Fall into Autumn Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jackson Pollock

Pollock gave this painting the original title 'Number 30' after he started simply numbering his paintings in order to prevent the title from giving anyone a pre-conceived idea of what each picture represented. However, as 'Autumn Rhythm' (as it was later renamed) is a mass of black, brown and white paint with no clearly discernible focus or pattern, it seems unlikely that anyone viewing it would be able to connect it with the season of the year without a bit of help!

Pollock used his "drip" technique between 1947 and 1950, although it involved more than just dripping paint on a canvas - 'Autumn Rhythm' has paint that was dripped, splattered, flicked, poured and dribbled on. Pretty much anything other than the traditional 'brushing' approach then...

The incorrect options are all other American artists active in the 20th century.

Answer: Claude Monet

Argenteuil is a town in France, located about 11km (7 miles) north-west of central Paris on the River Seine. The scene depicted in 'Autumn Effect at Argenteuil' is of a small tributary or backwater, with the main river in the background along with the churches, houses and industry of the town. Monet moved to Argenteuil after he returned to France following stays in England and the Netherlands during the Franco-Prussian War.

Monet had a habit of painting various scenes several times - his famed 'Water Lilies' series of paintings from later in his career included around 250 different images, while 'Autumn Effect at Argenteuil' (from 1873) is one of over 50 catalogued works featuring the town. The viewpoint of the picture from the middle of the water also suggests that it was one of the works that Monet produced on his specially equipped boat, which was the subject of his 1874 work 'Studio Boat'.

The incorrect options are three other impressionist artists who also exhibited at the second Impressionist exhibition of 1876.

Answer: Jasper Francis Cropsey

'Autumn - On the Hudson River' is one of numerous paintings by Jasper Francis Cropsey to depict the bright and colourful scenes of fall in New England. In fact, he was considered a specialist in the autumnal landscape scenes of the north-east USA. Cropsey was born in New York in 1823 but spent many years abroad in the 1850s and 1860s. The vivid colours used in 'Autumn - On the Hudson River' reputedly led to scepticism when it was first exhibited in London - the public apparently found it hard to believe that autumnal scenes in America could have been so much more vibrant than anything they'd seen in England.

The Hudson River School is the title given to a group of American landscape artists who primarily worked in the Hudson River Valley and its surrounding areas between around 1825 and 1875. Other prominent members include founder Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church and several founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The incorrect options are all American artists associated with the Düsseldorf School - a German art academy known to have influenced a number of the members of the Hudson River School.

Answer: James Tissot

'Holyday' (also known as 'The Picnic') shows a group of young people picnicking next to a pond while elderly chaperones appear to be asleep in the background. The scene is overhung by trees whose leaves are a beautiful shade of golden orange - suggesting that it occurred in early autumn.

In the 19th century, St John's Wood (an area of north-west London next to Regent's Park) was a particularly popular area for artists to live. Tissot moved to London during the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 and remained until the early 1880s. His work from this time mainly focused on realistic fashionable scenes and was popular, earning him a good income. After his return to France his subject matter changed dramatically and much of his later work consisted of biblical illustrations with series on 'The Life of Christ' and 'The Old Testament' being particularly acclaimed (and no less popular or lucrative than his earlier work).

The incorrect options are all 19th century Belgian painters.

Answer: Jasper Johns

'The Seasons: Fall' shows the silhouette of Jasper Johns split across the left and right hand panels of the picture, with the central section containing a stylised clock face (with an arm moving anti-clockwise and positioned roughly where seven o'clock would usually be shown), geometric shapes and a skull and crossbones accompanied by the text "chute de glace" or "falling ice" in English. The latter is a pretty clear hint that this picture is the one that represents fall or autumn out of the collection.

Encaustic painting is the term used for a technique involving the application of hot wax (commonly beeswax) with different pigments included to produce a range of colours. Although it gained prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, it is an ancient technique used in the Roman Empire and Egypt since at least the 1st century BC and was recorded in the writings of the scholar Pliny the Elder.

The incorrect options are all American artists born in the 1920s or 1930s who remained active into the 21st century (like Johns).

