Sources
Sources and further reading
The text of this course was compiled for general readers from the sources below. The ideas and facts come from them; the wording is new, and any quotations are credited where they appear.
Lectures
Harris, Beth, and Steven Zucker. “Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day.” Smarthistory. YouTube video, 4:44. April 4, 2012. Link
Kelly, Simon. “Curator's Perspective: Vincent van Gogh and Japan.” Lecture (Saint Louis Art Museum), Frist Center for the Visual Arts (now Frist Art Museum), Nashville, with the exhibition Looking East: Western Artists and the Allure of Japan. YouTube video, 1:02:43. 2014. Link
Livingstone, Margaret. “What Art Can Tell Us About How We See.” Lecture (Harvard Medical School), Forum on Peripheries, Wolf Humanities Center, University of Pennsylvania. YouTube video, 1:24:48. October 24, 2012. Link
Zucker, Steven, and Beth Harris. “How to Do Visual (Formal) Analysis in Art History.” Smarthistory, filmed at the National Gallery, London. YouTube video, 9:53. September 18, 2017. Link
Curricula
Anadolu University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting. “Teaching Painting I.” Course content, 14 weeks. Link
J. Paul Getty Museum. “Principles of Design.” Education handout, Getty Education. Link
J. Paul Getty Museum. “Understanding Formal Analysis.” Classroom resources, Getty Education. Link
Lauer, David A., and Stephen Pentak. Design Basics. 8th ed. Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage, 2012. Table of contents, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) library catalogue. Link
University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. “ART 1103 2-D Design.” Course syllabus. Link
University of Guam. “FA 203 / AR 104 Basic Design.” Course syllabus, fall 2024. Link
University of North Texas. “ASTU 2210 Painting I.” Course syllabus (Elaine Pawlowicz), spring 2026. Link
University of Silesia in Katowice. “Painting Composition Part 1.” Module description, Fine Arts Education programme, winter semester 2025/26. Course catalogue. Link
University of Texas at Dallas. “ATCM 2302 Design I.” Course syllabus (Sara McClanahan), fall 2023. Link
Reference sources
Amirshahi, Hayn-Leichsenring, Denzler, and Redies. “Evaluating the Rule of Thirds in Photographs and Paintings.” Art & Perception 2 (2014): 163–182. Link
Beelders, T., and L. Bergh. “The Role That Composition Plays in Determining How a Viewer Looks at Landscape Art.” Journal of Eye Movement Research 13, no. 2 (2020). Link
Brooklyn Museum. “Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: Autumn (Part I).” Exhibition page, 1986. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Fischler, Roger. “On the Application of the Golden Ratio in the Visual Arts.” Leonardo 14 (1981): 31–32. Link
Fraser. “Academic Art and Arts Education.” Chapter 1.2, Origins of Contemporary Art, Design, and Interiors. Open textbook, eCampusOntario Pressbooks. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. “Learning Activity: Positive and Negative Space.” Education resource. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Green, C. D. “All That Glitters: A Review of Psychological Research on the Aesthetics of the Golden Section.” Perception 24 (1995): 937–968. Link
Harris, Beth, and Steven Zucker. Conversation on Raphael's The Alba Madonna. Smarthistory video page. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Ives, Colta. “Japonisme.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. Link
Kemp, Martin. “A Certain Ratio.” Nature 428 (2004): 370. Link
Lillie, Amanda. “Composing the Image.” In Building the Picture: Architecture in Italian Renaissance Painting. Online exhibition catalogue, The National Gallery, London, 2014. Link
The National Gallery, London. “Leon Battista Alberti.” Glossary. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
The National Gallery, London. “The Garvagh Madonna” (about 1510–11), Raphael. Painting page, NG744. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
National Gallery of Art, Washington. “Little Girl in a Blue Armchair.” Feature, Degas/Cassatt exhibition. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
National Gallery of Art, Washington. Press release for the exhibition Degas/Cassatt (May 11–October 5, 2014). December 16, 2013. Link
National Gallery of Art, Washington. “The Alba Madonna.” Collection highlight page. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Palmer Lab, University of California, Berkeley. “Spatial Composition.” Research page. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Schenkel, Ruth. “Edgar Degas (1834–1917): Painting and Drawing.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. Link
