1 Saint Leo University ECO 201 Principles o.docx

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Saint Leo University
ECO 201
Principles of Macroeconomics
Course Description:
An introduction to the study of the determination of income,
output, employment, and prices in the U.S.
economy. Emphasis on fundamental economic concepts, gross
domestic product and its components,
monetary and fiscal policy, and contemporary macroeconomic
issues.
Prerequisite:
None
Textbooks:
The textbook information which appears on our Saint Leo
Bookstore ordering site is as follows:
Saint Leo University. Economics Today (Custom). ISBN:

9781323789582
Your custom textbook was created from the following National
text(s):
Economics Today (Complete): Miller, R. L. (2018). Economics
today(19th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson
Education. ISBN: 9780134478777
Learning Outcomes:
1. Explain the concepts of scarcity, opportunity cost, and the
role of incentives in decision making.
2. Explain the primary statistics used to measure income,
output, employment, and prices in the
aggregate economy.
3. Develop the basic Aggregate Supply/Aggregate Demand
(AS/AD) Model.
4. Describe Monetary and Fiscal Policy within the context of
the AS/AD model.
5. Relate the concept of deficit to debt by comparing
government expenditures to government revenues.
6. Recognize the importance of specialization by comparative
advantage in the face of globalization.
7. Distinguish between the balance of trade and the balance of
payments.
8. VALUES OUTCOME: Integrate the relevance of Responsible

Stewardship in the context of
macroeconomic analysis.
Core Value:
Responsible Stewardship: Our Creator blesses us with an
abundance of resources. We foster a spirit of
service to employ our resources to university and community
development. We must be resourceful. We
must optimize and apply all of the resources of our community
to fulfill Saint Leo University's mission and
goals.
Evaluation:
Chapter Tests (55%)
Homework (10%)
Discussion (10%)
Writing Assignment (10%)
Final Course Assessment (10%)
Peregrine Formative Assessment (5%)

Tests:
2
The graded chapter tests in this class will occur in Modules 2-8,
with practice tests in Module 1. All tests
will be completed online, through MyEconLab which is already
embedded within D2L. Tests will cover the
material in the textbook and AVPs. The online homework
assignments should be completed prior to
taking the tests, as they will help to better prepare you. There
is one test per chapter, regardless of the
number of chapters covered per module.
Homework:
All homework assignments will be completed online, through
MyEconLab which is already embedded
within D2L. There is one assignment per chapter, regardless of
the number of chapters covered per
module. You are allowed two attempts per question.
Discussion:
There will be one required discussion question per module. The

discussion questions ask you to apply the
material you have learned in that module at a deeper level.
While there is no specific length requirement,
discussions are graded based on the quality and understanding
of your analysis. You are encouraged to
not only reference your readings, but to also conduct further
research online to enhance your postings. For
full credit, you need a minimum one quality response to the
question AND two quality responses to
classmates’ postings. Responses of “I agree” or “Great post!”
do not count as quality posts.
Writing Assignment:
A written assignment is due in module 3. This assignment asks
you to synthesize the concepts learned in
your readings with Saint Leo’s Core Values. The paper will be
automatically run through Turnitin.com for
verification of authenticity. The paper must between 2-3 pages,
double spaced, with size 12 font. Your
sources must be fully cited using the APA formatting style. A
detailed rubric is also provided.
Final Course Assessment:
The Final Course Assessment will be taken in Module 8 in

addition to the module test. It is a
comprehensive multiple-choice assessment of the learning
outcomes from Modules 1-8.
Peregrine Formative Assessment:
At the start of this course you will be required to take a
formative assessment, the Peregrine Formative
Assessment. The exam should take 60 to 90 minutes to
complete, though you have up to three minutes
per question. You are permitted two 15 minute breaks. Once
you click on the exam link inside the course
in D2L, you will be taken directly to the Peregrine login screen
to enter your name and student ID. You
will earn 5% of your course grade for taking this assessment
and will be automatically populate in the
ECO-201 course Gradebook.
The Formative Exam in this course is provided by Peregrine
Academic Services. The results are used to
measure program-level learning outcomes as required by
accreditation authorities. Please keep in mind
that this exam is an initial program-level assessment of your
academic knowledge. As such, it is not
expected that you will necessarily know the answer to every

question. It is a standardized test used by
many different colleges and universities. You can find detailed
instructions via the link in the Course
Home menu.
Assessment of the Learning Outcomes
Learning
Outcome
Assessment Method(s)
1 Test question, Homework question, Final Course Assessment
3
2 Test question, Writing Assignment, Homework question,
Final
Course Assessment

7 Writing Assignment
Grading Scale: The following distribution will be used in
assigning grades
(decimal points will be rounded to the nearest whole number at
semester’s end):
Grade Score (%)
A 94-100
A- 90-93
B+ 87-89
B 84-86
B- 80-83
C+ 77-79
C 74-76
C- 70-73
D+ 67-69
D 60-66
F

0-59
4
Course Schedule:
Module 1 The Nature of Economics: Scarcity and the World

of Trade-Offs
Objectives
At the conclusion of this module, you will be able to:
• Discuss the differences between microeconomics and
macroeconomics.
• Evaluate the role that rational self-interest plays in economic
analysis.
• Distinguish between positive and normative economics.
• Explain why the scarcity problem induces individuals to
consider
opportunity costs.
• Discuss why obtaining increasing increments of any particular
good
typically entails giving up more and more units of other goods.
• Explain why the economy faces a trade-off between
consumption goods
and capital goods.
Assignments
Items to be Completed: Due No Later Than:
Post an introduction to the class Thursday 11:59 PM EST/EDT

