Photographic Reference for 'The Man With the Letter'

Photography of Muses

Post-Impressionism and I - Part Two of Three (Edouard Vuillard & Les Nabis)

Edouard Vuillard

Woman in a Striped Dress, 1895

Edouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis - an avante-garde subdivision of Post-Impressionism which formed in the 1890's, comprised of a group of art students inspired by the synthetism of Gauguin. Vuillard contributed to their exhibitions at the Gallery of Le Barc de Boutteville, and later shared a studio with fellow Nabis Pierre Bonnard (coming up in Part Three!) and Maurice Denis.

Brief Summary of Les Nabis

Les Nabis artists worked in a variety of media, using oils on both canvas and cardboard, distemper on canvas and wall decoration, and also produced posters, prints, book illustration, textiles and furniture. Considered to be on the cutting edge of modern art during their early period, their subject matter was representational (though often symbolist in inspiration), but was design oriented along the lines of the Japanese prints they so admired, and art nouveau. Unlike those types however, the artists of this circle were highly influenced by the paintings of the impressionists, and thus while sharing the flatness, page layout and negative space of art nouveau and other decorative modes, much of Nabis art has a painterly, non-realistic look, with color palettes often reminding one of Cézanne and Gauguin. Bonnard's posters and lithographs are more firmly in the art nouveau, or Toulouse-Lautrec manner

Good Summary of Vuillard's Style 

In his paintings and decorative pieces Vuillard depicted mostly interiors, streets and gardens. Marked by a gentle humor, they are executed in the delicate range of soft, blurred colors characteristic of his art. Living with his mother, a dressmaker, until the age of sixty, Vuillard was very familiar with interior and domestic spaces. Much of his art reflected this influence, largely decorative and often depicting very intricate patterns.

I love Vuillard's dappled, painterly texture and restrained colour palette. His work on interiors is of particular interest to me, and combined with my exploration of the work of his British counter-part, Walter Sickert, will provide a good wealth of reference and inspiration to execute my painting of my parents in an interior setting.

Interieur, 1902



Breakfast, 1894

 Madame Vuillard Sewing, 1895

A great source of Vuillard's interior paintings:

http://art-in-movement.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/edouard-vuillard.html#!/2012/03/edouard-vuillard.html

Post-Impressionism and I - Part One of Three (Introduction & Toulouse-Lautrec)

An influence so perfectly suited, a train of thought so wonderfully convoluted, resulting in blog post so monumental as to be torn triply asunder.

 Introduction

'Post-Impressionism': a movement labelled with the vaguest of definitions, encompassing such a vast array of styles and deviations which just so happened to follow and draw inspiration from the vastly influential movement of Impressionism. The term describes the development of French art since 1886 (according to art historian John Rewald, although any concrete chronological, stylistic or geographical definition of the movement is contentious)  The term 'Post-Impressionism' encompassed many  separate but inter-related movements such as Pointillism, Cloisonnism and Sythetism. Leading figures of the movement were Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, Cezanne and Toulouse-Lautrec.
Currently, my attention is drawn to the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard - a devastating three way tussle for the title of 'most Frenchified name'. The technical elements of Impressionism which so appeal to me (thick application of paint, high colour-vibration, distinctive brushstrokes and real, observational subject matter) are all still inherent in the particular facets of Post-Impressionism which they represent, yet there the stronger geometrical emphasis and more solid composition of the style also appeals to me.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

In Bed, 1893 

In this painting, Toulouse-Lautred shows two women sharing a bed together, although without any overt sexual suggestions. The bond seems fraternal rather than sexual, merely two people sheltering together from a harsh and demmanding world

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's artwork is intrinsically connected with his famous lifestyle. A debauched, alcoholic, aristocratic dwarf, Toulouse-Lautrec lived in the fashionable bohemian Paris neighbourhood of Montmatre, a town which in the late 19th century could turn a bishop into a drunkard, lustful mess in thirty minutes flat. Much of T-L's work focuses on the emergent Parisian nightlife as its subject matter, but despite the surface bawdiness and debauchery, I love the way that in his depictions of hungover prostitutes, exhausted cabaret dancers and closing bars, manages to treat his subject matter with a sensitivity, melancholy and tenderness that penetrates the contemporaneous reflection of the subjects and instead uses it as a subtext for a exploration of the very trembling core of what it means to be alive, living - a human being.

