FAME
Fine Arts Mini Experience
La Grande Jatte
by
Georges Seurat
Humoresque
by
Antonin Dvorak
Fine Arts
Music
Art
Literature
Dance
Does this
look like a
modern
picnic or
one from
many years
ago?
Introduction
To
Art
Where do you think you might find this scene? (At a picnic) Where do you usually
have picnics? (Yards, parks, etc.) Does this picnic look like it was from a long time
ago? Does it look like it takes place in a different country. Would Kentucky Fried
Chicken be served? Why not? (It wasn’t invented yet). What are some items that we
might bring if we were going on a picnic? If we were going to spend the WHOLE day
and really enjoy ourselves --- laugh, eat, and play games, what kinds of items could
you take? There are balloons here. Why would there be balloons on a picnic in the
park? (For a birthday party)
You made some good suggestions for things to take on a picnic. Now let’s look at the
items in this picnic basket from a different time and place. We’re going to look at these
items in a way that makes us think about an art element. What elements does an artist
use to make paintings interesting? (Show Art composition visuals).
Our artist for today used color in a very unusual way that also created texture, so we
will use some words that describe texture as we look at these items from the picnic
basket.
“If this monkey was my favorite toy, I might bring it with me on a picnic. The texture
word I would use to describe it would be “fuzzy.” Pick at least one more item to
describe…
Soon, you are going to see a picnic painted by an artist named, Georges Seurat. He
used color to create texture in a very new and different way for this time.
Art is
made up
of lines,
color,
light &
shadow,
and
texture
La
Grande
Jatte
•
Born in Paris
•
By 15, he was enrolled in art school
•
After school, he went into the army
and was posted by the sea
•
He had a hard time dealing with
people
•
Intensely focused, he would paint for
long periods of time, eating only
croissants and chocolate bars
•
Dressed meticulously, always
wearing a suit and top hat
•
Never married but had a special
friend with whom he had a secret
son who died a year after Georges
•
Georges died of either diphtheria or
angina at the age of 32
By
Georges
Seurat
1859-1891
La Grade Jatte
Central characters:
50 people, mostly
women, engaged in
summer leisure
activities
Who are they? What
are they doing? Why
the monkey on the
leash? What of the
couple behind the
tree background
central? Are they
embracing or
adjusting their babies
blanket? Why do the
two women fishing at
the left of the painting
have no tackle box or
bait?
Seurat never
answered these
questions.
Pointillism
This was the first
of Seurat’s
paintings to use
the pointillism
technique. It was a
labor of over two
long years.
He only used pure,
unmixed,
complementary
(opposite) colors
placed next to each
other. Our eyes do
the mixing. This
leaves a “grainy”
texture.
He repeated
shapes: umbrella,
boat sail, line of
the dog’s tail.
Cylindrical shapes:
tree trunks, men’s
tall hats.
Seurat’s
other
famous
works
Color
Lines
Shapes
Museum of
Modern Art
–
San
Francisco
Music consists of:
Melody
rhythm
harmony
dynamics
Introduction
to the Music
Besides eating, what do people do on picnics? (Play
games, swim, go for a walk or hike, etc.) When you are
relaxing on a picnic, do you ever just take a nap, read
books, tell stories or jokes?
When someone is good at telling jokes, we sometimes say
they have a good “sense of humor.” Our music for today
has that word humor, in its title. It’s called “Humoresque.”
(Put on the recording) Imagine that we are at a park at a
band concert listening to Humoresque. Why wouldn’t we
have just listened to our stereos? How would you
describe this music? Does it make you feel happy, sad,
light, heavy? Does it sound light-hearted and full of good
humor?
Humoresque
By
Antonin Dvorak
Antonin Dvorak was a
man who was just like
his music – full of good
humor and a very happy
man. There was only
one time when he wasn’t
completely happy and
that was because he was
homesick. What does
homesick mean? He
taught in the United
States for a time but
missed his homeland
Czechoslovakia. When
he returned,
“Dvorak was glad to be
back!”
This will help you
remember his name!
1841-1904
• Born in Czechoslovakia to a
large, Bohemian family
• Initially, his family hoped he
would become a butcher like
his father
• Eventually, he was sent off to
music school
• He married Anna. They had
a happy marriage and had six
children.
• He became famous
throughout Europe and came
to work as the director of the
Nat’l Conservatory of Music in
NY (1892)
• He became homesick and
returned home
• Died 1904 of unknown
causes.
Listen again to Humoresque and see if the music is the
same all the way through. (Point out the staccato parts
and the legato part.)
Humoresque
Think about the difference in these sounds: a faucet drop,
drop, dropping and one that is turned on just a little and
allowed to flow smoothly. In music, a composer uses the
words staccato and legato to tell a musician to plan short,
separate, dripping, notes with a tiny bit of silence between
them or continuous, flowing, smooth notes. Which sound,
staccato or legato, would be more like Seurat’s little dots
of paint?
The staccato and legato changes are part of the rhythm
(the part that makes you want to move).
Elements
of
Rhythm
Staccato
Legato