Abstract
I have decided to study the aspect of light in the city. In a city, there are several sources of light, some natural, like the sun, or the stars, some artificial as streetlights or festive illuminations. But studying the light also means studying the absence of light, the darkness. How do those different sources of light affect our perception of the city? How does the city change with the different hours of the day? Why is the city not the same at midnight as at noon? To study this large theme, we have chosen three different documents. Two of them involve images: one painting of the 19th century by Eugène Jansson that pictures Stockholm and one photograph of the 20th century by Berenice Abbott on New-York. Our last document is the extract of a novel, Oliver Twist by Dickens, in which the action takes place in London.
This is a painting of the Swedish painter Eugène Jansson. It depicts the city of Stockholm at twilight. In 1899 (the year of this canvas), Stockholm was a highly dynamic city: located on the banks of the Baltic sea, it was the economical center and gateway of the country. Moreover, at the time, the population was rapidly increasing. The painter lived almost all his life in this city so he is emotionally attached to it. What we see here is a view of Stockholm from a high point of view. It is what the painter was seeing from his studio.
