Paysage de Saint Clair

Essay by cncresslerCollege, UndergraduateB+, March 2014

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Carly Cressler

9 February 2014

Ashley Rubin

Formal Analysis

Paysage de Saint Clair

In the painting, Paysage de Saint Clair , Theo van Rysselberghe used light, unrealistic colors, and depth of field to make the viewer immediately have an emotional connection to the work. At first glance, your eyes are drawn to the tall, skinny trees that are in the ground closer to where the water lies behind them. The trees do not have many leaves on their branches, with the exception of the tree to the far left that is adorned with the most leaves. The trees also have a yellow light that paints the right side of them, and a darker shadow on the left side showing that the sun is either rising or setting. Next, my eyes go from the leaves down the trunk to the ground they are buried in. The ground has several different colors in it, giving it the feel that there is bushes and plants covering the ground.

There is not much green on the ground like you would expect to see, instead there is an assortment of purples, light pinks, blues, yellows, and reds. From the sporadic colors that make up the ground, my eyes are drawn to the calm blue hues that make up the sea in the background. The water is literally a strip of blue in the center of the painting, separating the sky from the ground. The ground is so busy, the sky is so pale and simple that the blue sea is a good transition between the two. However, the branches and leaves from the trees are all placed with the sky as the background creating balance from the ground. Lastly, the faint mountains that line the horizon of the sea give the painting the depth that...