Description Paper Assignment: The Milwaukee Art Museum
Introduction
The Storm in the Wilderness, Oil on Canvas, 1826-28 is an artwork from the Milwaukee Art Museum, Layton Art Collection, Inc. which was done by Thomas Cole. The painting is historical art, showing critical events that took place in the ancient world in politics, religion, environment, and moral values in society. Cole centered his works on nature and the surrounding environment that people lived in, using nature as a tool of nationalism, and a drive for political commentary. The report explores the Storm in the Wilderness artwork, describing how the painting is, its color, texture and artist intention as he drew it. One asks how the painting was iconic, and what made it so fascinating at that time and in the present art world?
The subject of the Artwork: The Storm in the Wilderness, was done using oil o a canvas to bring out a clear visible image, with all beauty details therein. The foreground has a tree whose trunk is twisted, and the wind is blowing the branches of the tree, and are seen bend towards the direction of the wind. The painting has a brighter side from the sun’s rays and the darker part with the heavy clouds forming up and blackening the sky. The path through the landscape is empty, and no humans are in the vicinity, showing the loneliness in the Wilderness, and only the rocks lined on the sideways represents the guard-troops of immovable objects in the image.
The Artwork Composition: The eyes are drawn on the tree with a twisted trunk and branches leaning on one side due to the strong winds blowing. The tree has bright orange leaves, indicating a season of blooming, or summer. The painting shows a storm building up, a sign of something terrible in the horizon coming to destroy the beauty that has been there. A lone footpath cuts through the hilly landscape, with rocks lined on the sides. Much of the composition is balanced, with all the activity running inside the image, within its borders. However, the sky is partly shown with heavy clouds forming rapidly, and a distant small section where light is coming from.
The scale of the work: The extent of the artwork is a monumental size painting, because it captures the entire landscape with trees of different sizes, and the viewer can still see the distant ones on the horizon near the skyline. There is a rising landmass on the background, and the foreground has rocks, trees, footpath, and a sloping landscape. The painting stretches across the distant hilly landscape emphasizing the expanse and vastness in the Wilderness, and there is no human presence nor any activity representing humanity.
The color used by the artist: The colors in the painting’s background indicates a warm season, probably summer, which is uniquely American landscape style and features. Different leaves’ color from green to bright yellow-orange in the painting creates a beautiful scenery of vegetation in the image. The brightly orange leaves on the trees is a season of happiness and liveliness. Heavy, dark-grey clouds are rapidly forming in the sky from the image’s view, and the sun’s rays are being gulped up by the dark clouds closing in quickly. The sun’s light shows a sign of hope in the distressful times, during a storm.
The texture of the Artwork: The texture is a rough one, with the twisted tree trunk, different tree sizes, and rocky and hilly landscape in the foreground. The clouds are rougher, forming a heavy blanket over the sky, swirling like a disturbed ocean, and the image gives the viewer an experience of the Storm that the artist had in the beginning as he drew it.
Depth: Thomas wanted the viewer to experience the landscape and view from the cliff, seeing the expanse of the scene, the space, and nature’s beauty in the painting. The viewer can interact with the landscaper in the image, the trees, and distant vastness of the Wilderness. The Storm shows the dark experiences humans pass through, but always a light comes out, and the Storm passes away.
Lighting and its Source: Light is coming from the sun, which is illuminating the artwork. It is coming from the right side of the image, lighting up the dark clouds swirling in the sky and makes the leaves glow in brighter colors of the summer. The twisted tree is the main object that light illuminates and the eye sees it first. Different lighting would indicate that the Storm is passing or intense, and the objects in the foreground would not be visible to the eyes if the light were dim.
Line Definition: The artist uses a clear and well-defined line in the image, and the outline gives the painting a well cut out forms of the objects in the background. Trees, rocks, and the landscape are visible to the viewer, giving the intent of the image, the experience, and the clarity of the work.
Style of the Work: The artwork shows a rugged terrain, untouched country, and vastness, indicating the ability, richness that America had in the past. It represents romanticism, which portrays the inspiration the artist had between nature and the past culture.
Artistic Intent: The painting shows the conflicting forces in nature, a storm and the light from the sun. The Storm is feared and represents the challenges man passes through, while the sunlight gives hope, love, and a brighter ending during a storm. The artist wanted to encourage the people facing difficulties that there is a way out in all challenges.
Conclusion: Art is significant as it connects the history of a nation and the present state a country has achieved. Cole’s work on the Storm in the Wilderness, is influential, and production of a vision of the landscape, nature, and the former state of the American landscape before the arrival of the modern transformation.