Activity #1 and #2

Martin Johnson Heade
Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth, c. 1890
Gift of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art in Commemoration of its 10th Anniversary
1996.14.1



Martin Johnson Heade
Rio de Janeiro Bay, 1864
Gift of the Avalon Foundation
1965.2.1


Both of these arts were found at the National Gallery of Art online website.

In 1890, Martin Johnson Heade painted Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth and nearly 30 years before that in 1864 he painted Rio de Janeiro Bay. He painted both of the works of art using oil and canvas, but he used a different way of painting for each. When painting Giant Magnolias,he painted the picture with mainly hues(96) of blue, green, and white which are analogous colors, colors that contain the same color in different proportions, that worked well together.Heade made use of value(92,96) the varying from light to dark to which made the magnolias stand out in the picture.In doing so the magnolias became the positive shapes (89) in the painting , or the shape we perceive as dominant and made the blue velvet cloth, the negative shape(89), or the background of the painting. He used cool colors(95) in this painting compared to the Rio de Janiero painting were he used more warm colors(95), colors along the orange curve of the color wheel(95) ranging form red to yellow to paint the sand and parts of the sky.In the Rio de Janeiro painting, he did used a little bit of cool colors but only to paint the bay. He uses the complementary colors(97) of green - blues and yellow oranges colors between the sky and the bay that intensify each other (in this instance) when used together.He painted this painting with an atmospheric perspective(113)where distant objects appear blurry compared to the clearness of closer objects in the painting.Heade,though, mastering the art of contour lines(83), gives both of the paintings a three dimensional effect, or provides the perception of edges in the paintings on a two dimensional space(106), the flat suface of the work.