Spencer Museum of Art

Curriculum Connections

Studio Art

1. Review Robert Louis Stevenson and develop an exercise on relief carving. Have students work in high relief and in low relief. Discuss the differences in light and shadow and form between the two types.
2. Many Gilded Age artists were influenced by the literature and poetry of their time. Have students create a work based on contemporary literature or poetry. Discuss why they chose a particular piece of literature and how it inspired their work of art.
3. Review Green and Gold and The Gleaners. Both artists painted in a style that art historians call Tonalism. Have students create a work of art in pastel using the style of Tonalism.
4. Review Portrait of Mrs. Curtis. Have students create a self portrait that communicates who they are through pose, facial expression, clothing, and setting.
5. Review Cloud Shadows. Have students paint a landscape that emphasizes nature. Have them consider how the placement of the horizon line and the people effect the emphasis on nature. Have them consider how the placement of the horizon line effects the emphasis on sky or land.
6. Review Green and Gold. Dewing was influenced by music. Have students create a work influenced by music. Consider harmony, balance, and rhythm.

Social Studies
Literature:
Read Mark Twain's The Gilded Age. Consider how this novel relates to the period in American history referred to as the Gilded Age.

Many of the Gilded Age artists were influenced by poems. Read Stevenson's Underwoods. How is that passage significant to Saint-Gaudens' Robert Louis Stevenson?

Go to srnels.people.wm.edu/gilded.html and choose from the list of authors widely read by Americans in the Gilded Age. Consider how that author relates to the period in American history referred to as the Gilded Age.

Art History/Humanities:
Both Dewing and Inness are considered Tonalists. Compare Green and Gold and The Gleaners. How are these images the same? How are they different?

Review Green and Gold, The Gleaners, and Cloud Shadows. How are the theories of Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin and the religious movement of Swedenborgianism evident in these works of art?