Guided tour · Calm · large text

A walk through the seasons

A calm walk from spring to winter, in eight works. Large text, a gentle voice and no hurry.

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Works

8

Time

about 15 min

Collections

5

About this tour

A calm walk through the year, from spring flowers to winter ice, in eight works from museums around the world. Take your time: the tour waits for you at every work. Tap Next when you are ready to go on.

We begin in spring, in a garden in the south of France.

The 8 works

1. 

   Work 1 of 8

   Irises

   Vincent van Gogh · 1889 · J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

   What do you see? What does it remind you of?

   Among all the blue irises there is a single white one.

   Vincent van Gogh began these irises in May 1889, in the hospital garden at Saint-Rémy in the south of France, within his first week there.

2. 

   Work 2 of 8

   Plum Garden at Kamata

   Utagawa Hiroshige · 1857 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

   What colour is the sky? How does the garden feel?

   A soft pink sky above plum trees in blossom, and visitors walking slowly among them.

   In Japan, people went out to see the plum trees blossom at the end of winter, as many still do. Utagawa Hiroshige made this print early in the year 1857.

3. 

   Work 3 of 8

   Snap the Whip

   Winslow Homer · 1872 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

   What game are they playing? Did you ever play it?

   They hold hands in a long line and run. The ones at the end swing so fast that they fall over.

   Winslow Homer painted this in 1872: boys at play beside a little red schoolhouse in the country. Barefoot in the summer grass: many people remember games like this.

4. 

   Work 4 of 8

   The Harvesters

   Pieter Bruegel the Elder · 1565 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

   Can you find the people who are taking a break?

   Under the tree in front, the harvesters sit together and share their lunch. One man has stretched out for a nap.

   Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted this in 1565, as one of a series about the times of the year. You can almost feel the heat.

5. 

   Work 5 of 8

   Storks

   Józef Chełmoński · 1900 · National Museum in Warsaw, Warsaw

   What are they looking at? What does it make you think of?

   Storks, flying over the fields.

   Storks come back to Poland every spring and fly south at the end of summer. Józef Chełmoński loved to paint the countryside and its people, like this farmer and boy.

6. 

   Work 6 of 8

   Red Apples

   Helene Schjerfbeck · 1915 · Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki

   Look at the colours. What is the warmest thing on the table?

   The red apples glow, next to a vase of pink flowers.

   Helene Schjerfbeck painted this in Finland in 1915. She left out everything she did not need. Did you ever have an apple tree?

7. 

   Work 7 of 8

   Ice-Skating in a Village

   Hendrick Avercamp · about 1610 · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

   Everyone is out on the ice. What are the people doing?

   Skating, talking, playing and resting: the whole village is out on the ice.

   Hendrick Avercamp painted many winter scenes like this one, about 400 years ago. Did you ever skate on a frozen canal or pond?

8. 

   Work 8 of 8

   Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning

   Claude Monet · 1891 · J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

   What colours can you find in the snow?

   Not only white: pink, blue, lilac and gold. The low winter sun colours everything.

   Claude Monet painted the wheatstacks near his home again and again, at different times of day and in every season, to catch how the light changes.

The end of the tour

A whole year in eight works.

From irises in spring to snow in winter. And after the winter, the plum trees will blossom again. Thank you for walking with us.

Start this tour in Auriaan

Works from these collections

• J. Paul Getty Museum
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• National Museum in Warsaw
• Finnish National Gallery
• Rijksmuseum

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