The dynamic patterned background, elaborate brushstrokes, and vivid color blue are not reminiscent of medieval art, nor is symmetry in and of itself a defining feature. The gold lettering on the figure's cap, however, is similar to the inscription one would use to identify a saint in medieval art.

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The pattern of the man's beard and the background resemble the swirling clouds and landscape of Van Gogh's famous Starry Night. The others are domestic scenes with very different textures, except Irises, which is more about vertical movement than spirals.

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The painting does not glorify the new world order, nor does it condemn it. Instead, the painting recognizes the new way of life and the need to replace ways that have grown old and stale, but it also recognizes the beautiful sacrifice made by people (and ships) that can no longer offer as much. Thus, it celebrates the fight of the old Temeraire, in spite of its weaknesses now.

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None of these are accurate with respect to Turner's work or methodology except for the fact that he used oil in a way more expected of watercolor to create his signature style. This painting is an oil painting, but the texture is surprisingly light.

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The Oxbow (View From Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm) is essentially divided between a left side composed of wild vegetation underneath a thunderstorm and a right side featuring farms and villages underneath bright sunshine. Thomas Cole's work sharply contrasts the two sides to show the inherent conflict between nature and civilization in American society in the nineteenth century.

Artwork from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cole_Thomas_The_Oxbow_(The_Connecticut_River_near_Northampton_1836).jpg

The figure in The Desperate Man, a self portrait by Gustave Courbet, looks like he is about to leap out of the painting. His eyes are bulging, and he appears to pulling out his hair, all while wearing an ill-fitting shirt. All of this conveys an element of madness in the figure.

The Impressionists as a group sought to focus the subject of paintings on everyday life and to use more emotional techniques, like vivid brushstrokes. Paul Cézanne took these approaches to the traditional still life to turn it on its head. Cézanne's still lifes had unique uses of light and shadow and included strange objects such as skulls and rotting fruit.

Francisco de Goya was the court painter for the Spanish monarchy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. As the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France invaded Spain in the first decade of the nineteenth century, Goya's work saw a major transformation. In particular, Goya began painting haunting and disturbing images of scenes from the Napoleonic Wars in France.

Impressionism was inaugurated as a result against the standards of Paris' Salon, which was France's biggest art prize and show in the late nineteenth century. Impressionists like Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Claude Monet sought to paint people in cafes, scenes of everyday life, and basic landscapes. These artists also departed from the stark realism popular at the time to convey images with more emotional intensity by using more visible brushstrokes.

Each of these paintings reflect some aspect of everyday life, as well as portraying that with non-representational, emotional painting techniques. These are hallmarks of the movement known as Impressionism, which arose in the 1860s and 1870s as a reaction to history painting and realism. Van Gogh, however, took these aspects to further extremes, with more representational images and basic depictions of his own life, and as such is usually dubbed a post-impressionist.

Figure 1: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (1889)

Figure 2: Portrait of Père Tanguy by Vincent van Gogh (1887-8)