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LANDSCAPE PAINTING: Artists Who Love the Land

LANDSCAPE PAINTING: Artists Who Love the Land

TEACHING WITH THE POWER OF OBJECTS Smithsonian Institution March/April 1996

LANDSCAPE : Artists Who Love the

Inside Lesson Plan Take-Home Page in English/Spanish

Subjects Art Language Arts U.S. History

Grades 4Ð9

Publication of Art to Zoo is made possible through the generous support of the Pacific Mutual Foundation. CONTENTS

Introduction page 3 Lesson Plan Step 1 page 5 Activity Page 1A page 7 Activity Page 1B page 8 Activity Page 1C page 9 Activity Page 1D page 10 Lesson Plan Step 2 page 11 Activity Page 2 page 12 Take-Home Page page 13 Take-Home Page in Spanish page 14 page 15

Art to Zoo’s purpose is to help teachers bring into You may request a their classrooms the educational power of museums large-print or disk and other community resources. version of Art to Zoo Art to Zoo draws on the Smithsonian’s hundreds by writing to the of exhibitions and programs—from art, history, and address listed on the science to aviation and folklife—to create classroom- back cover or by faxing ready materials for grades four through nine. to (202) 357-2116. Each of the four annual issues explores a single topic through an interdisciplinary, multicultural approach. The Smithsonian invites teachers to duplicate Art to Zoo materials for educational use. PAINTING: Artists Who Love the Land

How does an artist create a landscape? A landscape artist is a sort of magician who can create a whole world on a piece of flat canvas. This world, of course, is made of paint. Trees that seem thick with foliage are made with a few flicks of a paintbrush. that shine, waterfalls that splash, grasses that bend in the , and dark clouds that promise are all made of colors squeezed out of a paint tube. How amazing it is that small dabs and smears of color can create places for us to go in our imagination: a placid winding around , a rocky shoreline where we can almost hear the crashing waves, an enormous canyon that seems to stretch miles deep into the distance.

Air is an important part , he can leave some of colors of —the , can enter the painting and of any landscape as well, them out of his picture. If he the clouds, and the reflec- continue walking for miles. although we seldom give it thinks the trees are in the tions on . He can study Landscape artists know much thought. An artist has wrong place, he can move the patterns of and that there are certain tech- to paint the air so skillfully them around. If a riverbank shadow that change with niques that work. Five “space that we seem to feel the heat looks too empty, he can every passing moment. On tricks” that students can try of the sun and the rush of the add a few rocks that aren’t the other hand, if he chooses out for themselves are wind. He or she has to make really there. to paint inside his studio, described in this Art to Zoo: us believe that it might take A landscape artist also he can work more slowly, hours for a bird to fly from has to decide what she rearrange the composition, 1. A winding path. one side of the picture frame wants us to see. If she is and adjust the colors and A path or river that to the other. All of this is painting a field, she has to shapes to his own way of through the landscape from hard to do. There are no decide whether she wants us seeing. Many artists find foreground to background paint tubes for sale labeled to see each blade of grass or both methods useful. They can make us believe that the “sunshine,” “frosty air,” whether she wants us to see make sketches outdoors and picture describes a deep “gentle breeze,” or “gloomy the field as a smear of color. then do the actual painting space. day.” An artist has to create She can paint her landscape back in their studio. 2. Changes in size. the wind, the sunshine, and so that we see the field from A tree that is close to us the mist with the paint at the above, as if we were looking appears much larger than a end of the brush. down from an airplane, or CREATING ILLUSIONS tree of the same size that is It is important to remem- from the ground, as if we far away. ber that a landscape artist is were lying flat on a picnic No matter where the land- not a camera that records blanket. scape artist chooses to set 3. Overlap. whatever happens to be in Before making any of up his easel, he will have to A boulder that is close to us front of the lens. He is not these decisions, the land- confront the central problem overlaps and partially hides a required to paint exactly scape artist must decide posed by all — much larger behind it. what he sees. If he feels that whether to work outdoors creating the illusion of deep there are too many trees on a on the land or indoors in the space on a flat canvas. When studio. Working outdoors done well, the effect can be allows him to observe the spellbinding. We feel that we 4. Changes in clarity. seacoast of Maine. All four ABOUT THE ARTISTS A distant range painters helped Americans appears more hazy and less see and love their land in a George Catlin distinct than a mountain that when was George Catlin was an east- Albert Bierstadt went to is closer. still in its infancy and travel erner who had been fascinat- California in 1859 with a films did not exist. Today ed with Native Americans land-surveying team after the 5. Diagonal composition. television us with since boyhood. When he gold rush had aroused the Land that moves away from images, and we can easily was thirty-four years old, he curiosity of the entire nation. us on the diagonal appears to travel by car, train, or plane decided that painting pictures At that time, easterners had move back into space. to whatever river, mountain, of Native Americans would to learn about the magnifi- canyon, or seacoast we wish be far more interesting than cent California George Catlin, Thomas to visit. Yet the silent paint- being a lawyer. So, in 1830 from small black-and-white Moran, Albert Bierstadt, and ings of these artists still he headed west. For six brought home were four speak to us of the majesty years, he moved from village by land surveyors. But American artists who used of our land. to village, using the Missouri Bierstadt was an artist these techniques well. Their Through the study of River as a means of travel. with a shrewd business ultimate purpose was not so several works of art, this He painted portraits of tribal sense. He knew that if much to impress us with issue of Art to Zoo explores chiefs and scenes of buffalo he produced impressive, their ability to fool our eyes the way that Americans felt hunts, dances, and other panoramic “great pictures” but to create pictures that about their growing nation Native American ceremonies. of California, easterners portray the great size and during the period of west- would pay money to splendor of the American ward expansion until the end see them. landscape. of the nineteenth century. It Thomas Moran was an Catlin, Moran, and introduces students to some eastern artist who enjoyed Winslow Homer Bierstadt were artist/explor- basic principles of landscape going on geological In 1893, Winslow Homer left ers who were lured west by painting and has them prac- expeditions, although he his busy in New York the raw power of unexplored tice geography skills to gain was not the rugged type. and built a studio in an old , , and appreciation for the physical He joined an expedition to stable on the high shore of canyons. They joined geolog- characteristics of different the remote headwaters of Prout’s Neck in Maine, only ical and surveying expedi- regions of the United the Yellowstone River in a few hundred feet from the tions into our nation’s then- States. All of the Wyoming and, two years ocean. He loved walking on unexplored territories, mak- discussed in this issue later, went to the Grand the cliffs during fierce storms ing a visual record of the are in the collections of the Canyon, which he sketched to study the way the surf did land with their paintings. Smithsonian’s National many from an overlook battle with the rocks. On Homer, on the other hand, Museum of American Art. called “Powell’s Plateau.” more pleasant days, he had preferred the East; his pas- When he returned to his little interest in the water. sion was the rocky Atlantic studio in the East, he When the ocean was calm, combined ideas from his he thought it looked like small sketches to produce “a duck .” enormous paintings. By then he had established a fine reputation as an artist, and his glorious watercolors of Yellowstone had encouraged Congress in 1872 to designate it as the nation’s first national .

