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Tamara Alhawamdeh
Professor Loew
Art Appreciation
Art is examined for its valued visual appeal, success in history, and story, as well as how
it communicates to its viewer. When reviewing art online, it establishes a sense of yearning for
the spectator to see it in person. In art, perspective and history are key points to understanding
the piece on canvas, sculpture, or tapestry.
The artist most fundamental tool is a line. In this particular painting, the Moonlight
Landscape by Henry Ossawa Tanner, which he began creating in 1928 and later finished in 1936,
in the painting, the lines are shown in the landscape as parallel form, as well as the top of the
jagged rocks along with the top of the tree line. The thick line along the tree on the left-hand side
of the painting is made to appear stronger and older. The rocks emphasized direction, presenting
the art in a horizontal inclination. “It is if each line surrounds and establishes a volume” (61).
There are not many lines when viewed because the painting is a simple landscape so lines will be
displayed on the canvas.
Another way to look at the lines in the picture could be a form of a zigzag, connecting
from the pine tree to the moon down to the rocks and lake, up towards the moon, then lastly to
the tree on the right. “The flow of water…follows the line etched in the landscape by the river”
(60). When a person first looks at the painting their gaze would follow where the light first hits
the still life then leads them to the darker contours in the painting, being implied in a way of up
and down lines.
Furthermore, adding more figure to the painting is the curved shapes on the flat surface,
in a two-dimensional composition “Rocks and boulders of various sizes protrude from the river’s
rippled surface” (Google Cultural Institute). A person can characterize the moonlit portrait as a
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beautifully romantic scene. The direct scrutiny of the still life can be regarded towards the moon
and trees being the current shape of the clouds as well as the sky can be shown as the negative
form. As the moons light extends from the shadows of the clouds, illuminating the river to
twinkle in its waves can be demonstrated as the positive shape in the portrait. This painting
appears to be organic because of the nature and simplistic value to its viewer.
Texture emphasis touch and creates dimensions in an artist’s work and the work of
Moonlight Landscape texture is used to establish a lively balance between nature and art. By
examining the painting one can imagine how this portrait of a Moonlight Landscape can feel
like. “When light falls across texture… the resulting pattern of light and shadow emphasize the
texture of the surface” (137).
