Samuel
Altidor
Professor
D. Lemeh
ART
2000
Blog
Entry 7
17 July 2013
Word Count: 250
The Third Class Wagon by Honoré Daumier
From
the art works discussed in class this week, Daumier’s “The Third Class Wagon”
impressed me the most. I’m a photographer, so I’m going to interpret that work
from a photography standpoint. I love the way Daumier uses light and shadows in
this painting. The warmth from the light coming through the tiny wagon windows
would suggest that the painting was captured early in the morning right after
sunrise or late afternoon at sunset. Photographers name those period of times
“the golden hour” because of the soft, gorgeous, warm, yellow/orange light.
Landscape photographers love shooting during those times of day. To a
photographer, nothing is more beautiful than natural light. The tiny wagon
windows make a very small light source; which makes the light very contrasty,
and dramatic. The old lady completely obstructed the little boy on the far
right in the foreground; therefore he was completely in the shadows. I also
love the pattern of light the directional light from the windows put on the
lady holding the baby and the old lady. Until today portrait photographers try
to place the same classic pattern of light (Rembrandt lighting, loop lighting,
etc…) on their subjects face. The photography industry created “sofboxes” just
to mimic natural light going through a window. I couldn’t have lighted that
scene more beautifully than the natural light coming through the tiny window of
the wagon.
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