Read the assigned materials
Post an initial response to the Discussion Board Thursday
11:59 PM EST/EDT
Post responses to at least two classmates Sunday 11:59 PM
EST/EDT
Complete Peregrine Formative Assessment: Sunday 11:59 PM
EST/EDT
Complete MyEconLab Chapter 1 Homework Sunday 11:59 PM
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
Complete MyEconLab Chapter 1 Test Sunday 11:59 PM
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
Module 2 The Macroeconomy: Unemployment, Inflation, and
Deflation
Objectives

• Explain how to calculate the official unemployment rate and
discuss the
types of unemployment.
• Describe how price indexes are calculated and define the key
types of price
indexes.
• Distinguish between nominal and real interest rates.
Assignments
Post initial response to the Discussion Board Thursday 11:59
PM EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
5

Module 3 Measuring the Economy’s Performance
Objectives
• Define gross domestic product (GDP) and understand the
limitations of using
GDP as a measure of national welfare.
• Explain the expenditure and income approaches to tabulating
GDP.
• Distinguish between nominal GDP and real GDP.
Assignments
PM EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT

Submit writing assignment Sunday 11:59 PM EST/EDT
Read Economics Today, Chapter 8 Sunday 11:59 PM EST/EDT
Module 4 Real GDP and the Price Level in the Long Run and
Classical and Keynesian
Macro Analyses
Objectives
Describe the effect of economic growth on the long-run
aggregate supply
curve.
Explain why the aggregate demand curve slopes downward,
and list key
factors that cause this curve to shift.
Discuss the meaning of long-run equilibrium for the economy
as a whole.
Describe the short-run determination of equilibrium real GDP
and the price
level in the classical model.

Describe what factors cause shifts in the short-run and long-
run aggregate
supply curves.
Evaluate the effects of aggregate demand and supply shocks
on equilibrium
real GDP in the short run.
Assignments
PM EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT

6
Module 5 Fiscal Policy and Deficit Spending and the Public
Debt
Objectives
• Use traditional Keynesian analysis to evaluate the effects of
discretionary
fiscal policies.
• Discuss ways in which indirect crowding out and direct
expenditure offsets
can reduce the effectiveness of fiscal policy actions.
• Describe how certain aspects of fiscal policy function as
automatic stabilizers
for the economy.
• Explain how federal government budget deficits occur.
• Analyze the macroeconomic effects of government budget
deficits.
• Describe possible ways to reduce the public debt.
Assignments

PM EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
Module 6 Money, Banking, and Central Banking and Domestic
and International
Dimensions of Monetary Policy
Objectives
Define the fundamental functions of money and identify key

properties that
any good that functions as money must possess.
Describe the basic structure and functions of the Federal
Reserve System.
Determine the maximum potential extent that the money
supply will change
following a Federal Reserve monetary policy action.
Describe how Federal Reserve monetary policy actions
influence market
interest rates.
Evaluate how expansionary and contractionary monetary
policy actions affect
equilibrium real GDP and the price level in the short run.
Understand the equation of exchange and its importance in the
quantity
theory of money and prices.
Assignments

7
PM EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
Module 7 Comparative Advantage and the Open Economy
Objectives
• Explain why nations can gain from specializing in production
and engaging in
international trade.
• Understand common arguments against free trade and why
nations restrict
trade.
• Identify key international agreements and organizations that

adjudicate trade
disputes among nations.
Assignments
PM EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
Module 8 Exchange Rates and the Balance of Payments
Objectives
• Distinguish between the balance of trade and the balance of

payments.
• Outline how exchange rates are determined in the markets for
foreign
exchange and what factors induce changes in equilibrium.
• Understand how policymakers can go about attempting to fix
exchange rates.
Assignments
PM EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
EST/EDT
Complete Final Exam Sunday 11:59 PM EST/EDT

8
Gogh, Vincent (Willem) van
(b Zundert, March 30, 1853; d Auvers-sur-Oise, July 29, 1890).
· Evert van Uitert
· https://doi-
org.dcccd.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T03
3020
· Published online: 2003
· This version: 20 January 2016
· updated and revised, 20 January 2016
· Previous version
Dutch painter. His life and work are legendary in the history of
late 19th- and 20th-century art. Van Gogh was active as an
artist for ten years, but as a full-fledged painter only five years,
during which time he produced some 1000 watercolours,
drawings, and sketches and about 1250 paintings ranging from a
dark, Realist style to an intense, colourful expressionistic one.
Almost more than on his oeuvre, his fame has been based on the
extensive, diary-like correspondence he maintained, in
particular with his brother Theo (1857–91).
In the popular view, van Gogh has become the prototype of the
misunderstood, tormented artist, who might have sold only one
painting in his lifetime, but whose work has sold posthumously
for record sums, including the sale of Portrait of Dr Gachet for
$51 million in 1990 and the sale of Vase with Cornflowers and
Poppies for $60 million in 2014. Another Romantic cliché
suggests that van Gogh paid with insanity for his genius, which
was understood only by his supportive brother Theo. In fact,
within five years after Vincent had started as a painter, his
talent was not only recognized by some of his colleagues, but
also valued by the critic Albert Aurier who in 1890, a few

