The Third Class Carriage
by: Honore Daumier
As part of the journey to becoming an artist is developing a critical eye . In this artistic piece, it was done by many of my associate (CyberARTS students), pieced together, and everyone was responsible for a square. At the time no one knew what the picture was, and everyone was drawing exactly what they saw and not from the imagination. Also the project demands that the pictures be enlarged, as everyone received a very small portion of the picture, in a perhaps five centimetre by five centimetre paper. Today the group will analyses the piece with emotionalsim, imitationalism, and formalism.
In my opinion the art piece is somewhat qualifies for the characteristics of emotionalsim and literal qualities. The concept of the picture illustrates life like actions that people would do in a third-world carriage. For instance, it shows to emotion of love, with the women holding the baby. It also portrays a dynamic world, as there are many actions showed in the painting, such as sleeping. There is also a life like mood in the painting, such as a calm melancholy feeling. There is no smile on ones face or a frown, but it also shows peacefulness as a boy is sleeping next the the person with a basket.
However, the picture may give an idea of a life-like dimension but the way the picture was drew, makes it look like a cartoon, and give a unrealistic view of the piece. This would be the imitationalism of the piece. Scientifically, we identify objects due to the contrast of light and darkness and not by dark contour lines. This pictures defines some objects by dark contour. The noses of the people is shown through a dark "L" and not by contrast of shadows. In the end it does not give a photographic feel, but something out of a cartoon television show.
Composition is the most important factor of an art piece, when looking for formalism. The third Class Carriage illustrates and exemplifies the elements and principles of design. The carriage is aesthetically appealing due to the balance. The is about equal amount of objects from left to right. For instance there may be more people on the right, but the windows, and the clarity of detail on the left, counters that. This would include the people beside the baby, which stands out, even being outnumbered by the majority of people to the right. This is because the value is different between the two ladies in the front and the background. Daumier uses a lighter value to emphasis the point of interest, and darker value as the background to add contrast. This would then make the lighter value draw the viewers eyes. In turn this will cause movement in the piece, starting from the lighter value of the left, to the darker value to the right. This is also done very gradually, and does not give an impression of sharp turns, but smoothness. In brief, this piece shows very good formalism.
Composition is the most important factor of an art piece, when looking for formalism. The third Class Carriage illustrates and exemplifies the elements and principles of design. The carriage is aesthetically appealing due to the balance. The is about equal amount of objects from left to right. For instance there may be more people on the right, but the windows, and the clarity of detail on the left, counters that. This would include the people beside the baby, which stands out, even being outnumbered by the majority of people to the right. This is because the value is different between the two ladies in the front and the background. Daumier uses a lighter value to emphasis the point of interest, and darker value as the background to add contrast. This would then make the lighter value draw the viewers eyes. In turn this will cause movement in the piece, starting from the lighter value of the left, to the darker value to the right. This is also done very gradually, and does not give an impression of sharp turns, but smoothness. In brief, this piece shows very good formalism.
