Baltimore Museum of Art

#1: Dancer at Pigalle's by Gino Severini

I chose this oil painting as the most intriguing to me because of all of the movement that the picture displays. The composition used here was the Golden Triangle. This painting contains various organic and geometric shapes. When I first looked at this image, I was drawn in towards the sequins in the shape of a heart. From there, my eyes seemed to dance around the page. Before I looked at the description, I believed that there were spot lights that were focusing on the movement in the center. The description reveled to me that this is the moment of a dancer as she is twirling around and her dress is spinning. I really liked this painting especially because it included some 3D elements of parts of the dress.

#2: Peonies by Odilon Redon

I chose this painting because it is very elegant and simple from a far. It is more "clean cut" and recognizable than the first painting. Once you get closer to the painting, you can see the very small, intricate details and brush strokes, especially on the vase. I enjoy painting/drawing more recognizable objects and nature so I was eager to sketch this. It is very appealing to the eye and I noticed more details as I was sketching it. The composition of this painting is the Golden Triangle. People who see this probably will not think much of it aside from "it is a vase with some flowers," unless they are standing there looking at it for a while. To me, as I was standing there, this painting seemed to come from the artist's deeper thoughts because of the small delicately placed details on the vase.

#3: The Pierced Rock by Henri Matisse

This was the first painting that stood out to me in the Baltimore Museum of Art, but ranked third because it was not as intriguing as the other two. Since this one is mainly made up of darker greys, blacks, and blues it made me think deeply. I like how the whole painting is in this "grey-scale" aside from the pop of green towards the bottom. I was intrigued by this one because of the intense brush strokes that created a detailed texture on the rock and water. I really liked how the contrast of light and dark under the rock, directed my eyes right to that. This composition is L-shapes at the rock where it meets the water on both the inside and outside of the rock, as well as at the bottom by the land. This may also be seen as Rule of Thirds (horizontally). This image can mean various things to many people, but to the artist, it was a depiction of a port in Normandy.

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