months before Vincent’s suicide, published a glorifying article,
‘The Isolated Ones: Vincent van Gogh’. Aurier characterized
him as ‘This robust and true artist, a thoroughbred with the
brutal hands of a giant, the nerves of a hysterical woman, the
soul of a mystic’ and said that ‘he will never be fully
understood except by his brothers, the true artists…’. At that
moment no one could have foreseen van Gogh’s immense
impact, nor the enduring effect of his letters, establishing his
image as a tragic hero.
1. Life and work.
(i) Early life and training, 1853–86.
In his early years there was nothing to suggest that the Rev.
Theodorus van Gogh’s eldest son Vincent was to become an
artist. Most of the members of the van Gogh family were
clergymen or art dealers by profession. Vincent left school
in 1869 to become an apprentice at Goupil & Co. in The Hague,
the art dealership with which his Uncle Vincent was associated.
In 1873 he was posted to the firm’s London branch and
in 1875 he was transferred to the Paris office. During this
period he learnt a great deal about both Old Master and
conventional contemporary painting. Born and brought up in the
countryside, he was deeply impressed by the life of the poor in
the big cities of London and Paris. While in England he began
collecting illustrations (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.) by such
artists as Frank Holl, Hubert von Herkomer, and Luke Fildes
from The Graphic and the Illustrated London News; these stark
black-and-white images of contemporary British social
problems made a lasting impression on him. He also became an
avid reader of Dutch, French, German, and English poetry,
novels, and histories, with a preference for those of George
Eliot and Dickens, for Victor Hugo, Balzac, and the historian
Jules Michelet.
Van Gogh did not prove suited to the art trade. His religious
fervour developed to an extreme in London and Paris and
extended to his appreciation of art. His convictions conflicted
with the commercial interests of the art dealership, and

in 1876 he was fired. Van Gogh then went to England, where he
found teaching jobs in Ramsgate and Isleworth; these, however,
offered few prospects, and he returned to the Netherlands in
early 1877. After a short stay in Dordrecht, where he worked in
a bookshop, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and
become a minister. He went to Amsterdam in May 1877 to begin
his studies. To avoid the long period of university preparation
required, he enrolled in 1878 in a short course of study in
Brussels to qualify for work as an evangelist among the miners
in the depressed Borinage district of Belgium. In the autumn
of 1878 he moved to the Borinage and worked there as a lay
preacher until 1880. When he proved a failure at this job as
well, the 27-year-old van Gogh underwent a serious crisis. He
even interrupted his correspondence with his brother. During
the winter of 1879–80 he undertook a pilgrimage to the village
of Courrières in northern France, to visit Jules Breton, known
for his paintings of peasants, an extremely popular genre at the
time. In a letter to his brother van Gogh described his grim
journey, which was apparently a turning-point in his life: he had
found his new calling, to be a peasant painter after the example
not only of Breton but above all of Jean-François Millet and
other painters of the Barbizon School such as Théodore
Rousseau, Jules Dupré, and Charles Daubigny. He favoured
these painters his whole life because they combined in a happy
manner the Romanticism of 1830 (Delacroix) and the Realism
of 1848 (Courbet), that is to say: sentiment and truth. However,
the first thing he needed to do was to learn the craft, basically
drawing after the model, and for that he went to Brussels
in October 1880.There he met Anthon van Rappard, a student in
the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, and he helped van Gogh,
who was an outspoken enemy of all official religious and other
conservative institutions with iron rules. Van Gogh did not
enter an academy class at that moment; he lacked the funds to
do so.
Open in new tab

Vincent van Gogh: Road in Etten, chalk, pencil, pastel,
watercolour, 15 1/2 x 22 3/4 in. (39.4 x 57.8 cm), 1881 (New
York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection,
1975, Accession ID:1975.1.774); photo © The Metropolitan
Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-
the-collections/150000244
From this time onward Theo, who also worked for Goupil’s,
financially supported him. In order to save money van Gogh
moved in the spring of 1881 to the home of his parents in the
village of Etten in Brabant. By doing so he adopted the custom,
common among painters during the late 19th century, of
spending the summer working in the country or at the seashore,
and he started collecting clothes worn by fishermen, peasants,
and labourers. From 1881 van Gogh’s development as an artist
can be traced through his drawings, which feature hard, graphic
outlines and hatched shadowing (e.g. Road in Etten, 1881; New
York, Met.). His early work didn’t show evidence of a natural
ability. He relied on drawing after prints and learnt from books;
sometimes he could find people willing to pose for him. But
most of all he put his faith in the ideal of the Christian
workman who should eat his bread ‘by the sweat of [his] brow’
as the Bible (Gen. 3:19) prescribes and who knew his Christian
duties.
Following conflicts with his father about his improper
relationship with a widowed cousin, and because of his need for
contact with other artists, van Gogh moved in the autumn
of 1881 to Hague, The, then the centre of Dutch painting and
the home of such painters as Jozef Israëls, whom van Gogh
greatly admired. While there he received profitable instruction
from his cousin Anton Mauve. He still favoured the English
black-and-white prints published in illustrated periodicals,
which he had already discovered in London, and became,
together with his friend Anthon van Rappard, a passionate
collector and defender of this ‘art for the people’.
In The Hague van Gogh lived with Sien (Clasina) Hoornik, an
abandoned, pregnant woman who earned her living as a

