Museum: Visual Arts Field Report
+++++++++++++++++Is this the correct form? Use this form for a critique of a drawing, painting, sculpture, or photo on display in a museum. This form should not be used for works of art on display for sale. Not all museums are “art” museums! To complete this assignment you must select a work on display at a museum that was created by an artist as an art piece. This may seem obvious, however not all museums a focused on fine art.
Part One: Basic Descriptive Information (5% of the grade)
| Student’s name | |
| Title of the work you selected | Honore Daumier, Rue Transnonain, Le 15 1834[The Massacre at the Rue Transnonain, April 15, 1834] |
| Name of the artist | Honore Daumier |
| What is the artistic media? If the artistic medium is not one covered in the artistic media lecture, explain what the media is. | Lithograph |
| Year the work of art was created. This may be a span of years or an estimated date. | April 15, 1834 |
| Physical dimensions (metric or imperial units) | 11 ¼ x 17 ¼ inches. (28.6 x 43.8cm); Sheet: 14 1/8 x 28 3/8 in. (35.8 x 54.3) |
| Name of the museum | Hammer Museum, Los Angeles |
| Ownership of the artwork | Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation. |
| Explain why you chose this museum. | The Hammer Museum champions art from artists and artists who took it upon themselves to challenge the world to look at things in a new light, experience what has never been done before, spark imagination, and give inspiration for change. Through the facility’s focus on art, they have demonstrated their willingness to cruise people through the aesthetic experience and, at the same time, provide a learning point into most pressing issues affecting different groups of people and individuals. |
Part Two: Biography (17% of the grade)
| Write a biography of the artist. Do this in your own words. (200-300 words) |
| A prolific caricaturist, painter, and sculptor of the French origin, Honore-Victorin Daumier was popularly known for his drawings and cartoons that he made to satirize the French politics and society of the 19th century. Despite him not being so popular during his time, his paintings played an integral role in the introduction of Impressionism techniques into modern art. He is described as one who came from a violent temperament, generous, and he was easy to change his mind with a high capacity for pity. His mother hailed from a family where fierce, primitive heads had been discovered (Macsotay, p. 20). His father and grandfather both dealt in frames and decorative tableaux that they painted themselves. His father moved to Paris to follow his poetry passion, which was shortlived, and he later died in an asylum at Charenton.
Honore Daumier received the average education, which did not interest him at all, and his family later took him to a well-known artist Alexander Lenoir, who was a lover of art and kept some in for himself. He was not a genius in art, but his upbringing from home full of artists and pieces of art made his interests stronger, coupled with the fact that he received bits of artistic education. He decides to embark on art after he was 25years old and had been working all that while. |
| Provide an MLA formatted citation for the sources of your biography. |
| Macsotay, Tomas. “Biographies of sculptural objects: genre and public fate.” The Sculpture Journal 27.1 (2018): 17-149. |
Part Three: Description (17% of the grade)
| Describe the subject matter in detail. Do this in your own words. Describe the artwork for someone who will never be able to see the artwork. |
| Rue Transnonain was the ultimate print in the Association Mensuelle sequence and the ugliest scene that Honore Daumier ever made on stone. It brings to remembrance the killing by the National Guard of innocent citizens during the riots in Paris on the 15th of April, 1834. The army had calmed the revolt by silk workers in Lyon only for the uprising to spread to the capital city’s working class. Troops stormed to the Rue Transnonain building and opened fire to everyone in the response of the gunshots that had been heard coming from the top floor windows at number 12. |
Part Four: Artistic Movement (17% of the grade)
| Identify the artistic movement of the piece. Keep in mind that there are dozens of artistic movements in our history. Only a few are covered in class. (Do not respond with “Modern,” “20th Century”, or “Contemporary.” These designations are not specific enough for this question.) |
| Realism |
| Provide a detailed definition of the artistic movement you identified in the previous question. |
| The artworks in this category provide images of the actions in society daily from the happenings in life (Houston, p.18). They paint the direct image of how our society is and criticize and satirizes the actions most of the time. This art movement rejected romanticism and sought to portray the reality in life. |
| Provide an MLA formatted citation for the sources of your definition. |
| Houston, David. “Jamie Wyeth and Recent American Realism.” (2014): 18-19. |
| In your own words, identify elements of artwork that match the artistic movement defined in the previous question. You must be specific here. Make clear connections between elements of your definition and elements of the selected artwork. |
| Rue Transnonain also depicts the real nature of events that happened during the political unrest in France’s capital. Innocent people were assassinated by the army, which is portrayed in Honore Daumier’s lithograph. It shows how the death of those innocent people appeared in the eyes with no sugarcoating it.
