Hi everyone! I’ll be dedicating this blog to exploring and analyzing art from the late 19th to early 20th century. I’ll focus on artwork in Paris, London, New York and Edo and will particularly look at how artists use fashion and gaze to express a certain look or feel in a painting. In order to keep the blog posts short and sweet, I’ll try to break up these two major topics, fashion and gaze, into separate posts so that eventually, there will be an analysis of both topics for every painting I discuss.
I have also created an additional category, titled “Four Basic Visual Elements in Art”, to discuss some of the compositional elements all artists use to express their vision in their artwork. I not only discuss these basic elements, but also examine paintings from the turn of the century and try to determine how things like point, line, color and tone are used. This section is geared toward the beginning art student or anyone who is interested in learning how to interpret art. Check it out!
Walt Kuhn, “Chorus Captain”, 1935
This is a painting by American artist Walt Kuhn. Here we really get a true reflection of these performers’ feelings: they were only working there to earn a living during the Great Depression. This woman, whose face has been painted and head crowned with an ostrich plumage, appears tired and worn down. The emptiness in her gaze and her overall glum facial expression, which you would never see on stage, depicts the reality of these women’s lives: they were underpaid, overworked and living a life they didn’t enjoy. Khun, who had a major fascination with theatre that started when he was a young boy doing menial tasks like delivering costumes, liked to create memorable portraits of entertainers by illustrating his women in an intimate and expressionistic manner to express a figure’s emotional experience as opposed to the impressions that other people had of them.
A few posts ago, we got into a detailed discussion about the fashion in Boldini’s portrait painting of Lady Colin Campbell. Even though her gaze is very easy to read and unsubtly suggestive, let’s briefly discuss it for the sake of completion!
Colin Campbell’s daring gaze is indicative of her strong, unwavering personality. Her magnetic gaze, that pierces through the page and directly gazes into your eyes, ties the entire painting together! It is already such a lively, sexually intense portrait, and her physiognamy is sending a look of shameless seduction. It’s captivating, empowering and I love it. It’s obvious that she’s up to no good and not afraid to show it!
Kitagawa Utamaro, “Bamboo Blind,”1780
This is Utamaro’s “Bamboo Blind.” Though it’s not from the blog’s time period focus (late 19th to early 20th century), we discussed this painting during the Seattle Art Museum and it captured my attention most of all, so I thought I would explain why by discussing the physiognamy and fashion in the picture.
Since their heavily stylized faces made courtesans facially indistinguishable, and because they were typically drawn with the same facial expression, I decided to discuss both gaze and fashion in one post, as opposed to separating them into two posts.
In this painting, as well as in many of the courtesan paintings, the females are illustrated with eyes that don’t face the viewer, faces that are powdered snow white and contrasted with bright red lips, and hair that has been slicked back and lifted high in the sky with hair sticks, combs and ribbons. It was an elegant hairstyle called the Yoko-Hyogo common to the Edo era courtesan. Even though these Japanese women were of lower class status, they had a reputation for extravagant and highly stylized makeup, hair and kimonos- long Japanese robes.
I particularly like the contrast between the transparency of the blinds that conceals the woman’s face and her reflection in the compact mirror that reveals it. This hand accessory appears to be very symbolic of a courtesan’s life: though they appear mysterious and reserved, these submissive women whose lives are devoted to serving men are actually very unconcealed and open to anyone who is interested.
Lines are essential and very handy to the artist. At the bare minimum, a line is a point that has moved through space. Lines can be active or static, actual or implied, curved or straight, continues or broken, thick or thin, sharp or dull, light or dark. The spectrum of options enables one to create many different kinds of emotions and express numerous visual concepts. For instance, depending on how they are employed, lines can display movement, emotion, space, or create pattern and structure in a painting.
The following are two paintings by British artist William Hogarth taken from week one of our lecture notes.
William Hogarth, “Beer Street”, 1751
William Hogarth, “Gin Lane”, 1751
The residents of Beer Street are drinking, but remain composed as they consume an appropriate amount. Most of them appear to be resting and enjoying the rest of their afternoon after a productive day at work. Contrast this with the inhabitants of Gin Lane, who appear to have spent their entire day drinking rather than doing their jobs. They are intoxicated, clumsy, angry, and oblivious.
Hogarth has drawn opposing lines at every turn, capturing the commotion in both cities.
Both pictures use mostly straight lines rather than curved ones. Straight lines, especially ones angled in many directions (e.g., horizontally, vertically and diagonally), tend to illustrate activity and commotion. Curved lines create flow in an image, and are usually affiliated with soft things, which is probably why we don’t get as many curved lines in the images as we do straight.
