Pipe Art Discussion

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William Harnett’s A Smoke Backstage is oil on canvas painted in 1877.The medium of this artwork is painting with is a oil on canvas. The artwork is in an interior setting based in what seems to be on top of a desk. The space is very clustered and has a lot of related items together. The items in the painting consists of a pipe with ashes coming out of it, a bag of tobacco, matches, and a newspaper. The paper is placed under the bag of tobacco with the pipe to the left along with the used matches. The paper seems to have the word Demark on it which seems to make this a European setting of some sort. Along with the word kilo on the bag of tobacco which can be used to analyze the painting. Rene Magritte’s La Trahison des Image is another example of oil on canvas. The phrase “La Trahison des Image” translated to English means “The treason of Images”. The medium of this artwork is a painting known as a oil on canvas. This painting is neither a interior or exterior setting due to it simply being a picture on a black background. The space is simply organized. The painting consists of a picture of a brown pipe in the center with the phrase “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” under the pipe. This phrase translated means “This is not a pipe.” Comparing and contrasting both pieces of art I can see many similarities and differences. Both artists used a pipe in their paintings. William Harnett’s painting had more items which gave more things that the viewer could look at and focus on analyzing and gives a realistic view. William’s message can be perceived as trying to establish that smoking can be seen as laid back and calming. While on the other hand Rene Magritte gave one item which was the pipe that the viewers saw and made this the focus point by placing it in the middle. She also presented a quote with the pipe to give the viewer something to analyze and think about. This

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