 
The Kiss

 The Hangover" (Portrait of Suzanne Valadon), c.1888

  A Corner of the Moulin de la Galette, 1892

A Short Note to Self:

• Explore work of Gauguin, Seurat, Cezanne (& Van Gogh?) for better understanding of Post-Impressionism.
• Also, examine relationship with Much/Expressionsim? IS THERE ONE?
• Don Bachardy

Walter Sickert

 

 

 

La Giuseppina  

 

 Self-Portrait

Links To Helpful Bits of The Internet

Stuff on Sickert:

• http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/walter-richard-sickert-1941
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/walter-richard-sickert/paintings/slideshow#/22

Tate resource with images, BBC resource with loads of images

John Singer-Sargent:

•  http://www.metmuseum.org/search-results?ft=john+singer+sargent&x=5&y=4

Metropolitan Museum (largest JSS collection anywhere) masses and masses of images, loads of sketches

Degas:

• http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dgsp/hd_dgsp.htm

Met Museum thematic essay

Munch:

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/jul/01/edvard-munch-modern-eye-review

Guardian article on Tate Munch exhibition

Rounding Up Influences Thus Far: Impressionism/Expressionism

I would like to collect together the various threads of thought pertaining to my project entitled 'Youth, Beauty, Ageing and Vanity' contained in this blog into a single, more coherent and practical definition of the direction the project will take. Starting from a completely blank position, the artists which have struck me as exciting and relatable to my own intentions as an artist seem to be connected in some way to the Impressionism movement. However, I am taking selectively from this collective of ideas and techniques, and in conjunction with a number of other schools of thought.

Rather than being drawn to the classic interpretation of Impressionism, such as Monet's vibrant landscapes, I have rather found inspiration in Degas' own, uniquely 'un-impressionist' form of Impressionism, with his careful, muted colour palette, slow and precise way of working in a studio and yet retention of the vibrancy, dynamism and looseness of technique which is more prevalent in the works of Monet or Renoir. His series on ballerinas and women bathing are particularly interesting, not only from a technical viewpoint in the delicate and intense way he handles the pastel colours and defined lines, but from a thematic point they also capture a sense of beauty, age, and the connection between the mind and the body which is the underpinning concept of my title.

However from the very origins of my project, Edvard Munch has been influential on my ideas. Although often considered a 'pure-breed' Expressionist, Munch is in fact difficult to define in relation to any particular artistic movement, as throughout his career he experimented with many different styles, including Impressionism. However, whilst Impressionism is often about capturing a personal interpretation of an external scene, Munch's Expressionist works were about interpreting the internal ideas and emotions of the artist, and his paintings have an almost diarylike quality. However, the things in common between Much and the Impressionist artists I am inspired by such as Degas, Sickert and Vuillard (the latter being more of a post-impressionist but whatever) are the emotional and physical narrative they offer. A combination of the beauty and life-imbued studies of the phyical state and sense of atmosphere offered by the Impressionist work and Munch's harrowing emotional symbolism are the key components of this project which I wish to be a study into both the emtional and physical relationship between youth and growing old (physical) with the concepts of beauty and vanity (emotional/internal)

And then of course there is my old favourite, John Singer-Sargent, thrown in for good measure and to complicate things further. From this clever old man I wish to take his watercolour and drawing technique with which he re-invented himself with in later life and which is explored in a previous post.

This is a rather haphazard, over-punctuated, disorganised attempt to make sense of a sprawling web of somewhat directionless ideas, but it's my best shot as of yet.

Such a Lot to Learn

 http://www.youtube.com/user/taran777tula?feature=g-all-u

The versatility of the nude, the beauty of flesh, the cold sexless cynicism of modern art, the tactless bullying of a feminist interpretation of art, the misinterpretation of the Victorians and a misguided attribution of sexual understanding to the artwork of today. In forty-five minutes. With the exception of his reverence for the ideological value of the Victorian persuasion for 'fairy painting' I strongly concurr with the opinions expressed by Mr. Howard Jacobson in this film.

Pastel Work - Degas

Dancers In Blue - Edgar Degas

Woman in the Bathtub - Edgar Degas (1886) - Pastel on Paper

The delicacy and evocative texture of chalk pastel work (particularly that of the master pastelist, Edgar Degas) is something which I would like to use in this project, as if it is an impressionistic style which I wish to explore and develop, this is one of the key mediums of the original movement and the natural qualities of pastels seem to capture the sense of light and movement, as well as the vague interprative element which defined impressionism. Thus far, I have designated oils, chalks and watercolours as potential media to use in this forthcoming project.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dgsp/hd_dgsp.htm

Singer Sargent and Impressionism

"Can a bold dash of blue, amid a fog of greys and a few delicate flecks of black really justify itself as a portrait ? Isn’t an impressionist portrait then an oxymoron in itself ? On the other hand, our memories of people aren’t crisp black and white either. People are a mere sum of impressions in the memories of other people."

- Anonymous Author of 'Dotted Frontiers'

Portraits painted in the Impressionist style - a fine example of which is the above work by John Singer Sargent entitled 'Ena Wertheimer With Antonio Mancini' - aimed to capture not a likeness of the image of a person, but the emotion impression that they created. The above work is marvellous for its economy of technique, the seemingly spontaneous and lazy brushstrokes are in fact meticulously considered, with every blob and dash of colour serving a definite purpose to create the overall image. The bright explosion of colour behind the two figures represent the vibrant, brilliant impression Wertheimer and Mancini left on Sargent and his high esteem for them - both practising artists themselves.



The above work 'The Green Dress' by Sargent shows how with just a very limited number of brushstrokes, a remarkable likeness can be achieved. The success of this portrait as a likeness lies in Sargent's choice of features to pick out: the angle of the brows, the closed eyelids, the firm set lips and sharply angle nose and cheekbones all create the strong emotional impression that Wertheimer is, in this portrait, attempting to read peacefully but is restless and frustrated at being trapped inside (these studies were painted when Sargent, Wertheimer and Mancini were holidaying together in Venice, and this particular painting on a day when the party were forced to remain indoors due to poor weather).



Peter Harrison - John Singer Sargent

I absolutely love these portraits, they are in my opinion the perfect way to capture a personality and an amalgamation of memories, and are truly beautiful as pieces of art. I think that the bold, spontaneous yet considered use of watercolours is something that I will include in my exploration of the title 'Aging, Youth, Beauty and Vanity'. Impressionist portraits are often of friends or family of the artists as mainstream commissions for this avante-garde and rebellious style were few. This gives the portraits a personal, emotive character which suits my plan to use friends and family as subjects, as it was a primary concern of mine that by using people close to me as subjects I would somehow have to disguise this relationship to express more clearly the overarching themes of death/narcissism that will undoubtedly stem from my title. However this technique gives me a way of incorporating personal relationships into the very fabric of the paintings, something which I feel when explored in conjunction with the greater themes of the project will produce some highly interesting results.

In short, it seems that this style of painting suits well the ideas I wish to explore, my own tendencies and intentions as an artist, and the kind of subjects I will be working with. Rather than declaring 'I will now produce some work in the Impressionist style' I am saying instead that this seems to be the legitimate art movement closest to the ideas I wish to express and my own idea of how art should look.

http://dottedfrontiers.com/art/2010/09/impressionist-portraits-oxymorons-by-john-singer-sargent/

A Goldmine of Images

Self-Portrait, c.1857-58 by Edgar Degas. Photograph: © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/jul/08/paris-impressionism-paintings-clark-review

This article, singing the praises of American art collector Sterling Clark, contains many links to works by Degas, Manet and Monet, whose impressionistic styles I find enticing and interesting. The aptly named Sterling was obviously a man of more taste than money, which is impressive considering he was the heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune and owned an entire block of Manhatten before he was twenty...