laundress and occasional prostitute. She and her children
formed a substitute family, and they also served as his models
(e.g. Sien as Sorrow, drawing, 1882; Amsterdam, Van Gogh
Mus.). Van Gogh’s family and acquaintances reacted with shock
at his plans to marry Sien. In the autumn of 1883 he was forced
by his family to leave ‘the woman’ and he moved alone to
Hoogeveen in the northern province of Drenthe. Vincent took
inspiration from an often-quoted statement from the sage
Thomas Carlyle: ‘Blessed is who has found his work.’ There
was also another reason for leaving The Hague: he longed for
the countryside and the peasants, for it was still his ambition to
become a painter of the working people. At this time he wrote a
number of long letters in which he tried to convince Theo to
abandon the art trade and to join him in Drenthe in order to
draw and paint, but this plan was not realized.
In December 1883 van Gogh returned out of sheer necessity to
his parents’ home, who now lived in Nuenen, where he received
a very cool reception. His ideas and opinions, including his
preference for the naturalist works of Emile Zola, clashed with
his father’s views on life. He expressed this contrast in a still-
life, Open Bible, Extinguished Candle and Novel (1885;
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.), that he painted in memory of his
father, who died in 1885. In this work he juxtaposed an opened
Bible to Zola’s novel La Joie de vivre. His father considered
Zola’s writings, as most Christians did, as indecent and
therefore dangerous. As a personal statement his recalcitrant
son subsequently included books with clearly legible titles in a
number of his portraits. Van Gogh strongly identified with the
work of the de Goncourt brothers, Guy de Maupassant, Zola,
and other contemporary French authors, whose renditions of
reality with such unvarnished starkness made their writings
immoral and inflammatory. Van Gogh remained in Nuenen
until November 1885, working in its environs. It was during this
period that he made the first watercolours and paintings that he
did not consider as mere studies or exercises, but as full-fledged
works of art suitable for public exhibition. These are largely

interiors with weavers, and he gave several works French titles
with a view to the Paris art market, in which his brother was to
play the role of intermediary (e.g. Cimetière de paysans and La
Chaumière; both Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.). In his large and
ambitious composition of The Potato-eaters (1885; Amsterdam,
Van Gogh Mus.), he gave form to his ideas on peasant painting,
also with an eye on the art market. Van Gogh made a lithograph
(Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.) of this composition, not an
unusual practice at the time, to enable the work to reach a larger
audience and also to earn some money.
These first conscious efforts to gain the acceptance of the art
world failed, partly because by 1885 the Impressionists were
painting in the more modern and colourful style, which van
Gogh had not yet seen. What’s more, the paintings of peasant
subjects that received acclaim at the Salon in Paris, like those
of Jules Breton, were more idyllic in conception and painted in
a polished, academic technique. Van Gogh took seriously the
criticisms of his work that reached him from Paris and from his
friend Anthon van Rappard, but he defended himself by
referring to Zola’s dictum that a work of art is ‘a slice of
nature, viewed through a temperament’ meaning that you can
meet an artistic temperament in the work of art. At the same
time van Gogh threw himself energetically into the study of
colour. In 1885 he visited the newly opened Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam in order to admire and study Dutch Old Master
paintings, especially Frans Hals and Rembrandt’s Jewish Bride.
As did so many other self-taught artists, he sought assistance in
Charles Blanc’s Grammaire des arts du dessin, architecture,
sculpture, peinture (1867) and he read about Eugène Delacroix’s
technique. Delacroix delineated his forms through modelling
rather than contour lines, and this influenced van Gogh’s style.
The lessons taken in the museums of Amsterdam and Antwerp
had focused his attention on the painters’ handicraft. More
conscious of his own way of painting, he realized that such
highly praised painters as Ary Scheffer or Delaroche (formerly
also praised by van Gogh), could not paint at all; they simply

lacked temperament.
To learn more about colour and the modern painters—till then
he hadn’t seen one Impressionist painting—he planned a move
to Paris. As a halfway station he travelled in November 1885 to
Antwerp, the nearest city with museums and an academy where
he could draw after plaster casts and live models, so as to lay a
stronger foundation for his art. He arrived in Paris, the true
centre of modernity, in February 1886. There he painted a large
flower-piece as an exercise in the use of strong contrasting
colours, which he painted over a study of two men posing as
wrestlers done at the Antwerp academy. This means that at that
time he still hoped to become a history painter, an ideal he
never was able to realize, except for a few copies after
reproductions from works by Rembrant, Millet, Delacroix,
Doré, and Daumier which he called ‘translations in colour’.
(ii) Paris, 1886–8.
In Paris van Gogh proved a fast learner, who wanted to gain a
position within the avant-garde. He shared an apartment with
Theo, who was attempting, on a modest scale, to sell
Impressionist paintings; Theo organized exhibitions of Claude
Monet and Camille Pissarro among others, and it was thus
through his brother that van Gogh became acquainted with
modern art in Paris.
Van Gogh’s great admiration for Georges Seurat’s Pointillist
works, which he saw at the alternative Salon des Indépendants,
prompted him to analyse the operative laws of colour. His
experiments with the Pointillist technique, primarily in a large
series of flower still-lifes (e.g. Flowers in a Copper Pot, 1887;
Paris, Mus. Orsay), and his use of contrasting hues of
complementary colours led ultimately to his abandonment of a
darker palette. The principle of complementary colours
fascinated him, and among his later works are numerous
examples of compositions that are based on two colours
complementing one another. Although he was unable to
discipline himself to emulate the rigorous Pointillist technique,
he did learn to employ the brush to create rhythmic patterns,

