[00:00.00]NARRATOR: Listen to a conversation between a student and his art history professor.[00:05.57]FEMALE PROFESSOR: How was the museum?
[00:08.02]MALE STUDENT: Great. I hadn't been there for a few years.[00:10.48]FEMALE PROFESSOR: Did you enjoy the Van Gogh painting?[00:12.37]MALE STUDENT: That's the thing. [00:13.72]Looks like I have to change my topic....[00:15.77]FEMALE PROFESSOR: Hmm...we are getting close to the deadline. ...[00:18.23]You were writing about the theme of night in the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh? [00:22.54]It's a wonderful topic......[00:24.04]MALE STUDENT: I know ... People don't usually think of Van Gogh as an artist of nocturnal themes. [00:28.81]They think of brightness, sunshine, all that yellow and orange.[00:32.36]FEMALE PROFESSOR: You are right of course about the intense light associated with his daytime paintings. [00:36.61]But his night paintings don't exactly lack brightness.[00:40.16]MALE STUDENT: That's the paradox that I really like, the paradox of painting a nighttime scene using so much color and light. [00:46.22]So I was planning to focus mostly on his painting Starry Night.[00:50.34]FEMALE PROFESSOR: But?[00:51.04]MALE STUDENT: When I went to the museum to look at the actual painting, like you told me to. [00:55.21]It wasn't there.[00:56.11]FEMALE PROFESSOR: Really? Isn't it part of the permanent collection?
[00:59.34]MALE STUDENT: Yes. But it's on loan right now to a museum in Europe.[01:02.35]FEMALE PROFESSOR: Ah, I see. Well, I am strict about having students write about paintings they can observe firsthand.[01:09.46]MALE STUDENT: Well, I found another painting I could study instead.
[01:12.67]FEMALE PROFESSOR: OK.[01:13.77]MALE STUDENT: I read that there are two paintings called Starry Night. [01:17.24]The first one was done by the French realist painter Millet. [01:21.40]It may have been the inspiration for Van Gogh's painting. [01:24.05]Millet's painting is located near my family's house in Connecticut.[01:27.76]And I am going there this weekend and could study it then. [01:30.40]I made sure it's not out on loan.
[01:32.61]FEMALE PROFESSOR: That definitely would work then.[01:34.66] Van Gogh copied many of Millet's compositions. [01:37.62]We know that he really admired Millet's work. [01:40.48]And a lot of us think Van Gogh saw this particular painting by Millet in Paris in the late 1700s.[01:46.58]MALE STUDENT: Yeah. Although Millet was a realist painter, and Van Gogh a post-impressionist, the two paintings still share lots of features, not just the name. [01:54.67]The most striking shared feature has got to be the amazing light effects. [01:58.53]I am excited to go see it. [02:00.09]But one other thing ...[02:02.05]FEMALE PROFESSOR: Uh-huh?[02:03.13]MALE STUDENT: I was thinking about getting a head start on my next assignment while I am at the gallery in Connecticut, the assignment on miniatures. [02:09.60]They have a lot of miniature portraits of children as part of their permanent collection...[02:13.75]FEMALE PROFESSOR: American miniatures?[02:15.24]MALE STUDENT: Yeah. So I figured I could also get started on that essay, study a few while I am there. [02:20.71]I'd focus on the meaning of the objects that some of the children are holding, some are holding flowers, one child has a rattle, another a toy violin...[02:28.62]FEMALE PROFESSOR: That would be fine. [02:30.02]Uh, those objects—we call them attributes. [02:32.92]The attributes chosen to be included in a particular miniature was often meant to communicate parents'hopes and dreams for their child. [02:40.68]So I think you'll learn a lot about how people viewed children at the time the miniature paintings were done.
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