Research point -portraits that convey mood

Picasso

The old guitarist   ref:http://www.pablopicasso.org/old-guitarist.jsp

The bent position of this emaciated blind old man who seems totally engrossed in the music of his guitar as he sits cross-legged, his upper torso and legs producing a painful distortion as though he is stretched, the colour blue adding to the feeling of desperation and depression and giving the feel of a mournful air emanating from the guitar.

Means by which I feel  this mood is generated:

the colour

the eyes and hence the feeling that the image concentrates on the ears, the prominent ear being directly above the blind eye.

the bent figure , head down in  a state of defeat against the outside but an intense absorption in the music of his life.

The long emaciated fingers which are delicate and precise in their representation

His tattered clothes

The intense light on the old man’s head –does this give him almost a religious feel in his humility.

 

 Rembrandt

The old man with a gold chain: sourced on line September 2014 from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_with_a_Gold_Chain

What mood is produced by this image?

The velvet clothes and gold chain : importance.

The large hat with feather: flamboyance (although may just have been fashion -I bet not many men would wear a hat like that these days)

The dark background against the dark figure makes him seem to be alone, even lonely perhaps in his position of authority, he is cold and seems to emanate little warmth.

Yet his facial expression is sad and distant as though he is cold because he has lost a lot in life??? He wears part of a piece of armour –perhaps an old soldier with memories he has to hide?

 

Fauvist portraits

The Fauvists were a group of artists (whose name means wild animals) who used bright colours applied thickly or in daubs to express both the emotion of the artist and his sitter.  ref:http://www.theartstory.org/movement-fauvism.htm

 Andre  Derain

Title: Portrait of Henri Matisse (1905)  Artist: André Derain    sourced on line September 2014 from:http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/derain-henri-matisse-t00165

Bright primary colours applied in thick short paint laden brush strokes. The image of Matisse with head slightly tilted, smoking a curved pipe uses colour to depict light and form, contrasting the shades of blue purples with yellows and greens and blues with oranges. It does not convey a lot of emotion to me –the colours, being bright could indicate a happiness or vitality but the face of the sitter is relaxed and perhaps slightly smiling.

Means by which I feel  a mood is generated in this picture:

Primarily the softness of the eyes which must be related to the relaxation in the facial muscles as well as the relaxed smoking of his pipe(which is always a symbol of a relaxed individual in my eyes–(having grown up with (mostly) men smoking pipes –they always seemed to fall asleep with them in their mouths and wake when the hot ashes and pipe fell onto their chests–so perhaps the relaxed feel of a pipe comes from my subconscious–it brings back memories of “Hamlet” the tune of “Air on  g-string ” by Bach in the background)

The colours speak of a warm summer evening…hence a good reason to feel relaxed but, by themselves I would have put them more into the opposite mood to relaxation, although they do have a harmony and none are too strident.

 Matisse

The Young Sailor 1906 Henri Matisse

sourced on line September 2014 from : http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1999.363.41

This painting by Matisse in Fauvist colours depicts a wide-eyed young sailor seated nonchalantly on a chair, staring straight at the viewer with one hand behind his head and one on his thigh, almost as if dancing or in a mocking pause. His dark green trousers and blue top and hat are contrasted against a light pink background and the orange brown chair with yellow cushion. His feet resting on the rungs of the chair leave the bottom of the picture. He looks agitated and keen to be on his way perhaps posing for Matisse only to earn a bob or two? His facial features  are quite piercing adding to a certain agitation in  the picture enhanced by  his twisted sinuous pose, which is a typical pattern used by Matisse. The pink background adds to the intensity of his stare as it clashes against his clothes.

The mood of agitation in this picture says “Ive things to do places to go” is thus produced

By the angle and pose, particularly the feet being off the picture

and the clashing colours

 

 German Expressionism

Portrait of a Man   by Erich Heckel  1919    ref:http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/themes/portraits#slide08

This was painted immediately post first world war. The painter used very dull and depressing dissonant colours, black, an olive-green, a grey blue and a dark ochre. The head and shoulders painting depicts a large-headed man who glances out of the picture to the left and clasps his long thin fingers nervously under his chin in an anxious and underconfident fashion. His face is long and haunt, his head oversized reflecting malnutrition and the colours give a feeling of nausea to the image. It clearly reflects how people felt after the first world war.