modelling with colour. Around this time, he also discovered the
mature works of the Romantic painter Adolphe Monticelli,
which inspired him to paint in thicker layers of paint (impasto).
Open in new tab
Vincent van Gogh: Père Tanguy, oil on canvas, 920×750 mm,
1887–8 (Paris, Musée Rodin); Photo credit: Scala/Art Resource,
NY
Another vital source of inspiration for van Gogh was
Japanese ukiyoe woodcuts. Like many other avant-garde artists,
he collected and traded these and made a number of carefully
studied copies, for example after Hiroshige’s Ohashi Bridge in
Rain (c. 1886–8; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.). He also used
Japanese prints as background decoration in such paintings as
his portrait of the colour merchant and art dealer Père
Tanguy (1887–8; Paris, Mus. Rodin). Van Gogh admired
Japanese woodcuts for their expressive character as early as
during his stay in Antwerp; in Paris the effects of colour,
perspective lines running into the depths, and cut-off forms
attracted his attention. The younger generation of avant-garde
artists strove for the simplicity and flat areas of colour found in
these Japanese prints (seeJaponisme). Endeavour toward
simplification and abstraction were tried out by two artists with
whom van Gogh was involved in intensely personal
relationships at various times: Emile Bernard and Paul Gauguin.
He met Bernard, Toulouse-Lautrec, and other artists at the
Cormon academy where artists worked from models (March–
June 1886). This indicates that van Gogh continued to follow at
least a part of an academic programme. Despite his flower still-
lifes and townscapes (e.g. View from Vincent’s Room in Rue
Lepic, 1887; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.), he still wanted to
become a figure painter. However, this high but expensive
ambition was and remained unattainable. Instead he painted
scenes in Antwerp, Paris, Arles, Saint-Rémy, and Auvers, as
both a substitute for this aim and an attempt to earn some
money. He painted several self-portraits (e.g. Self-portrait with

a Straw Hat, c. 1887; New York, Met.) and concluded his period
in Paris with his gloomy Self-portrait at the Easel (1888;
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.) in a technique that was his own
variant of Seurat’s Pointillism. Years later he wrote to his sister
Willemien, looking back to his time in Paris: ‘No matter what
people say: we painters work better in the country, everything
there speaks more clearly, everything holds on, everything
explains itself, now in a city when one is tired one no longer
understands anything and you feels as if you are lost.’
(iii) Arles, 1888–9.
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Vincent van Gogh: Sower with Setting Sun, oil on canvas,
640×805 mm, 1888 (Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller);
photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
In February 1888, sick of Paris and exhausted, van Gogh moved
to Arles, in the south of France, in order to realize his original
ambition of becoming a peasant painter in his own way. As was
his custom, he explored his new environment by making
drawings and paintings: the flowering orchards were a favourite
colourful subject, much like the flower-pieces he did in Paris.
For him Provence was Japan, and moreover the canals and
wooden drawbridges reminded him of the Netherlands, as did
the Camargue plains, which lie between Arles and the
Mediterranean. In June he travelled to Saintes-Maries-de-la-
Mer, which he depicted in a number of drawings and paintings,
representing its characteristic cottages with thatched roofs and
the fishing boats at sea and on the beach (e.g. of 1888;
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.). These were motifs that had
already occupied him in the Netherlands, but which he now
rendered in a far more intense palette and with a more
spontaneous touch. He was experimenting to find his own
personal style. He let his colleague Bernard know: ‘I follow no
system at all, I hit the canvas with irregular strokes, which I
leave as they are, impastos, uncovered spots of canvas—corners
here and their left inevitably unfinished—reworkings,

roughnesses; well I’m inclined to think that the result is
sufficiently worrying and annoying not to please people with
preconceived ideas about technique.’ This is demonstrated in
his painting of orchards in spring 1888. But he also returned to
one of Millet’s favourite themes The Sower, the biblical
connotations of which he must have found appealing. He now
placed the sowing figure in a landscape dominated by the
setting sun (e.g. Sower with Setting Sun, 1888; Otterlo,
Rijksmus. Kröller-Müller).
Open in new tab
Vincent van Gogh: L’Arlésienne: Madame Joseph-Michel
Ginoux (Marie Julien, 1848–1911), oil on canvas, 36 x 29 in.
(91.4 x 73.7 cm), 1888 or 1889 (New York, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Bequest of Sam A. Lewisohn, 1951, Accession
ID: 51.112.3); photo © The Metropolitan Museum of
Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-
collections/110000971
When he had to economize on paint for several weeks, van
Gogh made numerous pen-and-ink drawings from and of the hill
of Montmajour near Arles. He considered these large drawings
as important as finished paintings. Such works as La Crau Seen
from Montmajour (1888; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.) were
executed with a reed pen, the use of which was inspired by
Rembrandt and by Japanese prints. Rock formations, pine trees,
the abbey ruins, and the sprawling fields in the plain of La Crau
were translated on to paper into a wealth of shapes and forms
composed of lines and dots. Aside from this series of landscapes
van Gogh continued work on his series of portraits, using local
people as his models (e.g. L’Arlésienne, 1888–9; New York,
Met.). The postman, his wife, and their children sat for him
(Postman Roulin, 1888; Boston, MA, Mus. F.A.; La
Berceuse, 1888–9; Otterlo, Rijksmus. Kröller-Müller and New
York, Met.). This was the sort of project that once again could
have given van Gogh the feeling of belonging to a family. Van
Gogh painted several versions of the portraits of Roulin and his

