbook