Activity #4 Re-write

Joseph Wright painted “The Corinthian Maid”, in 1782-1784. It is an oil on canvas painting. Wright uses a variety of design principles that can be confirmed by design elements that make up this painting. Wright employs emphasis, pattern and balance to direct your eye to the painting.

Joseph Wright, makes one want to focus on the center of the picture with the man and woman posing. The whole painting is bathed in implied candlelight that gives the entire painting a warm glow. This warm glow can be seen by colors on the red-orange side of the color wheel. Emphasis is drawn to the center of the painting where the man and woman are sitting. Emphasis means that our attention is drawn more to certain parts of a composition than to others. (134) The pattern shown here is repetitious of a dark somber look. Pattern can create visual texture, but may not always be seen as pattern. (105) Wright also uses balance to create a solid composition. By drawing a line down the center of the painting we can see that this picture has a symmetrical balance. The size, shape and placement of the man and woman show this imagery.

Claude Monet painted “The Houses of Parliament, Sunset, in 1903. It is an oil on canvas painting. Monet uses asymmetrical balance in contrast to Joseph Wright. Monet also uses color and scale to unify his painting.The high peaks and vertical lines of the buildings with the cool colors of the sky give this painting a mirror image. The colors divide the sky from the water and the buildings which creates a two dimensional scene. Monet uses these colors to unify the space as well. Unity is a sense of oneness, of things belonging and making up a coherent whole. (122) We can see how the size of the whole painting has made the artist once again focus on the scale of the painting. Scale means the size in relation to a standard or “normal” size. (136) In contrast to Wright, Monet has kept an asymmetrical balance in this painting by shifting the weight to the right. In conclusion, both artists seemed to have used vertical lines, but differed in balance.

















Joseph Wright painted “The Corinthian Maid”, in 1782-1784. It is an oil on canvas painting. Wright uses a variety of design principles that can be confirmed by design elements that make up this painting. Wright employs emphasis, pattern and balance to direct your eye to the painting.

Joseph Wright, makes one want to focus on the center of the picture with the man and woman posing. He uses cool colors to make the man and woman the emphasis of this painting. Emphasis means that our attention is drawn more to certain parts of a composition than to others (134). The pattern shown here is of a dark somber look. Pattern can create visual texture, but may not always be seen as pattern (105). By placing the man opposite of the woman on the chair leaning forward, Wright creates balance. Wright’s painting balances because its weight is distributed evenly around the center of the painting (124). It will be either symmetrical, like when you stand with your feet flat on the floor and your arms at your side (129). In this case Wright uses asymmetrical balance judging by the way the woman extends her arm out to the man opposite of her.

Claude Monet painted “The Houses of Parliament, Sunset, in 1903. It is an oil on canvas painting. Monet uses as symmetrical balance in contrast to Joseph Wright. Monet also uses color and scale to unify his painting.

The high peaks and implied lines of the buildings with the cool colors of the sky gives this painting a mirror image. The colors divide the sky from the water and the buildings which creates a two dimensional scene. Monet uses these colors to unify the space as well. Unity is a sense of oneness, of things belonging and making up a coherent whole (122). We can see how the size of the whole painting has made the artist once again focus on the scale of the painting. Scale means the size in relation to a standard or “normal” size (136). Monet has indeed kept a symmetrical balance in this painting by somehow making the images off the water mirror one another. With symmetrical balance, implied center of gravity is the vertical axis, an imaginary line drawn down the center of the composition (125). In conclusion, both artists have used different themes and in some degree different principles as well, but both are great works of art.