Answer: David Teniers the Younger

'Autumn' is, unsurprisingly, one of a set of four paintings by Teniers which each use a single portrait of a man to depict the four seasons of the year. The drinking man shown in 'Autumn' could represent the celebratory spirit following the harvest or perhaps the timing of the grape harvest for wine production. 'Spring' shows a gardener ready to plant a tree, 'Summer' shows the harvest in full swing with an agricultural worker tying up a sheaf of corn, and 'Winter' shows a man wrapped in fur and warming his hands over a brazier.

David Teniers the Younger (the second of four Flemish artists named David Teniers) was born in Antwerp in 1610 and died in Brussels 80 years later. He was a court painter to the Archduke Leopold William of Austria and founded the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in 1663, notable students of which include Vincent van Gogh.

The incorrect options are all Flemish painters active in the early 17th century. Brueghel, Teniers' father-in-law, was best known for painting floral still lifes; Rubens, a friend of Brueghel, was best known for his landscapes and history paintings; and van Dyck, a pupil of Rubens, was famed for his portraits.

Answer: Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh painted several oil on canvas landscapes in October and November 1885 which would fall under the title 'autumn'. 'Autumn Landscape' shows a group of red and brown leafed trees with birds flying in the sky above. The birds are a common theme for van Gogh, but this particular painting bears little resemblance to his later, most famous, works as the colour palette is the muted tones of autumn rather than the bright blues and yellows of his 'Starry Night' or 'Sunflowers' paintings.

Although van Gogh famously did not achieve wealth or acclaim during his lifetime, his works have gone on to become some of the most valuable in the world. The majority of his work was completed in the 1880s, with most of the paintings considered to be his best masterpieces being completed in the last two years of his life - he died in 1890 at the age of 37 from what was generally believed to have been a self-inflicted gun-shot wound.

The incorrect options are all famous Dutch artists but Rembrandt and Bosch both lived centuries before van Gogh, and Escher was born 8 years after van Gogh's death.

Answer: Grant Wood

Grant Wood (1892-1942) is probably most famous for painting 'American Gothic' that depicts a rather stern man and woman (complete with pitchfork) standing outside their home. 'Fall Plowing' was painted just a year after that masterpiece and is a good example of one of Wood's landscape paintings as it includes the rolling countryside and agricultural scenes that typify his work.

The countryside around Viola, Iowa where Grant Wood took his sketches for 'Fall Plowing' is now a protected historic area. It was included on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 under the title 'Grant Wood's "Fall Plowing" Rural Historic Landscape District'.

The incorrect options are all 20th century American painters. Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell were both from New York, while Thomas Hart Benton was from Missouri.

Answer: Wassily Kandinsky

'Autumn Landscape with Boats' is a brightly coloured piece, dominated by the blues of the water, sky and distant hills rather than the typical reds and oranges of autumn. Painted in 1908, it is one of Kandinsky's earlier works and its style appears to be a transition between the realistic paintings of his early career and the purely abstract later work for which he is best known.

Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 and grew up in Odessa, which is now in Ukraine. His first career was in law and economics, which he gave up to attend the Munich Academy (an art school) at the age of 30. In addition to both painting and writing about painting, he also taught at the Bauhaus in Germany until its closure by the Nazis in 1933 - Kandinsky's works were among those destroyed by the Nazis after being classed as 'Degenerate Art'. Kandinsky then settled in France, eventually taking French citizenship five years before his death in 1944.

The incorrect options are all 19th century Russian artists.

Answer: J. M. W. Turner

The British Houses of Parliament suffered a major fire on the autumnal night of 16th October 1834 and as a result were largely destroyed. They were housed in a large complex of buildings that made up the medieval Palace of Westminster. One of the few original buildings to survive the fire was Westminster Hall, which dates back to 1097 and the reign of King William II. The current Houses of Parliament building, which replaced the fire-damaged structures, was built during the period 1840 to 1870 to a design by the architect Charles Barry.

Joseph Mallord William (J. M. W.) Turner is probably best known for paintings such as 'The Fighting Temeraire' (to use its short name), 'The Battle of Trafalgar' and 'Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway'. All of these works are characterised by the dramatic use of light - one of Turner's hallmarks.

The incorrect options were all famed British 18th century portrait painters.