 

George Grosz

   George Grosz The Poet Hermann neisse 1927

sourced on line Sept. 2014 from: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/george-grosz-the-poet-max-herrmann-neisse-1927

Grosz’s paintings must be those that I dislike more than any other–his distorted, evil people who seem so be crude , images disrespectful of the human condition in a similar manner to Lucien Freud’s.

This twisted man with gnarled fingers locked together on his lap sits at the front of the image  his legs disappearing off the picture, his shoulder hunched as though squeezed into this position, his bald head looking too large for his body and his pouting lips abutting a grey tie making you look twice to see if he is dribbling.

I like the distorted perspective of the background but not the twisted perspective of the figure. The colours are mixtures of grey greens, muted mustards and a bluish brown all of which give a cold dead feeling to the image.

Having said all that the photograph of the poet Herman Neisse does seem to indicate that he did have the physical and psychological characteristics as depicted by Grosz and did sit in a hunched manner in his chair.

Max Herfmann Neisse phot sourced on line from:http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Herrmann-Nei%C3%9Fe

Research: Dutch still life ,iconography and the development of still life through the centuries

Look at the work of some of the 17th century Dutch still Life and Flower painters. Make notes on paintings you admire and find out more about the techniques that were employed at the time.

notes based on information from the website sourced on line August 2014: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nstl/hd_nstl.htm

Still life was found in paintings before the 17th century ,often depictions of images related to moral values. These meanings ran over in many instances to the paintings of the 17th century but it was during this century and particularly in Holland where the still life took off.

The development of painting in oil on canvas, as opposed to the tempura on walls of 100yrs previously, allowed the artist not only to work in his studio but to use the medium to express sensuality. It had much greater freedom than the tempura which dried instantly and could not be redone. Emotion through tempura was in the faces and iconic objects in the picture,emotion through oil was now in the application of the paint, the manipulation of light and shade and of colour.

The Flemish and Dutch society at the beginning of the seventeenth century became concerned with commerce and possessions in the home, as well as with learning and travel, they were breaking free from Spanish rule and many were becoming very rich.

The Netherlands included not only Holland and the Dutch but also Belgium,Luxembourg ,parts of Germany and Northern France and until the middle of the 17th century was ruled by Spain with which it had a prolonged war (ending in 1648). Antwerp,in the South was the economic centre, but collapsed in 1585 with the war with Spain.  The North around Amsterdam was rich and booming and cosmopolitan.There had been the break with Catholicism which in itself would have freed art from religion, the merchant bourgeoisie were taking power and the Dutch peoples  had set off on voyages across the globe searching for better lives, for scientific understanding and new experiences. rehttp://www.guideholland.com/hist/17th_cent.htmlf:

Art in the Netherlands boomed and paintings were mass-produced for all walks of life    … “” All in generall striving to adorn their houses, especially the outer or street roome, with costly peeces. Butchers and bakers not much inferior in their shoppes, … , yea many tymes blacksmithes, coblers, etc, will have some picture or other by their forge and in their stalle.” ref:http://www.guideholland.com/hist/17th_cent.html

Flowers, objects  reflecting wealth,  tables with luxurious food  were the subject of paintings in the 17th century, but  images of common life were also common. Because of the popularity and affordability the number of paintings produced were prolific.

Many of the still lifes included flowers from around the world as well as herbs. It was the time when the tulip was worth more than gold in areas of the world, particularly the Netherlands “Until 1630 the bulbs were grown and traded only between connoisseurs and scholars but more commercially minded people soon noticed the ever-increasing prices being paid for certain Tulips and thought they’d found the perfect “get rich quick” scheme.” ref:  http://www.tesselaar.net.au/flowerandgarden/thetulip.asp     “Those who could not afford the bulbs settled instead for art, furniture, embroideries and ceramics which featured the flowers. ”

 

 

However, it seems that the 17th century artist was obsessed with contrasting colour and light against a very dark background, even vases of flowers, often embellished by sparkling glass are made to look foreboding by contrasting their delicacy and light colour against black backgrounds-this I find garish and inconsistent.