Watercolours

Watercolours and I have reconcilled our differences and perhaps bonded somewhat. Image is commissioned piece © Thomas William Barnett 2012

Plaster and Paper - a stroke of genius from Denise

An extremely interesting flurry of ideas - ageing shown in glass, working in a semi-sculptural way, pressing my face into a vaseling covered bag of plaster. Seems insane but infact quite brilliant. Atony Gormley, a veritable master of the human figure, provided the start of the conversation with this work below, featuring figures almost pressing themselves throught the walls of a large white cube. Althouhg Gormley is dealing mainly with the human body's relationship with space, there is an element of the harrowing emotion of Much's work in the decidedly lonely way the figures are presented. This developed into exploring the idea of figures pressing through paper/canvas to create a painting with a semi-sculptural quality to it. This captured my imagination, and I am fascinated by the mental image of the shape of a human face pressing through the fabric of a canvas, painting itself into reality, escqaping from the material. This could be an extremely vivid way of exploring the fear of and obsession with aging and vanity I mentioned previously as a potential theme. The idea of someone trying to escape from their own face is haunting and powerful.

I was then introduced to a glass artist by the name of George F Jackson, who uses figures and multimedia in his glasswork to explore the theme of ageing and its effect of beauty- somewhat callously using his wife as a subject for this brutal exploration. The results are fascinating though, contrasting the shapely figure of his young bride with the sagging, lumpen form of his middle-aged partner. This is an interesting look at the emotional responses to ageing.

http://www.gfj-glassartist.co.uk/gallery.html

Thanks Denise!

Drawing from Life?

It has been recommended to me that I explore creating more work drawn from life as opposed to from photographs. This is certainly something which on a conceptual level appeals to me greatly, firstly as it seems far more Romantic and legitimately artistic than sitting crouched over a small photograph taken by a bleeping, whirring electronic monstrosity.

I can also appreciate the immediate benefits it might have for the quality of my work, as I do feel that some of my previous portraits feel rather conspicuously like painted copies of photographs, rather than of the people themselves, as I am having to interpret the camera's own limited capture of real life. I also feel that working from life would offer me a greater chance of capturing the spirit  of someones face and features, as seeing them in even the slightest motion indicates their tendencies and 'iconic' habits specific to the sitter - for example if a person has a particular predilection for curling their top lip when expressing feelings of distaste, or raising an eyebrow when making a point.

However. However, however, however. There are practical constraints, as a mere art student. Whilst I fully agree that to work from life is indeed the ideal way to work, finding a sitter who is not only inspiring facially, but also patient and willing enough to sit for possibly hours for me may be something of a challenge. I have devoted friends, but there are limits. It also means that I will obviously will not be able to pursue my famous/deceased muses as mentioned previously, as I am not prepared to grapple and beg for decades with Vivienne Westwood's management team for the sake of an A2 portrait.

As far as compromising and doing some drawings from life and others from photographs goes, I do not know whether that would be a satisfying solution. To go back to photos after experiencing life would seem like a technical regression, whilst starting with photos and moving to life may feel disjointed (or maybe it could work, must think). It is now a questions of deciding upon my subjects for my paintings so that I can begin organising the participation of my sitters/photographic subjects.


[EDIT] After re-reading this article a few times, I am edging closer and closer to abandoning my famous muses, and instead pursuing some drawing from life of more anonymous but I am sure equally wonderful sitters.

Ageing, Youth and Beauty

Ageing and youthfulness, and their correlation with a concept of beauty may be something that I could explore as a proposal for my Unit Three work. This may perhaps allow me work in many of the diverse sources of inspiration contained in my previous posts. I could explore my personal dilemma of balancing beauty with truth in my artwork, still use some of the muses which I have identified as typically inspiring to me, and could also work in some of the deeper meaning epitomised in Much's paintings by exploring attitudes to age, youth and vanity. This may also provide and opportunity for some self-portraiture work. I could explore age and youth in its extremes, or could also focus on the considerable physical ageing which occurs in the brief span of years of childhood and adolescence.