Smarthistory. Essay on Katsushika Hokusai's Under the Wave off Kanagawa. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Smarthistory. Essay on the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and academic training. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Smarthistory. “How One-Point Linear Perspective Works.” Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Tate. “Genres.” Art term. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. “Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige)” (1887), Vincent van Gogh. Collection record, s0115V1962. Link
Wade, N. J. “Looking at Buswell's Pictures.” Journal of Eye Movement Research 13, no. 2 (2020). On Guy Thomas Buswell, How People Look at Pictures (1935). Link
Whitney Museum of American Art. Positive and negative space activity. K–12 teaching materials. Accessed October 30, 2026. Link
Zygmont, Bryan. “Thomas Cole, The Oxbow.” Smarthistory, August 9, 2015. Reprinted in ARTH 2720, UEN Pressbooks. Link
Museum collection records
The Art Institute of Chicago. “Laziness (La Paresse)” (1896), Félix Vallotton. Collection record, 1947.454. Link
The Art Institute of Chicago. “Oil Sketch for ‘A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884’” (1884), Georges Seurat. Collection record, 1981.15. Link
The Art Institute of Chicago. “Paris Street; Rainy Day” (1877), Gustave Caillebotte. Collection record, 1964.336. Link
The Art Institute of Chicago. “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884” (1884–86), Georges Seurat. Collection record, 1926.224. Link
Brooklyn Museum, New York. “Plum Estate, Kameido, from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” (1857), Utagawa Hiroshige. Collection record, 30.1478.30. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque)” (1887–88), Georges Seurat. Collection record, 61.101.17. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “The Death of Socrates” (1787), Jacques Louis David. Collection record, 31.45. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “The Denial of Saint Peter” (1610), Caravaggio. Collection record, 1997.167. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “The Harvesters” (1565), Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Collection record, 19.164. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (Colonna Altarpiece)” (ca. 1504), Raphael. Collection record, 16.30ab. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “Mandala of Jnanadakini” (late 14th century), unknown artist, Tibet. Collection record, 1987.16. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake, from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” (1857), Utagawa Hiroshige. Collection record, JP643. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave), from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” (ca. 1830–32), Katsushika Hokusai. Collection record, JP1847. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm — The Oxbow” (1836), Thomas Cole. Collection record, 08.228. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “View of Ipswich, or A Bend in the River” (ca. 1895), Arthur Wesley Dow. Collection record, 42.54.3. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers (Madame Paul Valpinçon?)” (1865), Edgar Degas. Collection record, 29.100.128. Link
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “Young Woman with a Water Pitcher” (ca. 1662), Johannes Vermeer. Collection record, 89.15.21. Link
National Gallery of Art, Washington. “The Alba Madonna” (c. 1510), Raphael. Collection record, 1937.1.24. Link
National Gallery of Art, Washington. “Little Girl in a Blue Armchair” (1878), Mary Cassatt. Collection record, 1983.1.18. Link
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. “The Night Watch” (1642), Rembrandt van Rijn. Collection record, SK-C-5. Link
Primary texts
Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting (1435). Translated by Cecil Grayson (1972). Excerpt, “Alberti's Window and Veil,” course page, Vanderbilt University. Link
Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting (1435). Translated by John R. Spencer, rev. ed. (1966). Course reading, ARTH 213, SUNY Oneonta. Link
Dow, Arthur Wesley. Composition. 9th ed., revised and enlarged. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1914. First published 1899. Project Gutenberg. Link
Leonardo da Vinci. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. Translated by Jean Paul Richter. Project Gutenberg. Section 530, “Of judging your own pictures.” Link
Poore, Henry Rankin. Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1903. Text and plates from a later edition with a tenth-edition preface (about 1915). Project Gutenberg. Link
Reynolds, Joshua. Annotations in Charles-Alphonse Du Fresnoy, The Art of Painting, translated by William Mason. York, 1783. Internet Archive (Getty Research Institute copy). Link
Smith, John Thomas. Remarks on Rural Scenery. London, 1797. Internet Archive (Getty Research Institute copy). Link