 

 

William Van Aeist’s Vanitas Flower still life   see web page:http://www.mystudios.com/artgallery/W/Willem–Van–Aelst/Vanitas-Flower-Still-Life.html  

 

consists of an image of carefully reproduced flowers in a golden bowl with crystal trinket placed close on a marble table but it  is set against a featureless black background which produces a feeling of foreboding rather than of opulence.

 A Basket of Flowers
Jan Brueghel the Younger (Flemish, 1601–1678)  Oil on wood; 18 1/2 x 26 7/8 in. (47 x 68.3 cm)
Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967 (67.187.58)   sourced on line Aug 2014 ref:http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nstl/hd_nstl.htm

A feeling of beauty overflowing, of so much that the flowers are falling over each other and falling from their basket, A basket perhaps a reflection of rural life in association with the beauty of the countryside. I don’t know if the flowers are native to Holland or are, as some of the texts explain from around the world and so indicating the richness of Dutch travel

 

 

 

DIJCK, Floris Claesz van

Dutch painter (b. 1575, Haarlem, d. 1651, Haarlem)

Laid Table  1622   Oil on wood, 100 x 135 cm    Private collection

sourced on line (August 2014) from:www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/d/dijck/index.html

This painting, is once again full and overflowing, carefully reproduced fruit, pewter cups, sparkling glass and large rounds of cheese and small loafs of bread. Is this a mixture of Dutch produce with that from warmer climes? The cloth on the table is richly decorated in silken thread and once again the background is absent fading into blackness. I do however find the image very staged and overpowering.

 

 

 

Techniques of the Dutch masters of the 17th century:

Gerard de Lairesse, a Dutch artist of the 17th century produced two books on techniques in art in which he praised classical, mythological or religious imagery against everyday realism. He believed art was a means to moral improvement:” he said: (the artist).. must learn grace by mingling with the social and intellectual élite, must allow his subject matter to teach the highest moral principles, and must strive for ideal beauty. He must follow closely upon nature but overlook its imperfections.^{” ref:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_de_Lairesse}  

Art was taught as a period of apprenticeship and so techniques were learnt  from the master painter by practice and copying ,hence little was written down. The training was long and lead eventually to the incorporation into an artist’s guild.

The images were often complex and accurate in detail and perspective and small areas of the painting were worked on at one time. The overall light, basic colour areas and shapes would have been laid down as  underpainting. Because of the slow painstaking method artists worked seated and mixed ony limited colours at once. These colours may not have been compatible and so techniques existed whereby underpainting helped the overall colour. Glazing was common practice, layer upon layer built into the picture to produce light,form and colour. Highlights with white would have been added at the end. The painting  “The Artist’s studio” by Vermeer gives insight into the artist at work. sourced from August 2014 ref: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/technique_overview.html#,U-nOcGOB-oO  and book “W.Januszczak ,M Beal,E. Bowes, A Callen. “Techniques of the Great Masters of Art” (200) Kent Grange Books

image sourced on line from: wwww.vermeer-foundation.org

 

Research at least one painting that has iconographic significance. Which of the objects depicted carry particular meaning and what was that meaning?

The symbolic pictures of the 17th century known as vanitas, contained collections of objects to highlight the transience of human life and the vanity of achievement and riches. During the late renaissance portraits often had skulls painted on the reverse as reminders against vanity.

The symbols used included  “symbols of arts and sciences (books, maps, and musical instruments), wealth and power (purses, jewelry, gold objects), and earthly pleasures (goblets, pipes, and playing cards); symbols of death or transience (skulls, clocks, burning candles, soap bubbles, and flowers); and, sometimes, symbols of resurrection and eternal life (usually ears of corn or sprigs of ivy or laurel). The earliest vanitas pictures were sombre, somewhat monochromatic compositions of great power, containing only a few objects (usually books and a skull) executed with elegance and precision.”  sourced on line August 2014 ref:http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/623056/vanitas

In this image by Jacques de Gheyn II circa 1603 the message is clear: the bubble , the cut flower  and the skull all represent human existence. The coins at the front of the image represent the fate to all including those with wealth. In the upper corners are two figures, one laughing and one weeping and they represent the vanity of human life -there are also similar meanings associated with articles floating in the bubble.

