Compare/Contrast Winter Scene in Brooklyn and the Mona Lisa

Compare/Contrast Winter Scene in Brooklyn and the Mona Lisa.

A winter scene is Brooklyn is a famous painting by Francis Guy. He was a painter who was born in 1760 in England, in the city of London. Later on in his life, he moved to Brooklyn at about 1817. He stayed in Brooklyn until his death in 1820. The painting, as the name suggests, depicts a winter scene in Brooklyn. It shows the state of Brooklyn during winter; houses covered in snow, people rushing to pick firewood, all people clothed in warm attire and others talking. Moreover, it shows the gap between the rich and the poor. Francis Guy managed to show this in one painting. The painting was done by 1820, before his earth. The painting is currently based at the Brooklyn Museum (DiYanni 23).
The work of art is a representational form of art. The reason for this conclusion is based on the fact that the painting shows objects that an individual can easily recognize such as people, houses, horses, firewood, dogs, and snow. The genre for the work is landscape. This conclusion is from the fact that it portrays people doing everyday things at the time such as picking firewood and having a conversation. Guy’s composition is also asymmetrical as it depicts people doing normal activities while still managing to balance between visual weight and these objects. Its focal point is a free space in the painting between some people having a conversation and next to two people picking firewood (Ray 18). The painting leads us to this point by painting is in a bright color.

Moreover, there is nobody standing at that point; as if they all recognize that this point is the focal point, and one should not stand on it. The artist is also successful in using line elements in his work. One can see this element through the line strokes that has been employed in the painting. This element is in houses and roads. These roads have a length, width and direction all of which are elements of a line. The brushstrokes by the artist are nearly imperceptible and smooth. There is also a persistent source of light in the painting. His work compares to other people at his time as most of them were not of the landscape genre as seen in works such as Lady Torrens and her family and the country wedding.
The famous Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, on the other hand, is the world-famous masterpiece of painting. It portrays a woman who appears to be sited; it is a half-length portrait (York 90). It has a landscape background. The colors are and dark (Kalz 38). However, there is a contrast. The face of the woman is the center of interest and the dominant feature. What’s interesting is that the landscape does not add up on both sides of the woman’s face. This is a very interesting facet in the Mona Lisa. The proportion of the work of art is realistic; it accurately represents people doing activities in their correct proportions. The painting is also symmetrical (Bramly 12). This conclusion is from the fact that the face is in the middle of the painting. It is also balanced as other elements balance out at the sides of the woman’s face.
In conclusion, both the works addressed in this paper can be referred to as a work of art based on its good use of focal point, balance, genre, line, and proportion. However, there is a quite big difference between them.

Works Cited
Bramly, Serge. Mona Lisa. London: Thames and Hudson, 1996. Print.
DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 5th ed. Boston, Mass.: McGraw-Hill, 2002. Print.
Kalz, Jill. The Mona Lisa. North Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 2005. Print.
Ray, David. “A Winter Scene.” The Missouri Review, 2010: 18. Print.
York, N.Y., and Theodore Rousseau. The Mona Lisa. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. Print.