Gauguin’s Vision After The Sermon, Jacob Wrestling

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HUMAART EI Mayurie Twatwunnaphong January 16, 2012 Expressionism Source: http://www.huntfor.com/absoluteig/gallery.asp?action=viewimage&categoryid=&text=Expressionism&imageid=169&box=&shownew= Paul Gauguin’s Vision After the Sermon, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel 1. Describe the use of color, perspective, and composition of the painting employed by the artist in the painting. Gauguin made use of the proper colors needed in this painting to convey his message such as having black and white for the nuns and brown and green for the trees, and so on. The dominant color red as the background color of the nuns and the angel wrestling with Jacob represents where the struggle is happening and the conflict between the angel and Jacob as well. The painting depicts the Biblical story found in Genesis about Jacob’s struggle with God. Jacob’s fraud against receiving his brother Esau’s blessing caused him to be afraid that God would kill him because of his wrong doing. This results to how he wrestles with an angel in the form of a man. Gauguin used oil on canvas in order to create this piece of art. He did not really give much detail into his objects as one can see in the nuns, trees, angel, and other objects in the painting. The bonnets of the two nuns in the right are similar to helmets. The apple tree that cuts across the canvas separate the two worlds of the nuns and of Jacob and the angel’s into two. Also, as one can see Gauguin’s way of painting the tree was inspired by Japanese painting in the way the shape and colors were painted. 2. Suggest a theme presented by the painting to the viewer. The theme of this painting is a spiritual struggle that is mysterious and dramatic, a conflict as seen in a secular and religious outlook. Being very religious having nuns, angels, and Jacob as the subject was depicted in a very dark and

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