Research Point - David, Ingres, Degas, Picasso, Giacometti, Hockney

Jacques Louis David (1748-1825)

Studies after Michaelangelo

David filled his sketchbooks after antique and baroque art but

rejected the rococo tradition. He described contours meticulously.

‘Marie Antoinette on Her Way to the Guillotine’ 16 Oct 1793, pen and ink.

‘Studies after Pietro da Cortona’
black chalk. This is from a fresco
 ‘The Assumption of the Virgin’. 

As an official artist of the French Revolution he sketched victims on their way to the guillotine. This is a very simple looking line sketch, almost a caricature, of Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine showing economical and deft use of lines. It encapsulates very well the broken yet dignified expression on her face.

Ingres

Ingres style was Neoclassicism (classical antiquity) and he was the last of the neoclassicist painters – a master of realism.

He was a pupil of David’s.

Ingres lines are very smooth and pure giving his figures a look of flowing elegance. He paid a lot of attention to detail. Infact the stress on line was an important part of his style – delicate but firm.

Portrait of Charles Francois Mallet. Front lighting used here (as in most of Ingres’ drawings) emphasizes the edges. In doing this he followed very much Raphael’s example. In places he has used minimal of broken line to show the saturation of light and bolder on the other side to show the form turned away.

Link to Ingres Miraculous Lines – describes in fascinating detail Ingres career, inspiration and techniques.

Edgar Degas

Woman drying herself after bathing, pastel

Degas was a great admirer of Ingres, whose masterful draughtsmanship was passed on through Degas’ tutor, who was a pupil of Ingres. Yet he also admired the turbulent style of Delacroix. He used a quite linear style in many of his drawings and often reasserted the outlines. The lines of the faces are usually quite controlled, yet the arms or legs for instance, are done in a quick sketchy looking way with numerous restatements. He often used scribbly lines for backgrounds but more controlled parallel hatching strokes for the forms and surface planes of his figures.

One of Degas main concerns was how to convey movement – drawing his subjects from unexpected and unusual angles. This link describes in detail his pre-occupation with movement, particularly in relation to dancers in the ballet.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso

La Sieste (Les Moissoneurs)

La Sieste (Les Moissoneurs), 1919, pencil

Here very fluid curving lines have been used, with little variation in weight, delicately reasserted here and there. This and the soft, voluptuous lines of the contours give form to the two figures.

In contrast Louis Freund’s drawing Pieta, 1960, oil on board,  the lines are wild and frenzied. The contours come and go and singular lines move from one end of the composition to the other in a vigorous exploration.

Louis Freund - Pieta

In Desuudo de espaldas, 1958 (right) Picasso has created a wonderfully expressive drawing with just a few lines.

                                     Alberto Giacometti

Many of Giacometti’s drawings are made up of a mass of often entangled lines, like lengths of wire. This was how he brought about the sitter’s likeness and presence. The turmoil in these  lines appears to give his figures a look of ghostly vulnerability.

David Hockney

Two Dogs – these are two contented looking daschund dogs, delicately rounded and plump. Hockney uses a balance of thin and thicker lines, suggesting just a slight amount of subtle shadow. This seems to anchor them very comfortably in the chair.

Celia Sleeping 1972 – just a minimal amount well placed lines here, which appear to capture the scene perfectly.

In ‘Portrait of Dwight’1979, pen and black ink, Hockney uses multiple short singular and v-shaped directional lines and marks to describe texture in the hair. Loose minimal slightly curving parallel lines describe the ribbing on the sleeve at lower left. There is just an 

Celia sleeping

indication of texture in the closer fibres on the front of the t-shirt
 where the marks are denser and more random.

Research Point - Self Portraits

Graham Sutherland,  (1903-80)

When I was visiting London earlier in the summer I called into the National Portrait Gallery, where I spotted this self portrait in oil on canvas. Graham Sutherland was a big landscape painter and a war artist, but he also did quite a number of portraits of famous people such as Somerset Maughan and Winston Churchill. As I was scanning each portrait along the walls in the gallery,  this one immediately caught my attention. 

Painted in 1977, during his final years, the expression looks contented, yet I can see a hint of dark underlying sternness on the right side of the face and the intense concentration is evident. The other side of the face is lit up with a lovely reflective quality and light appears to be shimmering out from around the head. I also notice a curious thing about the face - sometimes I find it looks serious and at other times grinning, rather like Leonardo's famous Mona Lisa.  All brushwork looks free and loose, especially in the background. 

I think the domination of the colour and shade of green also help to exude an air of quiet calmness. In effect, every part of the painting seems to be bathed in the green atmosphere. 

Vincent Van Gogh

This was painted shortly after the death of his beloved brother Theo – his last self portrait. The eyes appear to say it all, a look of utter devastation and despair and the background of swirling lines seem to pulsate with the turmoil probably going through his mind.

Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt is thought to have depicted himself in paintings, etchings and drawings a record number of times. 

Another final self portrait - this has misty atmosphere around the face, through it he stares out with a piercing yet contemplating look. Amongst the washes applied on his clothes, I think great tonal depth has been achieved, furthered by fine hatching, although it still retains a soft and flowing appearance. 

Self Portrait 1956

Ink on paper 12.5 x 7.5 cm

William Utermohlen

Through a series of self portraits William Utermohlen recorded a very poignant portrayal of his decline into dementia. Archives http://www.nowpublic.com/health/william-utermohlen-s-self-portraits-chronicling-descent-alzheimer-s#ixzz1YJZ7LRAA

This is a self portrait of him as a young man. Minimal lines very adequately describe the ruffled hair . The vertical hatched lines on the face appear to be rapidly drawn and decisive, echoing his determined expression peering out under the spectacles.

David Hockney

This is another drawing where the treatment is sparse but very effective and there is no doubt about it being a true likeness! A piercing stare again - I guess this is only natural when studying intently one's own reflection. 

Kathe Kollwitz

The last great German expressionist and outstanding artist of social protest.

The portrait emits a darkly sad expression enhanced by deep shadow in the lower half of the face, particularly around the eyes, and the supporting hand on the forehead. The dense mesh of linear hatching spirals outwards from the centre around the eyes, is carried through onto the hand, and becomes gradually bolder and looser towards the outer areas. This dark, quite disturbing mood, emitted (as with so much of her work) is perhaps a reflection of the misery and hardship she witnessed and endured during her lifetime.

Bruno Schulz

Right is a self portrait by Bruno Schulz. He was a well known writer, said to be comparable 
to Franz Kafka, and an artist up to 1942, when he was shot in Poland by the Nazis. I wasn't able to find when he did this portrait. It has a very direct appearance, reflected in the type of marks used, while deep and esoteric.
There is also a serious and wary look about the eyes - hardly suprising.