wife, which exhibit minor differences. If he thought a work
important, he wanted to keep it for himself and then made
copies as a present for the sitter, for Theo, and friends. There
exist no fewer than five slightly different copies of Madame
Roulin as La Berceuse. The painter Eugène Boch became The
Poet (Paris, Mus. Orsay), and the portrait of gardener Patience
Escalier (1888; priv. col., see McQuillan, p. 61) embodies the
Provencal countryside: he is the sun-burnt companion of the
potato-eaters from Brabant.
Open in new tab
Vincent van Gogh:Vase with Sunflowers, oil on canvas,
950×730 mm, 1889 (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum); photo
credit: Art Resource, NY
In Arles van Gogh wanted to found a community of artists; in
particular he hoped that the modernists Bernard and Gauguin
would join him. As a first step he asked them to send him a self-
portrait with, at Van Gogh’s special request, a portrait of the
other in it (both 1888; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.). In return
Gauguin received an extraordinary self-portrait of van Gogh as
‘a Bonze, a simple worshipper of the eternal Buddha’ (1888;
Cambridge, MA, Fogg). In this manner van Gogh had his
companions around him in his Yellow House that he had rented.
A series of sunflowers in a vase (e.g. Vase with
Sunflowers, 1889; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.; London,
N.G.; Sunflowers, 1887; New York Met.) was painted as a
decoration of the living- and working-quarters of the Yellow
House. This decorative scheme was meant to impress Gauguin,
whose response is reflected in his Van Gogh Painting
Sunflowers (1888; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.). The van Gogh
brothers eventually convinced Gauguin to leave Brittany, and
in October 1888 he arrived in Arles to live and work with
Vincent. Van Gogh had great respect for his colleague, and he
had already tried to follow his and Bernard’s theory of
abstraction, for example in his series of sunflowers and in La
Berceuse, building up in flat areas of saturated colours

circumscribed by heavy contour lines. The differences in van
Gogh’s and Gauguin’s dispositions and temperaments, however,
precluded successful collaboration. Their disagreements came
into the open when they visited the Musée Fabre in Montpellier
on 16 or 17 December 1888, where they had vehement
discussions. Following an argument at Christmas 1888, during a
mental breakdown, van Gogh in all likelihood cut off a part of
his own ear and was then transported to the hospital, where he
experienced his first serious episode of mental illness. The
frightened Gauguin immediately left Arles. The two artists
nevertheless remained in contact and continued to respect each
other’s work. Van Gogh no longer followed the path of
abstraction and painting from the imagination that Bernard and
Gauguin had advocated.
(iv) Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise, 1889–90.
Open in new tab
Vincent van Gogh: Self-portrait, oil on canvas, 650×545 mm,
1889 (Paris, Musée d’Orsay); photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art
Resource, NY
The attacks of mental illness, called epilepsy at that time, were
to recur, and from May 1889 to May 1890, van Gogh allowed
himself to be institutionalized in Saint-Rémy not far from Arles.
Between attacks he drew and painted in the garden and in the
building, making self-portraits (e.g. Self-portrait, 1889; Paris,
Mus. Orsay), portraits of the staff and patients, and depicting
the view from his window. His room looked out on to a wheat-
field fenced off by a low wall, with the Alpilles mountain range
in the background, as seen in Enclosed Field at Sunrise (1890;
Otterlo, Rijksmus. Kröller-Müller).
Open in new tab
Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night, oil on canvas, 736×921 mm,
1889 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); photo © The
Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by Scala/Art Resource, NY
In the summer of 1889 van Gogh painted one of his most

famous works, Starry Night (New York, MOMA). In this work
he reverted to an old idea, that of painting a nocturnal sky,
which he had attempted and abandoned the year before in Starry
Night over the Rhône (1888; Paris, Mus. Orsay). The handling
of the new version in whirling lines is expressionistic, and this
time composed not directly from nature, but with the help of
sketches. The painting has strong religious overtones,
accentuated by the spire of a church that in reality wasn’t there.
He left no written explanation of this composition, but he did
mention a formal source for its particular style: the old, rather
brutal woodcuts that illustrate the Household edition of The
Works of Charles Dickens, which he so loved.
Open in new tab
Vincent van Gogh: First Steps, after Millet, oil on canvas, 28
1/2 x 35 7/8 in. (72.4 x 91.1 cm), 1890 (New York,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of George N. and Helen M.
Richard, 1964, Accession ID: 64.165.2); photo © The
Metropolitan Museum of
Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-
collections/110000968
When he was not allowed to paint outside the asylum, van Gogh
copied prints—translations, as he called them, from black-and-
white into colour—again by Millet (e.g. First Steps, after
Millet, 1890; New York, Met.), and also by Honoré Daumier,
Doré, Delacroix, and Rembrandt. The prints and most of the
paintings are in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam).
Delacroix’s Pietà (Paris, St Denys du St Sacrement) and
Rembrandt’s the Raising of Lazarus (version; Los Angeles, CA,
Co. Mus. A.) supplied him with religious subjects.
When in November 1889 van Gogh received a letter from
Gauguin with a coloured drawing of Jesus in the Garden of
Gethsemane (untraced) and from Bernard photographs of his
works with religious subjects, he got very angry. Gauguin
painted Christ on the Mount of Olives (West Palm Beach, FL,
Norton, Gal. & Sch. A.) which in the eyes of van Gogh was ‘a

nightmare’. Instead of painting Jesus in the Garden of
Gethsemane, as Gauguin had done, he painted real olive garden
with and without olive pickers after drawings made on the spot
(e.g. Olive Grove, 1889; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Mus.).
Abstraction no longer interested van Gogh. As a positive
outcome of this clash van Gogh formulated his own conviction
of ‘immersing oneself in reality, with no plan made in advance’.
To Bernard he wrote that it was ‘right to be moved by the
Bible’, but he also let Bernard know that ‘modern reality has
such a hold over us that even when trying abstractly to
reconstruct ancient times in our thoughts—just at that very
moment the pretty events of our lives tear us away from these
meditations and our own adventures throw us forcefully to
personal sensations: joy, boredom, suffering, anger or smiling’.
Van Gogh’s earlier painting of the open Bible with Zola’s
novel Joie de Vivre echoes this idea.
Open in new tab
Vincent van Gogh: Church at Auvers-sur-Oise, oil on canvas,
940×740 mm, 1890 (Paris, Musée d’Orsay); Photo credit:
Scala/Art Resource, NY
Van Gogh spent the last period of his life from May to 27 July
1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, slightly to the north of Paris. He
interrupted his journey there to visit on 17–19 May his brother,
sister-in-law, and his newborn nephew. In their apartment he
saw his own paintings that he had sent to Theo over the years,
and he visited an art exhibition. In Auvers Dr Paul Gachet, a
homeopathic practitioner with an interest in art, kept an eye on
van Gogh. In his portrait from June 1890, van Gogh depicted
Gachet as a melancholic, that is to say, as a patient like himself.
As a painter he was satisfied with the result and dreamed of
making more modern portraits that would express the specific
character of their own time. As he had done previously, van
Gogh explored the village and made paintings of the town hall
(priv. col.), the Romanesque church (e.g. Church at Auvers-sur-
Oise, 1890; Paris, Mus. Orsay), which he associated with the

