Interact
Think, Look & Compare Questions

Questions for Discussion
Connections to the Collection
Take a Look!

History: Focus Question VIII – Self-Expression – How have New Hampshire people expressed their views, and what have they had to say?

Visual Arts: Standard 3, Select and apply a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas; Standard 4, Analyze the visual arts in relation to history and culture.

Thinking About the Artists’ Colonies
Questions for Discussion

• Why would artists’ choose to go to a colony?
• Of the colonies described, which colony would you choose to attend and why?
• What might artists gain from working in close proximity to one another? Could they lose anything in this process?
• How might the natural setting of a colony inspire an artist?
• What are the benefits of living in/visiting an artists’ colony? Are there any drawbacks? Explain.
• Have you ever gained inspiration or improved a skill through interaction with others?
• Have you ever spent time in a group setting away from your everyday life? How did the experience affect you?

Connections to the Collection
Visual Arts: Standard 3, Select and apply a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas.

Compare and Contrast Dublin Colony’s Ivanov-Rinov and Cornish Colony’s Zorach

Gouri Pavlovich Ivanov-Rinov (1903-1966) was an artist whose abilities ranged from traditional Russian icon painting to stage design. He is perhaps best known for his landscape and genre subjects. Born in Turkestan, Russia, Ivanov-Rinov fought in the Russian Revolution and Civil War before immigrating to the United States in 1922. Ivanov-Rinov settled in Dublin, New Hampshire in 1933. In 1945 he opened a summer art school in Dublin.

William Zorach (1887-1966) is perhaps best known as a sculptor, though he began his career as a pioneering modernist painter. Born in Lithuania, he came to the United States at a young age and eventually settled with his family in Ohio. Just prior to the decade of the 1920s, Zorach and his wife began to spend summers in New Hampshire. They absorbed Expressionist and Cubist styles, blending these with the Fauvism that they had developed while studying art together in France.

Harrisville, NH (1947), demonstrates Ivanov-Rinov’s talent for incorporating American Scene painting, the regionalist painting style, which came to the fore during the 1920s/30s featuring rural landscapes and genre images. His works are noted for their ability to capture the charm of these scenes. The painting depicts a small New Hampshire community in winter, (Harrisville, New Hampshire, located close to Dublin) and the composition includes such elements as skaters on an ice-covered pond and a village church in the distance.

Zorach’s Plowing the Fields (1917) depicts the mountainous terrain in the vicinity of the artist’s summer home at Echo Farm near Plainfield, New Hampshire. Just below the center of the canvas, two figures plow a field with the aid of horses, cutting pink furrows in the green turf. A herd of black and white farm animals graze underneath pine trees in the lower right, while a dead tree and several wildflowers draw attention in the foreground. In the background, rolling hills and distant forests give way to purple mountains. Plowing the Fields parallels the work of Henri Matisse in its use of bright pinks, greens and purples. Placed near each other, the colors make a strong impact and compete with the composition for attention.

Have your students compare and contrast these two paintings, citing the artist’s use of color, subject, and style. Explore the mood created in each painting and discuss how each artist has been influenced by the New Hampshire setting.

Take a Look!
Questions to guide your analysis of the work of artists who visited New Hampshire’s Artists’ Colonies

Visual Arts: Standard 2, Identify and apply the elements of visual arts and principles of design, Standard 4, Analyze the visual arts in relation to history and culture.

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