Vanitas Still Life, 1603  Jacques de Gheyn II (Netherlandish, 1565–1629) Oil on wood

 

Still Life with Oysters, a Silver Tazza, and Glassware

Willem Claesz Heda   (Dutch, Haarlem? 1594–1680 Haarlem)

sourced on line (August 2014-permission given for personal use:  http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/438376??rpp=30&pg=1&ft=Willem+Claesz+Heda%2C&pos=1) Metropolitan museum of art New York

This image is visually more peaceful than many of the Dutch still life paintings with their striking colours, pale pinks and bright whites against the black background. The silver or pewter ware sparkles with dapples of white against a muted orchre grey cloth and background. The glass stands quietly with its left over wine and perhaps represents the bubble of human transience seen in the painting above. Another glass has tumbled in the background and a small glass jug stands in the shade quietly watching and waiting. The silverware chalice is richly decorated but it too has fallen over, indicating an end to the merriment. Oysters, which must, then as now, have depicted a good diet for those who could afford are empty and “spent” perhaps being consistent with money which is not needed in the next life. There is a small scroll of paper on the plate perhaps representing learning and a lemon which could represent the bitterness of life’s end. It is rich yet quiet in its colours and composition. It feels as though everyone has retired, but that that retirement is for a little more than night. I find the painting beautiful in its peace.

 

The explore the development of still life through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For example look at how traditional still life subjects were dealt with in some early cubist paintings by Braque and Picasso. Investigate how some contemporary artists are interpreting this genre.

 18th century still life 1700-1800

The eighteenth century saw a decline in the attention given to still life painting. I have come across a woman artist (Anne Vallayer-Coster) who persisted through the grand years of Marie Antoinette, in France ,to paint realistic still lifes consisting of very closely observed and carefully rendered objects ranging from raw meat,flowers, fruit, papers, musical instruments and pottery. She was patronised by Marie Antoinette until her downfall in 1789. I am unsure if her images contain iconic references but they do not have the same feel of fate about them as those of the earlier Dutch paintings.

attributes of music by Anne Vallayer-Coster    sourced on line from ref:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Vallayer-Coster

The eighteenth century was the era of Jane Austen, Walter Scott,Joseph Priestley,Robert Burns, James Hargreaves (and the spinning Jenny), William Blake, Gainsborough,De Goya. The era was one of scientific discovery,loss of rural life and Romanticism.

I found these images by an artist called Jean Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) who lived in France before the revolution.

the silver beaker   basket of peaches walnut and glass of wine

strawberry basket

sourced on line (August 2014) from:commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Still_life_paintings_by Jean_Simeon_Chardin

He painted in the style of the Dutch still life artists but expressed a desire for feeling in his art. This he achieved by the softer use of paint, blurring of edges and the lightening of the backgrounds. His still lifes are much more humble than those of the Dutch and seem to have no deeper iconic meaning.

 

19th century still life 1800-1900

The 19th century saw the onward march of industrialisation and the reaction against the changing environment. It includes the writers, Wordsworth,the Brontes,the Romantic poets,Shelley and Byron,Robert Louis Stevenson, the scientists Charles Darwin, Marie Curie,Edison, Pasteur,  the artists Turner and Constable and the beginning of the Victorian era.

The end of the 19th century saw the dawn of Impressionism, photography had been born in the early 1800s and the need to reproduce objects to perfection had been replaced by the camera’s ability.

The century began with still life images such as those rendered by de Goya, who continued to paint plants or dead animals in a descriptive manner backed by a dark background. His work moved towards the use of broad brush strokes, surface pattern and the play of light which echoed the coming changes in technique. He continued to use iconic or even descriptive imagery.

A still life of dead hares by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

By the mid 1800s the Impressionists emerged, softly painted impressions of harmonious colours. Monet’s still life with flowers and fruit in 1869  still reflects the techniques of the earlier era but 10years later his images have altered

Still Life with Flowers and Fruit     Claude Monet
French, 1869
Oil on canvas  ref: Paul Getty museum

Still Life with Pears and Grapes. 1880  ref: http://www.abcgallery.com

This is a play of colours forms and textures-painting for the sake of the paint and the impression rather than a depiction of reality or a message about human existence.