4 Art to Zoo : Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 LESSON PLAN Step 1

VIEWS OF THE AMERICAN Procedure West. Indian villages, SPACE TRICK 2 WEST: TRUE OR FALSE? 1. Give each student a fur-trading posts, and forts Catlin makes foreground photocopy of Activity Pages were built along its banks. forms larger than Objectives lAÐC, which show three C. Refer to the “About the background forms. ■ To understand that a views of the American West. artists” section on page 4 to landscape painting may or After they have studied the introduce students to George Tell students to compare may not accurately represent images for a few minutes, Catlin. Have them read the height of the bluffs in the a specific place. ask students the following Catlin’s description on foreground with the height of ■ To identify techniques questions: Which painting Activity Page 1A of how he the bluffs in the background. that create the illusion of was painted outdoors? Which painted River Bluffs, 1,320 Explain that Catlin had to three-dimensional space on painting was painted in an Miles above St. Louis. Ask make them different sizes a flat surface. indoor studio from sketches them what they can learn to create the illusion of made outdoors? Which from his words that they deep space. Ask students to Materials painting was painted outside might not be able to see measure the height of the ■ Copies of Activity Pages of the ? from the black-and-white man and then draw a second 1AÐD. 2. Introduce students to reproduction of his painting. person exactly the same size ■ Pens or pencils. River Bluffs, 1,320 Miles D. Read space trick 1 on one of the in the ■ Map of the western above St. Louis by George to students: middle ground and on one of United States. Catlin on Activity Page lA. the bluffs on the line. A. Ask them to describe Discuss why the results are Subjects the painting, making sure SPACE TRICK 1 so comical. Art, geography, U.S. history that they notice the winding Catlin uses a winding river 3. Introduce The Chasm river with occasional islands; to lead into space. of the Colorado by Thomas the conical hills, or “bluffs”; Moran on Activity Page 1B. the Native American man; Ask students to put a fin- A. Ask students to the scarcity of trees; the lack ger on the river at the lower describe this place, making of buildings and roads; and left corner of the picture. sure that they notice the mas- the wide-open sky. This part of the river, closest sive rock cliffs, the small B. Use a map of the west- to the front, is in the fore- patch of grass (the only veg- ern United States to locate ground. Ask them to move etation), the mighty storm the two-thousandÐmile their fingers along the river breaking over part of the stretch of the Missouri River until they reach the islands. canyon, and the steam rising between Fort Union, North This is the middleground. between the rocks. Dakota, and Saint Louis, When they have moved their B. Use a map of the west- Missouri. Estimate where fingers as far back as they ern United States to locate 1,320 miles above Saint can go along the river, they the Colorado River, which Louis would be. Explain are in the background. Ask cuts through the Grand that during the years before students to run their fingers Canyon in northern . trains and cars were invent- along the bumpy line where C. Use the “About the ed, traveling by boat along the top of the bluffs meets artists” section on page 4 to the Missouri River was one the sky. This line, called the introduce Thomas Moran. of the only ways to reach the horizon line, is the farthest Explain that, although he had point that the eye can see. E. Read space trick 2 to students:

Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 5 LESSON PLAN Step 1 (continued)

never before spent much 4. Introduce Among the Ask students if they can approve of Bierstadt’s time in the outdoors, during Sierra Nevada Mountains, explain the first fact by the method of combining and his first few expeditions he California by Albert second. If they cannot, ask manipulating sketches from quickly became used to Bierstadt on Activity them to make a small sketch many locations to compose a traveling by horse through Page 1C. of an outdoor place they vis- scene that looks realistic. unknown territory. Ask A. Ask students to locate ited a long time ago. When E. Read space trick 4 students if they have ever the alpine peak, waterfall, they are finished, ask them to to students: succeeded in doing some- herd of deer, and flock of describe what they remem- thing for which they felt ducks among the grasses in bered about the place. Press ill-equipped at first. Bierstadt’s painting. them for details, such as the SPACE TRICK 4 D. Have students look at B. Use a map of the west- exact shape of the tree or the Bierstadt makes the Moran’s painting and read ern United States to locate precise position of the sun. If distant mountains hazy his description of the Grand the Sierra Nevada Mountains they are unable to remember and indistinct. Canyon on Activity Page 1B. in eastern California. These all the details, ask them how Have them list words that are the highest and steepest they were able to draw their Ask students to use their would describe his view of mountains in the United picture. When they admit fingers to trace the outline of the Grand Canyon. States. They include that they made up many of the cliff on the left side of E. Read space trick 3 Yosemite National Park. the details, tell them that the painting. Then ask them to students: C. Refer to the “About the Bierstadt did the same thing. to use their fingers to trace artists” section on page 4 to D. Tell students that the outline of the most introduce Albert Bierstadt. Bierstadt also changed the distant mountain they can SPACE TRICK 3 Tell students two facts about shape of the Sierra Nevada find in the picture. Ask them Moran overlaps the rocks. Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains because he knew why Bierstadt made the Mountains, California: that Americans wanted to outline of the closer cliff Ask students to put one of think that their native moun- so much clearer than the their hands in front of the n Although the scene looks tains were more majestic outline of the distant moun- other to see how the closer extraordinarily realistic, than those of Europe. Give tain. Explain that when we hand overlaps and partially nobody has ever found a each student a photocopy of are outdoors, the atmosphere hides the hand behind it. place in the Sierra Nevadas Activity Page 1D. Have them between our eye and a Explain that Moran arranged that looks exactly like it. compare these photographs distant mountain (not to rocks and cliffs in the same n Bierstadt painted of actual mountains—Mount mention the imperfections way. The rocks that you see Among the Sierra Nevada in the Swiss of human vision) makes its in full appear closest. Those Mountains, California while and the Sierra Nevadas outline appear less distinct. that are partially obscured he was in Europe, nine years in California—with the appear farther back. after leaving California. mountains in Bierstadt’s painting (Activity Page 1C). Have students guess which mountains Bierstadt used as a model for the highest snow-covered peak in his painting. Ask them if they

6 Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 ACTIVITY PAGE 1A

George Catlin, River Bluffs, In the artist’s words: “I took my easel and canvas and brushes to 1,320 Miles above St. Louis the top of the bluff, and painted two views from the same spot. These hills [were] five or six hundred feet high and every foot of them, as far as they can be discovered in distance, covered with a vivid green turf. From this enchanting spot there was nothing to arrest the eye from ranging over [the Missouri’s] for the distance of twenty or thirty miles.”

William H. Truettner, The Natural Man Observed: A Study of Catlin’s Indian Gallery (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979), p. 247.

Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 7 ACTIVITY PAGE 1B

Thomas Moran The Chasm of the Colorado

In the artist’s words: “I was completely carried away by its [the Grand Canyon’s] magnificence. I will not attempt to say anything about it as no words can express the faintest notion of it.”

Ron Tyler, Visions of America: Pioneer Artists in a New Land (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1983), p. 58.

8 Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 ACTIVITY PAGE 1C

Albert Bierstadt Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 9 ACTIVITY PAGE 1D

Mount Matterhorn, southern Switzerland

Ansel Adams Yosemite , winter, from Inspiration Point

10 Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 LESSON PLAN Step 2

THE ROCKY SHORE Procedure argue the advantages and 7. Hand out copies of the 1. Introduce Winslow disadvantages of composing Take-Home Page and tell Objectives Homer’s High Cliff, of landscape paintings indoors students that they will each ■ To compare a realistic Maine by giving each student and outdoors. be creating their own inter- landscape painting with a a photocopy of Activity Page 5. Ask them to compare pretation of the scene on that of the same 2. Ask students to describe Homer’s painting of High page as homework or in place. the cliff that slopes down to Cliff with a 1938 photograph class. First, have them imag- ■ To use space tricks to meet the ocean. Is it smooth of High Cliff taken from the ine walking around in the create a landscape painting. or rough? How steep is it? If same point of view. Discuss photograph, asking them- they went for a walk on the the in each picture. selves the following ques- Materials lower part of this cliff, would What was it like on the day tions: Where would I go ■ Copies of Activity Page 2. they want to wear shoes? Homer made his painting? first? Is the land hilly or flat? ■ Map of Maine. 2. Use a map of Maine to What was it like on the day What is growing in this ■ Take-Home Page. point out Prout’s Neck, a the photograph was taken? place? What is the weather rocky peninsula jutting out Ask students how Homer’s like? Does anything about Subjects into the Atlantic Ocean just painting emphasizes the way this place puzzle or surprise ■ Art, geography south of Portland. High Cliff, that the and land cut into me? Remind students of the the subject of Homer’s paint- each other. five space tricks that land- ing, is the steepest rock wall 6. Have students look scape artists use. Have them on Prout’s Neck. During for a horizon line in the try to incorporate these tricks storms, the waves crash up photograph and in Homer’s into their own interpretation against it. painting. Discuss how the of the picture. 3. Use the “About the artist’s elimination of a 8. In class, discuss and artists” section on page 4 to horizon line allows him to compare students’ interpreta- tell students about Winslow fit in more of the rough tions. Refer to the Nast print Homer. Ask them to imagine ocean. Read space trick 5 on the cover, which shows that they are standing close to students: how every artist sees a enough to the bottom of the landscape from his or her painting to get their feet wet. own point of view. How long would it take them SPACE TRICK 5 to walk to the top of the Homer makes the scene painting? Make sure they appear to stretch far back look closely at the upper into space by using a right-hand corner—they will diagonal line between find a surprising clue. land and sea. 4. Have students read Homer’s words below his Ask students to imagine painting on Activity Page 2. the line separating land and Ask them how the artistic sea as horizontal instead of methods of Homer differ diagonal. How far back from those of Bierstadt. To would the land take them? extend the activity, have If the land were horizontal, students stage a mock debate would the three figures look between the two artists to like full-sized people or small dolls?

Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 11 ACTIVITY PAGE 2

Philip C. Beam, High Cliff, Prout’s Neck

Winslow Homer, High Cliff, Coast of Maine

In the artist’s words: “I prefer . . . a picture composed and painted outdoors. This making studies and then taking them home to use them is only half right. You get composition but you lose freshness.”

Lloyd Goodrich, Winslow Homer (New York: The Whitney Museum of American Art, 1973), p. 28.

12 Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 To the teacher Publication of Art to Zoo is TAKE-HOME PAGE ■ Duplicate this page made possible through the for students. generous support of the You’re the Artist ■ Use with Lesson Pacific Mutual Foundation. Plan Step 2.

Directions: Make a landscape based on the photograph on this page. As the landscape artist, you can use colored pencils, markers, crayons, paints, pieces of cloth, or colored paper. Try to use some of the techniques used by George Catlin, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, or other landscape artists you like.

Cumberland , Georgia

Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 13 Al maestro (a) Esta publicación ha sido TRABAJO PARA ■ Copie esta página para posible gracias al generoso los alumnos. aporte de la Pacific HACER EN LA CASA ■ Usela con el segundo Mutual Foundation. Tu Eres el o la Paisajista paso del plan de la lección.

