Your two essays should each be five paragraphs long.
You will be graded on:
1.Whether you have a coherent thesis.
2.The extent to which the thesis is supported by relevant points. These points should focus on the formal similarities and
differences between the two works.
3.Grammar/writing mechanics
4.The extent to which your discussion is comparative. The essay should not discuss the two paintings separately. Each
paragraph should include a discussion of BOTH works.
Make sure to compare Both FORMAL (how do the works look similar/different) and HISTORICAL (why do the works
look Similar/different) aspects of the work.
- Your essay should have:
- A brief introduction with strong thesis statement
- 3 body paragraphs. Each topic sentence will introduce your comparative analysis.
- A conclusion paragraph.
- Your 3 body paragraphs can discuss THEMATIC (iconography, subject matter), HISTORICAL (patron,
political context, social context), or FORMAL (color, drawing, arrangement of figures, composition,
etc) aspects of the work.
- At least ONE paragraph must address the different historical contexts of the work. The other
paragraphs can be formal/thematic comparison, but at least one paragraph should discuss the
different historical contexts.
- PLEASE NOTE: I have included relevant sources from the readings on Blackboard. Feel free to consult readings (including
your textbook) and to even cite (any citation style is fine, just be consistent) those scholars’ interpretation. But DO NOT base
your entire analysis on their interpretations. Make sure to develop your own argument about the SIMILARITIES and
DIFFERENCES between the two paintings you are discussing.
Essay #1 paintings:
– Place de la Concorde by Edgar Degas 1876
– Apples, Pears, and Primroses on a Table by Gustave Courbet 1871-1872
Questions you MIGHT consider:
—What types of implicit or intentionally ”hidden” meanings can be located in the works? Where
are these meanings to be found formally?
—What types of spaces are represented? To whom do those spaces belong? Do these images
complicate the idea that the spaces ”belong” to any single class? If so, how?
—Are these works formally inventive? Are they engaged with art of the past? What type of art
are they responding to? To what extent are these artistic references understood to be “modern”?
—How important is the idea of capturing the “instant” in these works? If it is important, why do
you think this is the case?
Essay #2
– Madame de Pompadour by Francois Boucher 1756
– A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat 1884
Questions you MIGHT consider:
—How do these paintings represent sensation? Is sensation visual? Tactile?
—How does the viewer’s eye move across the canvas? How does the painter guide our visual experience?
—Where can the “modern” be located formally?
—How is leisure represented?
—What is the body’s relationship to the “stuff” of the world? Where are the boundaries of the body?