Though both pictures are illustrating commotion, the latter is one of chaos and the former is more of an upbeat and serene liveliness.
In particular, observe the shape of the painter’s backbone standing on a ladder at the top left hand corner of the page in Beer Street. Called the “Line of Beauty,” it’s a theory that originated with William Hogarth to describe an S-shaped curve of an object. This curved line is supposed to evoke feelings of energy and liveliness. It’s absence in Gin Lane is telling, suggesting the city’s lack of vitality and spirit in contrast with the city of Beer Street, which is occupied by happy and healthy drinkers.
In John Singer Sargent’s “A Venetian Woman,” Sargent points straight lines in the background toward the woman to create an emphasis on her.
John Singer Sargent, “A Venetian Woman”, 1882
Katsushika Hokusai, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”, 1830.
Above is Hokusai’s woodblock print titled “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” (taken from week four of our lecture notes) . The curves of the waves are swooping around Mount Fuji and devouring a few occupied boats. Lines of varying angles and objects of varying size suggest dimension and volume, creating a lifelike, three dimensional illustration. Whereas the mountain in the distance is illustrated with static lines, the turbulent waves are very active. The harshness of the claw-like crest has been exaggerated, and though an actual snapshot would be less intense, it wouldn’t capture the image of the sea through the eyes of someone who was actually being engulfed by it, as is being captured by this vivacious painting.
Giovanni Boldini’s “Gertrude Elizabeth, Lady Colin Campbell,” 1897
Lady Colin Campbell was born into a wealthy family, and her fashion attire in this painting captures their elitist lifestyle. Her costume, a black satin dress covered in a stratum of fabric is so intricately designed, it requires minimal-to-no accessories. Her only jewelry, a set of three gold bangles, are simplistic so as to not appear gaudy, and yet still draw attention to her long, delicate arms. The dress is fitting Lady Colin like a glove and accentuating her curves in all the right places! We will be discussing her seductive gaze in the next blog, but there is more to this portrait than the blatant allure in her eyes (e.g., the fashion) that captures her risqué personality and riveting lifestyle.
The plunging neckline that ends in a point at the center of her chest leads us to a peek-a-boo rose motif that covers her right breast. These curvy lines (which will be discussed in my next blog and can be found in the category titled “four basic visual elements” that explains the four compositional elements all artists use, one of which is the line, to express their personal vision in their paintings) are continued through the bodice, and dramatically define her hourglass figure. Her excruciatingly small, corseted waistline, dramatically contrasted by the gathered trim silk fabric that accentuates her hips, is reflective of her own drama-filled personal life.
Lady Colin was divorced by her husband because of her numerous sexual affairs with multiple different men, and their subsequent divorce trials attracted a great deal of public attention. She eventually became a very successful author and art critic and though shunned by society during the time of her divorce, her unwavering drive and innovative creativity earned her a spot as a respectable person in the literary and artistic world.
There is a fixating allure in the elegant flow of her attire, perhaps because it is being complemented by her carefree, confidence-on-the-borderline-to-cockiness persona, and it can be seen in every nook and cranny of this painting! It’s in the sinuous lines, the dramatic fabric, the suggestive neckline and the contrasting colors, and it screams seduction and female sensuality!
The point is the most simple mark that can be made in a painting. Yet still, as simple as it may be, it has the ability to capture focus and invent pathways and images that don’t actually exist!
The point can be used simply to define a position in space, or more intricately it can be group parts of images together to create an invisible, connected image or pathway. For instance, the mind has the ability to see what may be mere points on a surface and associate them with each other and with the outline of the surface to create an illusion and sensation of “magnetic” forces. These forces don’t actually exist, but they are felt and visualized by the mind and eyes.
Take the following picture to the left, a piece of square paper that has 2 points on the page. Looking at the picture, one doesn’t merely see two points but also some “magnetic forces,” four lines that extend from each point to the corners of the page, and the more strongly felt magnetic line that connects the two points together. This is the mind at work, trying to balance the tension in the page.
The image below illustrates these magnetic forces that are felt and visualized, but nevertheless invisible and nonexistent.
INTERESTING FACT: If a mark on a page is not centered, a feeling of uneasiness in the viewer typically results from this instability.
Do you feel the equilibrium in the first image, and a slight sense of uncomfortableness in the second?
Focal points are used to draw one’s attention to the most important part of a painting.
