THE ART OF CONTEMPLATION
Take a few moments to contemplate or meditate upon a work of art. For a painting is more then brushstrokes on a canvas but also the vision of the artist, offering us a pathway to enhancing our experience of life, emotionally and spiritually.
Claude Monet, Low Tide at Pourville, near Dieppe, 1882, oil on fabric, Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
Title: Low Tide at Pourville, near Dieppe, 1882
Artist: Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Whether a seascape by Monet, inspired by the Normandy coast where he grew up. Here, capturing the calming beauty of a late afternoon when the ocean and the sky seem one bathed in miraculous tones of blue eternity.
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Prater Landscape, c. 1831, oil on wood panel, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
Title: Prater Landscape, c. 1831
Artist: Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller (1793-1865)
Or a landscape by Austrian master Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller, when the summer light penetrates deep into the forest, creating areas of emerald green and velvet shadows.
Camille Pissarro, Snow at Louveciennes, c. 1870, oil on canvas, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Foundation, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Title: Snow at Louveciennes, c. 1870
Artist: Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Or a scene of falling snow transforming our perception of the world, temporarily covering the trees and ground in pristine white. Through the eyes of Impressionist Pissarro who understood too the timelessness of a winter day, allowing us to share its silent poetry, without having to endure the cold.
Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860, oil on canvas, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
Title: Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860
Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)
While Hudson River School icon Frederic Church immortalizes Twilight in the Wilderness, that fleeting instance just after sunset, when the intense, even violent red of the dying sun penetrates nature’s soul.
In the public domain, courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission.
The Cleveland Museum of Art does not endorse or approve use of the above image or any of the material on this website. Nor has the Cleveland Museum of Art participated in any projects utilizing the said image. (Monet, Waldmuller, and Church paintings.)
CCO Public Domain Designation
The Art Institute of Chicago does not endorse or approve use of the above image or any of the material on this website. Nor has the Art Institute of Chicago participated in any projects utilizing the said image. (Pissarro painting.)
https://clevelandart.org/art/1965.233