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Part Five: Interpretation (17% of the grade)
| In your own words, provide your INTERPRETATION of the artwork. What is its meaning? Provide some evidence for your response. Do not describe or evaluate the art in this section. |
| The painting shows a man presumed dead and lying on his back. From his position with part of his body on the floor and his head on the bed’s side. On the right side of the lithograph is a woman who also appears to be dead. There is also another person on the left of the art side and who is again lying down flat on their back. Beneath the man, there seems to be a kid who is also lying down but on its stomach. My interpretation of the work is an assassination done by professionals, which the victims caught by surprise, and that is why they are all laid down in different styles. |
| How have other critics INTERPRETED works by this artist? Sources for interpretive criticism by others may include books about the artist, scholarly journals, newspaper, and magazine articles. Direct quotations are preferred here over generalizations. |
| The piece of art represents an assassination of innocents that has been executed by the government and does so with a little exaggeration of the actual events that ensued in the political unrest that was being witnessed in the country at that period (Filipovitch-Robinson, p. 114). The art shows and cultivates feelings of sadness and a somber mood for the death of the innocent people in print. This is unlike his other pieces of caricature and satirical work. |
| Provide MLA formatted citations for your sources in the previous question. |
| Filipovitch-Robinson, Lilien. “History Painting: Its Transformative Implications.” Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 29.1 (2018): 113-128. |
Part Six: Commonality (5% of the grade)
| Look around the room at the museum. Is there a common subject matter, artistic movement, or artist? What does the work you chose to have in common with the others in the room? |
| Dynamic programs and exhibitions propel the museum, and their pieces of art, therefore, range from politics to societal issues and so many other things. The museum initially was made up of old master paintings and drawings and a collection of works on paper by Honore Daumier. This is the reason I chose Rue Transnonain asp the art to describe. |
Part Seven: Evaluative (17% of the grade)
| In your own words, provide your EVALUATIVE assessment of this work of art. Provide some justification for your response. Do not describe or interpret the work of art in this section. |
| Honore Daumier’s Rue Transnonain is an informative piece of artwork that well describes the vices happening in various countries due to the political unrest being witnessed. Through the lithograph, he has expressed his thoughts while satirizing the actions portrayed in the drawing. |
| How have other critics EVALUATED the merits of this artwork or others by this artist? Sources for evaluative criticism by others may include books about the artist, scholarly journals, newspaper, and magazine articles. Direct quotations are preferred here over generalizations. |
| Other scholars have marveled at Honore Daumier’s use of satire to criticize the oppression and rule of the French government at that time (Miller, p. 20). The assassination is an excellent example of how the country is killing innocent people due to riots and uprisings. Through his satire, he brings out the vices in his art pieces, which are both educative and aesthetic. |
| Provide MLA formatted citations for your sources in the previous question. |
| Miller, Marty. “Sacred vs. Profane in The Great War: A Neutral’s Indictment.” Catholic Library World 89.1 (2018): 20. |
Part Eight: Terms (5% of the grade)
| Describe the work in terms of the elements of visual arts that were covered in class during week one. Highlight each use of those terms in bold type. |
| Honore Daumier used the five elements of visual arts as well as depicted in this lithograph. The use of lines is well described through the outlines of the objects and people in the lithograph. The lines have been used to achieve the shape of the objects in the lithograph. Also, Honore Daumier used color to make his drawing visible and the elements inside identifiable. The texture of the lithograph was also made to accentuate the motions shown in the art. Lastly, the art is sizeable enough to make sure that space has been used correctly to identify and display the message intended to be passed across. |
This assignment must be submitted using the Turnitin link on the course Blackboard site. Printed copies will not be accepted.