By the end of the nineteenth century Van Gogh had released energy and emotion into the still life

VanGogh Sunflowers 1888 sourced from the National Gallery webpage national gallery.org.uk

His sun flowers are unrealistic in colour, set against a light background, painted with brush heavy textured brush strokes and in wild shapes and forms. His aim in painting the flowers was to produce panels for his room which would result in a symphony of blues and yellows…his mind was on the impression and emotional impact not on detail or iconography.

Following on from Van Gogh Cezanne’s use of form beyond that seen in the object itself lead into the development of cubism. In his painting “Still Life with water jug” ref: Tate gallery  he changes the angles of view of the objects on the table and destroyed the idea of single perspective as we do not view things in this way.

 

20th Century Still Life 1900-2000

Cezanne lead the way for the development of cubism, the viewing of objects from multiple angles and this creeped into the depiction of still life as rendered by Braque and Picasso.

Georges Braque 1882–1963

Title Glass on a Table Le Verre sur la table Date 1909–10   Medium Oil paint on canvas

Here the everyday objects are painted from different angles and planes reminiscent of a page of geometry. The whole image starts to enter the domain of abstraction. There is an obvious image of the glass, but it is not evidently made of glass -there are no white tints of light-it is solid and malformed. The edges of the round table are evident painted in small blocks of browns whites,blues and orchres. The rest of the objects are indistinguishable, just geometric forms, there could be a divided plate a square piece of cheese, but their colours reflect the “glass” and the table and their forms are not readable as normal objects on a table. The paint is thick and the brush marks part of the image.

 

Picasso often used pieces of material to collage a subject and his paintings are often reflective of this mode of building up a picture.

Picasso Bowl of fruit,violin and a bottle

Pablo Picasso 1881–1973  Title  Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle  Compotier, Violin, Bouteille  Date 1914

Medium Oil paint on canvas

Here everything on the table is mixed together (are they on a table?) There are hints of lines relating to the forms of a guitar, there is possibly a brown topped bottle and a few curved lines that could indicate fruit. However, the full image is lost in abstraction.

Looking at an earlier image of Picasso’s using similar objects : he has started to divide the objects and background into lines and geometrically shaded shapes, but retains some recognisable colours which are quite solidly applied –his glass has no sparkle as those in the Dutch paintings of the 17th century and the image lives for itself not as a record or allegory.

Compotier, Fruit, and Glass. 1909. Oil on canvas.

One of my favourite still life painters of the early 20th century is Morandi. His simple pots line up in patient fashion on the edge of the table. There is no bright colour and no detail to distract from these rural pots. They make me smile as though they are children waiting to be told what to do next. They make me feel as though they are to be protected and looked after -perhaps bringing out a maternal instinct which none of the other paintings so far discussed have done.

Giorgio Morandi 1890–1964

Title Still Life Natura morta Date 1946

sourced from tate.org.uk

 

The twenty first century

Anything goes in this century. We have a return to the clear depictions of the Dutch artists:

Tony De Wolf

In a visit to a London gallery a few years ago I came across the paintings of Tony de Wolf. These return to a classical carefulness in depicting glass pots and fruit. His colour scheme is usually reduced with whites contrasting against orange, glass and silver reflecting white or grey blue backgrounds. His images look photographic, clear and crisp and his objects stand in virtual straight line on the table which is on level with our eye. His compositions and lack of colours remind me of the still paintings Morandi.

see “Still life with brown ceramic bowls” at:     artsy.net/artwork/tony-de-wolf-still-life-with-brown-ceramic-bowls

 

Gillain Carnegie 

“Thirteen”  image visible at Tate.org.uk

glancing thrtough the book Vitamin P on contemporary artists, there are very few renderings of still lives, however I was taken by Gillian Carnegie’s painting “Thirteen” which depicts a bunch of white flowers in a cut down plastic milk bottle. The colour plays around greys and orchre browns with two brown pink shaded flowers and one bright yellow sphere. The Tate describes the image as having been painted so as to appear tilted towards the viewer. The flowers are slightly sculptural and not reailistic and their colours blend into the similar coloured background. It reminds me a little of the Morandi images in the use (or non use ) of colour and appeals to me

We are reminded by the Tate information that the light on the subject is stylized and flat and there are few shadows.The paint is applied both in the careful manner of the Dutch still life painters and in a messy thick manner in the background.