tower he had painted in 1885 in Nuenen (La Cimetiere).
‘Almost the same’, van Gogh wrote despite the great stylistic
differences marking his development from a painter with a dark,
tonal palette in the Netherlands to an original colourist in
France. Furthermore, he chose the houses with their thatched
roofs as a theme and the new mansions, in particular the house
of Daubigny, clearly as a homage to this painter of the Barbizon
school so beloved and respected by van Gogh. He also depicted
the hilly countryside with its vast wheat-fields (e.g. Wheat-field
and Cypress Trees, 1889; London, N.G.), including the
tempestuous Crows in a Wheat-field (Amsterdam, Van Gogh
Mus.), long mistakenly thought to be his last painting, and other
landscapes. As he had done in Paris, Arles, and Saint-Rémy, van
Gogh painted portraits, landscapes, houses, huts, and flower-
pieces. Only now, after five years, he did reap a number of
successes. Not only had the art critic Albert Aurier published an
extremely favourable article about him in the
prestigious Mercure de France in January 1890, but he was also
invited to exhibit with the avant-garde Brussels artists’ society
Les XX. There he sold a painting of a grape harvest, the Red
Vineyard (1888; Moscow, Pushkin Mus.), to the painter Anna
Boch. This bit of recognition both pleased and perturbed him. In
a letter of thanks to Aurier he credited Gauguin and Monticelli,
who in his view were more important as innovators. He doubted
that he could make a valuable contribution to modern art, and
he also feared new attacks. Moreover, he was greatly concerned
that Theo should withdraw his financial support. He shot
himself in the chest on 27 July 1890. Two days later he died
calmly in the presence of Theo, who outlived him by only six
months. In 1914 the two brothers were reinterred next to each
other at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise. Statues by Ossip
Zadkine in commemoration of van Gogh are to be found both in
Auvers and Zundert.
2. Correspondence and collections.
Van Gogh’s fame rests to a great extent on his more than 800
extraordinary letters, the most numerous of which were sent to

Theo. From France he also posted a series of 23 letters to his
sister Wilhelmina, in which he regularly included explanations
of artistic concepts that he considered superfluous in his letters
to Theo. In addition, two other sets of letters have been
preserved: those to Anthon van Rappard (58) from 1881 to
1885, and those to Emile Bernard (22) between 1887 and 1889.
He also corresponded and exchanged paintings with Gauguin.
All of these letters, as well as a number of others, were
published first in fragmentary form in the 1890s and
subsequently in their entirety.
The abundance of biographical data and the diary-like character
of the letters were important contributory factors in the making
of van Gogh’s reputation. Due to the existence of the letters,
many of the works are provided with the interpretation and
commentary of van Gogh himself, to a far greater extent than
with his predecessors and contemporaries. The letters have also
provided the basis of a voyeuristic analysis of the sad elements
of his life; the romantic version of van Gogh’s life is rendered
in Irving Stone’s novel Lust for Life (1934) and the film (1956)
of the same name, for example.
After Theo’s death in 1891 his widow, Johanna van Gogh-
Bonger, moved from Paris to the Netherlands, taking with her
the majority of van Gogh’s production, and in 1909 Helene
Kröller-Müller started her collection of his works advised by H.
P. Bremmer, which later became the nucleus of Rijksmuseum
Kröller-Müller, Otterlo. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger produced the
first edition of the letters published in 1914 and sold paintings
from Theo’s collection although she kept most of the van
Gogh’s and propagated his work. The collection was eventually
given a home in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, designed
by Gerrit Rietveld and opened in 1972. In later years the
building was enlarged and renovated. The museum houses the
archives of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, which owns the
majority of van Gogh’s letters, as well as a library and
documentary material on van Gogh. As a result the two largest
collections of his works are preserved in the Netherlands.

Restoration departments were able to throw new light on the
most important aspect of van Gogh’s paintings: the darkening,
discoloration, and fading of colours have distorted the original
colour harmonies, and that is truly a great loss.
ART 1301 – Art Appreciation Virtual Museum Assignment Art
Inquiry Worksheet
Art Analysis: Feldman's method overview
There are many philosophies on how to analyses and
interpreting Art. Fortunately, Edmund Feldman created a simple
4 step structure of the criticism of art consisting of description,
analysis, interpretation and judgment.1) Description (What do
you see?)
Descriptive words about an artwork are like pointers; they draw
attention to something worth seeing - so remember that the
words that you use must be NEUTRAL. Do not use terms that
denote value judgments, such as beautiful, disorderly, funny
looking, harmonious, etc.
Instead, focus on the factual information, such as smooth,
bright, round, a lake, a shape, etc. This is important so that you
don’t jump to conclusions before going through all the steps.
Do not make or state any judgments at this stage. Do not form
or state any opinions at this time. Answer the following
questions:
1. What is the Artist's name, birth year and nationality?
2. Title of the work?
3. Date of the work?
4. Medium or materials used
5. Museum Accession Number
6. Dimensions of the work?
7. What do you see in the picture? (Only describe what you see,
e.g. trees, sky, animals, etc. Do not interpret anything)
8. What kind of subject matter is in the picture? (e.g., rural farm
scene, landscape, industrial imagery. Again, do not interpret or
judge anything in this stage
9. Is the picture a landscape, portrait, still-life or non-