Key words from this somewhat messy late-night splatter of thoughts seem to be: Youth, Beauty, Ageing and Vanity.

In The Aftermath of Sue

Having consulted with my tutor about a potential direction for my Unit Three project, I have come to the decision that I need to come to a decision regarding the purpose of my investigation. I am conscious that this makes me look a little lost and perhaps clueless, but it is not that I am straining to find something that I am interested in, it's more that there are so many things I feel like I could explore and investigate, but I don't feel a particularly stronger urge towards any particular one.

It has been recommended to me that I explore drawing or painting from life, as opposed to photographs, which is something I agree would be beneficial, as it removes the middle man, allowing me to work without having to account for the limited interpretive abilities of the camera's sensor.

There is a key dillema in my ideas on portraiture. On one hand, I lean towards the aesthetic, deliberately choosing subjects who I find to be beautiful (in relation to my own sense of beauty) or interesting on a superficial level. I enjoy trying to capture the features which create this ephemeral element, breaking down an intangible concept into physical shapes, cheekbones chins and eyebrows. However, on the other hand, I feel like I should strive for something more meaningful than beauty, and that I should perhaps be more honest in my work. I sometimes find the aforementioned romanticising of everything sickly, and at one point, after watching a harrowing documentary on the subject,  felt compelled to paint pictures of children with facial disfigurements. This is perhaps an extreme response, but nevertheless, I think an embracing of the grimy truths of faces and bodies might be an artistically - and spiritually (?) helpful exercise. Self-portraiture was discussed in my consultation, and proves an interesting vehicle for this contradiction.

This latter idea may be driven by my belief that portraiture should be meaningful - more than just an accurate representation of a face and character. They must say something more universal and identifiable. I just need to figure out what it is that I want to say.

Musings on Muses

Looking over some non-college work I have created recently, I have come to identify a theme of recurrent interest to me - a particular breed of subject, more specifically. Noting my enjoyment in capturing and exploring the character of prominent figures such as Vivienne Westwood, Katharine Hepburn and Kate Bush, I have identified that the people who inspire me artistically tend to be opinionated, eccentric, unconventional women. The reasons for this, no doubt, lie in some horribly tangled psychological disfigurement, and so do not invite further pondering. I do think though that on a very immediate level I am drawn to and respect massively human beings who manage to battle the crushing monotony of conformity and establishment to carve out their own inimitable, unforgettable niche of creative brilliance, and to maintain, crucially, a sense of dignity whilst doing so.

These are perhaps the traits which I picked up on and became excited about in my earlier somewhat gushing post about David Bowie - though he is not quite female. I need to think more about this trend of inspiration that I have identified, and try and discover the key idea which makes these people interesting to paint, and develop that into a message or idea to explore in my Unit Three project.

Below are images of the aforementioned 'muses' and some of my work from them:

Victor Wang

Victor Wang's evocative portraits have many qualities which I intended my work to posses. These include the rich, romantic colours, thickly impastoed textured paint surface, and a thoughtful, contemplativeness which makes them highly absorbing pieces of art. It is mainly the richness and tactility of his brushwork which inspires me. I tried to achieve a not entirely dissimilar effect in my Unit Two paintings, although greatly subdued in comparison, and this style may be something that I could develop in my Unit Three work.

http://www.victorwang.net/index.html

Edvard Munch

 Reading a Guardian article about the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (watching the football would be just far too normal), I was struck by his expressive brushwork and handling of colour to create tension and atmosphere. Studying the artists works has given me some idea of how to construct a project focussing on human beings (figures or faces), whilst not making them the SUBJECT of the painting, but making aspects of the human condition, emotions and impulses the main aspect of the painting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/jun/22/edvard-munch-ghosts-of-vampires-and-victims