Teaching Activity: Environment

intermediate
SS

Dutch painters who were Van Gogh's contemporaries, usually called the Hague school, were sometimes referred to as the "Gray school" because of their preference for grays and dark colors. Actually, these are the colors they often saw in the damp, heavy skies of the Netherlands. Have students research the climate of the Netherlands and the area of the North Sea, the setting for both Simon de Vlieger's marine view and Van Gogh's painting of boats at Scheveningen. Have them continue their research into the climate in the south of France, comparing the qualities of the light and the colors in Van Gogh's works from Arles (such as The Yellow House ["The Street"] and The Harvest). What correlations can be seen?

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