Art/Evaluation of Paintings Homework Help

“Mill on a River,” is indicative of this thesis. Men loading small
boats alongside the river occupy the foreground. Behind the men trees rise
up to dominant the middle ground while the mill itself and the sky above
are splashed in the golden light of dusk. Lorrain was known as an artist The works examined for this paper carry within them a common theme.
In both, humans are rendered small, insignificant entities in contrast to
who exemplified the ideal-landscape art form, one that seeks to present a
view of nature more beautiful and harmonious than nature itself. The
quality of that beauty is governed by classical concepts, and the landscape
often contains classical ruins and pastoral figures in classical dress.
Joachim yon Sandraft, a contemporary of Lorrain’s once noted that,
“…he on the other hand only painted, on a smaller scale, the view from the
middle to the greatest distance, facing away towards the horizon and the
sky, a type to which he was a master,” (Merrill 9) Sandraft’s description
of Lorrain’s work is evident in “Mill on a River.” The ideal-landscape
sought to portray and idealized version of nature, and man’s relationship
to nature. Lorrain’s style, as described by Sandraft, is evident in many
of his works, including, “Apollo and the Muses on Mount Helicon,” 1680,
“Seaport,” 1638 (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/lorrain/) and “Port
Scene with the Embarkation of St Ursula” 1641
(http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/c/claude/1/index.html).
What is striking about his work is his mastery of the use of sunlight.
Many of his painting’s compositions make use of the quality of light from
either the dawn or dusk. He uses light to heighten the sense of grandeur
in nature. Additionally in the paintings cited as well as many of his
others, Lorrain used strong vertical elements, such as the trees in “Mill
on a River,” and the ships’ masts in P