Henri Rousseau Exotic Landscape with Lion and Lioness in Africa Assignment | Exotic Landscape

a formal analysis of the painting below. Write about how the seven elements of art: line, color, shape, form, value, texture, and space function in the painting. Write about what you see, and not what you think it might mean.

BE OBJECTIVE.

I have included a previous student example to help you.

I expect some detailed and creative writing.

The painting is the “Henri Rousseau Exotic Landscape with Lion and Lioness in Africa” you can find it if you search it up and here is a writing example for another painting which is the “Forensic Report on Nude in the Bath and Small Dog”

PRELIMINARY INFORMATION: The painting in question is dubbed Nude in the Bath and Small Dog. Believed to have begun in 1941 and completed in 1946. It appears to be the work of French post-impressionist Pierre Bonnard.

LINE: The use of lines in this painting appear roughly divided into three vertical sections. The top section contains straight lines (or the rather slightly skewed rendering of straight lines) arranged into rows. More “straight” lines run between the aforementioned rows, staggered into a brick-like formation. The bottom section contains many crisscrossed diagonal lines except in the center. There are much less linear patterns in the middle than on the top and bottom sections although there are some vertically-running lines to the right.

SHAPE: As described, the lines of the top section of the painting are arranged in a brick-like formation although they are not perfectly straight. This gives the impression of a distorted brick background. This whole background bends sharply near the center-left in what might be a corner in a wall. The diagonal crisscrosses of the bottom section form a kind of tile, although there is a patternless square

shape in the center with what appears to be a dog inside. The middle section has less consistent patters. The section is mostly represented by an enclosed curve, a supine human figure within.

FORM: The painting does not make any attempt to fool the viewer into perceiving any three-dimensional shapes. That said, the viewer does get a sense of all three dimensions. The top section is a brick wall, marking the furthest the viewer can see. The left of the top section is seen as another brick wall. This second wall is mostly to the side of the viewer but within peripheral vision. The two walls meet at about a right angle. Closer to the viewer, at the bottom of the first wall, is a human in a bathtub. Closer still (and at a lower height still than the tub) is a tile floor with a dog on a towel on it.

SPACE: The painting gives the sense of a cube-like space between the viewer (who is probably meant to be standing upright based on the perspective) and where the main brick wall meets the tile floor. The point at which the floor meets both walls is off a little to the left. The bathtub with the human figure seems pushed against the meeting and is in the center of the field of vision. The dog on the towel is directly below. The viewer stands about as far from the tub as the distance between the floor and the highest the main wall can be seen. In between is empty space. COLOR and

VALUE: The hue of the paintings is mostly blue and grey. These blue is of a deep shade when viewed from afar (in detail there are many component shades but the aggregate shade is deep. The grey, which fills the middle section as well as the very left of the top section almost appears as a less “confident” blue with less value. There is an interesting piece of sharp contrast in the top right. The color scheme goes from grey and deep blue to yellow-orange and deep red. T

TEXTURE: The overall texture of the painting is imaginary. Viewed from a reasonable distance, almost everything, be it truly hairy (like the dog) or truly smooth (like the tub) appears uncharacteristically “bumpy.” Everything seems made up of tiny waves with crests perpendicular to the viewer’s line of sight.