Instrucciones: Haz un paisaje basado en la fotografía que ves. Como paisajista, puedes usar lápices de colores, marcadores, pinturas, pedacitos de papel de colores o retazos de telas. Trata de usar algunas de las técnicas artísticas que usaron los paisajistas George Catlin, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer u otros que te gusten.

Cumberland Island, Georgia

14 Art to Zoo Landscape Painting: Artists Who Love the Land March/April 1996 RESOURCES

BOOKS TEACHER RESOURCES PHOTOGRAPHS Page 13: Saint Mary’s, Cumberland The artists and their work Lewis, Tony, and Thomas Cover: Island, Georgia, home page, Goehner. Land and Thomas Nast. The Artist in http://www.gacoast.com/ Anderson, Nancy K., and Landscape: Views of the Mountains. navigator/stmarys.html Linda S. Ferber. Albert America’s History and Bierstadt: Art and . National Museum of Page 7: Enterprise. New York: American Art, Smithsonian George Catlin. River Bluffs, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Hudson Hills Press in Institution, 1994. This study 1,320 Miles above St. Louis. association with the guide is included in the National Museum of Nora Panzer Brooklyn Museum, 1990. museum’s media-based American Art, Smithsonian National Museum of kit, which also Institution. Gift of Mrs. American Art Beam, Philip C., Lois Homer contains a video and work- Joseph Harrison, Jr. Smithsonian Institution Graham, Patricia Junker, book. Distributor: Crystal David Tatham, and John Productions, 1812 Johns Page 8: Wilmerding. Winslow Homer Drive, P.O. Box 2159, Thomas Moran. The Chasm ART TO ZOO in the l890s: Prout’s Neck Glenview, IL 60025Ð6159; of the Colorado. National Observed. New York: telephone: (800) 255-8629. Museum of American Art, Art to Zoo is a publication Hudson Hills Press, 1990. Smithsonian Institution. of the Office of Elementary Lent by the U.S. Department and Secondary Education, Flexner, James Thomas. ELECTRONIC RESOURCES of the Interior, Office of the Smithsonian Institution, The World of Winslow Secretary. Washington, DC 20560. Homer. New York: Time, Visitors to the National Incorporated, 1966. Museum of American Page 9: Writer Art’s home page can view Albert Bierstadt. Among the Linda Andre Kloss, William. Treasures selections from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, from the National Museum of permanent collection as California. National Editor American Art. Washington, well as highlights of Museum of American Art, Douglas Casey D.C.: Smithsonian Institution temporary exhibitions at Smithsonian Institution. Press, 1985. http://www.nmaa.si.edu/ Bequest of Helen Huntington Translator artdir/treasures.html. Hull, granddaughter of Sarita Rodriguez William Brown Dinsmore, Landscape painting The University of North who acquired the painting Design Carolina at Chapel Hill’s in 1873 for “The Locusts,” Karlic Design Associates, LLC Gussow, Alan. A Sense of SunSITE features a the family estate in Dutchess Baltimore, Maryland Place: The Artist and the WebMuseum with images County, New York. American Land. New York: of hundreds of famous Publications Director Seabury Press, 1971. paintings. The home page, at Page 10: Michelle Knovic Smith http://sunsite.unc.edu/wm/ Mount Matterhorn, southern Trenton, Patricia, and Peter paint/, includes a glossary of Switzerland. H. Hassorick. The Rocky painting terminology as well ART TO ZOO ONLINE Mountains: A Vision for as an index of painters and Photograph by Ansel Adams. Artists in the Nineteenth periods, from thirteenth- Copyright © 1995 by the This publication is available Century. Norman: University century Gothic painting to Trustees of the Ansel Adams electronically through the of Oklahoma Press, 1983. twentieth-century pop art. Publishing Rights Trust. All Internet via anonymous ftp rights reserved. to educate.si.edu. Follow The University of Montana the path pub/publications_ Museum of Fine Arts home Page 12: for_teachers/art-to-zoo. page, http://www.umt.edu/ Philip C. Beam. High Cliff, Recent issues and supple- partv/famus/painting.htm, Prout’s Neck. Figure 42 in mentary materials are features a variety of period Beam, Philip C. Winslow offered in hypertext format paintings by artists from Homer at Prout’s Neck. via the World Wide Web at across the United States. Boston: Little, Brown and http://educate.si.edu/ Company, 1966. art-to-zoo/azindex.htm. Note: Because of the rapidly Current and back issues evolving nature of the Winslow Homer. High Cliff, (starting with spring 1993) Internet, it is possible that Coast of Maine. National are also available through the uniform resource locators Museum of American Art, America Online (keyword (URLs) above may have Smithsonian Institution. Gift SMITHSONIAN). changed since publication. of William T. Evans.

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