Awareness Post (#1)

This piece is called Progress (The Advance of Civilization), by Asher B. Durand, and it was painted in 1853. I go to find this painting whenever I'm at the VMFA because I just love it so much. The light in this painting is so beautiful, especially the way that it reflects on the trees and rocks on the left side of the painting. I would love to try using lighting like that in my own works. I also like the way that the leaning tree towards the middle-left side of the piece really guides your eyes through the composition, which heavily uses the rule of thirds. My favorite part of this piece is all the details of the people around the piece, just because you never see them on the first glance. Another thing that I think is really cool about this piece is that it's part of the Hudson River School of Painting, which depicts the impact of humans on the American landscape. I just think that's really neat, mainly because we just talked about it in APUSH and this piece came to mind, and then when I looked it up later I found out that it was made by a primary artist in the movement.

Progress (The Advance of Civilization), by Asher B. Durand, 1853, Oil paint