objective?
10. Describe what you see (elements and objects) in this list:
Item
Lines
Colors
Shapes
Textures
Value
Space
Form
Objects
Descrip
Sharp
Thick
Heavy
Jagged
Thin/light
Vertical
Horizontal
Diagonal
Fuzzy
Curved
Smooth
Straight
Choppy
Bright
Dull
Strong
Bold
Weak
Light
Pastel
Neutral
Warm
Cool

opposite
Circle
Rectangle
Curved
Soft-edged
Squares
Triangles
Angular
Organic
Hard-edged
Rough
Smooth
Shiny
Soft
Hard
Dull
Grainy
Dark
Light medium
varied
Crowded
Shallow
Deep
Vast
Flat
Flat
Rounded
Full
Cutout
Lifelike
People

Buildings
Animals
Trees
Sky
Water
Food
2) Analysis (How is the work organized?)
Analysis of relationships such as sizes, shapes, colors, textures,
space and volumes, etc., encourages a complete examination of
the artwork. It also reveals the decision-making process of the
artist, who wants the viewer to make certain connections within
the artwork.
OR
Write about the elements and principles of design and the
relationships between the subjects that you mentioned in the
description. Below are some of the questions that you may need
to ask. There are very likely other similar questions that you
need to ask.
1. What is in the foreground, mid-ground, and background?
2. How has the picture been arranged?
3. What colors are used and how have they been arranged?
4. What shapes are there and how have they been arranged?
5. Are there any leading lines and if so, where is your eye lead?
6. Is there any use of contrast? If so where?
7. Is there any use of pattern? If so where?
8. Is there a sense of space or perspective?
9. Are there any special techniques employed by the artist?3)
Interpretation (Why?)
Interpretation is the meaning of the work based on the
information in steps 1 and 2. Interpretation is about ideas (not
description) or sensation or feelings. Don’t be afraid of revising
your interpretation when new facts are discovered (such as the
date of the artwork, or the personal history of the artist, etc.)
Conversely, don’t be reluctant to make an interpretation from

your analysis of only the visual information.
Interpretation attempts to get at the meaning of the art work.
Use the information learned from the above two paragraphs in
order to try and interpret what the artist was attempting to
achieve with this art work.
1. What do you think is the relationship of the title to the
picture or meaning?
2. What areas do you notice first? Do you think there is a
relationship between what you notice first and what you notice
later? If so, what is that relationship?
3. What is the artist trying to say?
4. How does it make you feel when you look at this picture?
5. What single large idea or concept sums up or unifies the
message of the artwork? 4) Judgment (informed preference or
judgement)
Judgment, the final step, is often the first statement that is
expressed about an artwork before it has really been examined.
Judgment in that case is neither informed nor critical but simply
an opinion.
This is time for your opinions to shine through.
1. What did you like or dislike about this art work?
2. How successful do you think the artist was?
Virtual Museum Project Art Inquiry Assignment Page 1
Virtual Museum Project Assignment 4Final Essay
Requirements
The final typed paper should be a minimum of 2 to 3 pages in
length using MLA 8 formatting. This is an essay so it should be
constructed in the following manner:
· Introduce your artwork and the artist. Summarize the
biographical information you gathered in your Oxford Art
Online search or your Living with Art eBook.
· Use the completed Art Inquiry worksheet to construct at least
one paragraph for each section of the four steps of art criticism:
(description, interpretation, analysis and judgment). Summarize
the information you gathered on the Art Analysis/Inquiry

Worksheet in complete sentences (DO NOT LIST THE ITEMS –
Summarize!)
· Finalize your essay with a summary of what you discovered in
your research. Consider the following points:
· Were you familiar with this artist or not?
· How did the Oxford Art search inform and enhance your
understanding of the artist – what was the most interesting
thing(s) you discovered about this artist?
· How did employing the methodology of the art inquiry process
inform and enhance your understanding of the formal issues of
the art work?
· Was the initial interest in the subject matter or artist enhanced
by this process of inquiry giving you a better understanding of
the creative process, compositional elements, and historical
context – this could be a yes or no - and explain why.
· Include a works cited page, with a correct citation formatting,
to cite your reference sources. This page does not count towards
the 2-3 page requirement.
· The final document must be a Microsoft Word .docx file
format using MLA 8. If you do not have Microsoft Word you
can download it for free – on the log in page of Blackboard on
the right-hand side are instructions for obtaining a free
download. No other file formats will be accepted. You should
properly cite the Oxford Art Online article and any other
material that you reference.Resources
· How to cite an artwork
[http://www.citethisforme.com/guides/mla/how-to-cite-a-
artwork]
· How to cite an online image or video [
http://www.citethisforme.com/guides/mla/how-to-cite-a-online-
image-or-video]
· How to cite a website
[http://www.citethisforme.com/guides/mla/how-to-cite-a-
website]
· MLA Formatting Guide
[https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/ml

a_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.
html]
· MLA Sample Paper
[https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/ml
a_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_sample_paper.html]

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