1. Landscapes: Real and Imagined

2. Questions Why might an artist choose to paint abstractly instead of representationally—depicting figures, shapes, objects, or scenes? What kinds of choices do artists make when painting? MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme

3. Take a close look at Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor, by Seurat. What is going on in the foreground, the middle ground and the background? What is the mood of this place? Georges-Pierre Seurat. Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor. 1888 MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme

4. Now, take a close look at The Starry Night, by van Gogh. How is it similar to Port-en- Bessin? How is it different? What details do you notice? Why might this be considered a ‘Symbolist’ work of art? Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. June 1889 MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme

5. How are these paintings similar? How are they different? Let’s compare Seurat and van Gogh MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. June 1889Georges-Pierre Seurat. Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor. 1888

6. Now, take a close look at Melancholy: Evening on the Shore, by Munch. What is happening with the figure in this landscape? What mood is being conveyed? Would the mood be the same without the figure? Why or why not? MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme Edvard Munch. Melancholy: Evening on the Shore. 1896

7. Now, take a close look at Evening, Honfleur, by Seurat. MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme Georges-Pierre Seurat. Evening, Honfleur, 1886 What is happening in the foreground, middle ground, and background? What mood is being conveyed?

8. Let’s compare the moods of Munch’s Melancholy: Evening on the Shore to Seurat’s Evening, Honfleur. MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Georges-Pierre Seurat. Evening, Honfleur, 1886 Edvard Munch. Melancholy: Evening on the Shore. 1896

9. Questions Now that you have generated descriptive words for each image, use them to have a conversation with a partner: How did these modern painters convey a sense of mood or interior, psychological space in their landscapes? MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme

10. Henri Rousseau. The Dream. 1910

11. Let’s look at these two landscapes by Matisse. MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Henri Matisse. Study for "Luxe, calme et volupté". 1904 Henri Matisse. Landscape at Collioure. 1905

12. Vasily Kandinsky. Picture with an Archer. 1909 MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme

13. Paul Gauguin. The Moon and the Earth. 1893

14. Joan Miró. The Hunter (Catalan Landscape). Montroig, July 1923-winter 1924. MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme

15. Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. 1931. MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme

16. Max Ernst. Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale. 1924. MoMA Landscapes: Real and Imagined Theme