American artist John Sloan’s “Sunday Afternoon in Union Square”, 1912
In John Sloan’s “Sunday Afternoon in Union Square,” dated 1912, the main figures are centered in the middle. They are the two girls walking carelessly as they look and smile at each other, enjoying the attention they are receiving from the people around them. They seem to appear as one big focal point in the picture, rather than two focal points, because of the way they are looking at each other and also because of the way they are standing in close proximity, creating a combined silhouette, and therefore appearing as one main focal point of composition.
Our focus to them is further amplified by the subsidiary points in the picture, i.e., the faces of the people that surround them. The gazes and stares at the two girls draw our eyes to them even further, and the intense magnetic forces that are felt projecting from the people’s eyes create a tense atmosphere around the young girls, which makes them stand out even more.
Summary: The point is a very powerful tool in art. One of its many uses is it brings an image together and develops meaning through the process of grouping. Another one of its roles is it helps direct our eyes and establish focus.
In the next blog, we will discuss the second basic visual element, the line, which opens up many more possibilities for the artist to illustrate his vision.
This section will be devoted to learning the elements of composition that are used by artists in their paintings in order to express their vision.
Obviously, this is outside the scope of my blog, which focuses solely on fashion and gaze, but I wanted to create a section for the beginning art student (myself included), or anyone interested, to learn the fundamentals that will help you better understand the art you are observing or perhaps that will help you better express the goals in the art you are creating!
Different visual elements are used to illustrate different goals, and there is at least four basic elements that all artists are aware off and incorporate in their work.
We will examine paintings from the late 19th to early 20th century taken from the same four cities (Paris, London, New York and Edo, Tokyo) we’ve been discussing in my blog. In this way, we will see how these elements were used during this time period as well as see the commonalities that existed between artists who may have been born and raised in different countries or painted in different centuries, yet painted with the same basic set of skills in mind.
The first basic visual element we will discuss is the point. Click on the next blog to begin!
Claude Monet’s “Field of Poppies,” dated 1873. This painting incorporates many of the compositional elements we will be discussing in the next few blogs.
The following is a link to the summary and reviews for “Eakins Revealed” a detailed account of the dark side of Thomas Eakins’ life. NOTE: If you click “Preview this book,” you can read a few of the pages for free!
http://books.google.com/books/about/Eakins_revealed.html?id=APb5awOkrAMC
Summary of book:
Thomas Eakins is widely considered one of the great American painters, an artist whose uncompromising realism helped move American art from the Victorian era into the modern age. He is also acclaimed as a paragon of integrity, one who stood up for his artistic beliefs even when they brought him personal and professional difficulty–as when he was fired from the Pennsylvania Academy of Art for removing a model’s loincloth in a drawing class.
Yet beneath the surface of Eakins’s pictures is a sense of brooding unease and latent violence–a discomfort voiced by one of his sitters who said his portrait “decapitated” her. In Eakins Revealed, art historian Henry Adams examines the dark side of Eakins’s life and work, in a startling new biography that will change our understanding of this American icon. Based on close study of Eakins’s work and new research in the Bregler papers, a major collection never fully mined by scholars, this volume shows Eakins was not merely uncompromising, but harsh and brutal both in his personal life and in his painting. Adams uncovers the bitter personal feuds and family tragedies surrounding Eakins–his mother died insane and his niece committed suicide amid allegations that Eakins had seduced her–and documents the artist’s tendency toward psychological abuse and sexual harassment of those around him.
This provocative book not only unveils new facts about Eakins’s life; more important, it makes sense, for the first time, of the enigmas of his work. Eakins Revealed promises to be a controversial biography that will attract readers inside and outside the art world, and fascinate anyone concerned with the mystery of artistic genius.
In our last post, we analyzed Weda Cook’s gaze in Thomas Eakins’ “The Concert Singer” portrait. Now it’s time to analyze the fashion in the painting- her dress, her hair and the accessories!
Weda Cook’s sleeveless light pink dress fringed with lace and pearls at the scooped neckline and the large-sized flower motif that covers the top layer of her modestly draped ball gown dress has been drawn to appear natural in flow and texture and realistic in appearance. The lace fabric peaking through the center and her silky long train further illustrate Eakins’ keen eye for detail.
Cook’s modest hairstyle which has been lightly pushed back while her short and fluffy bangs hang out and cover her forehead as well as her lack of jewelry allows us to focus our attention on her elaborately drawn dress where we can really see Eakins’ attention to form, depth and lighting. Her pink dress is contrasted by the dark yellow, green and brown background to make her stand out even more.
Thomas Eakins’ “The Concert Singer” I added in arrows to direct you toward her awkwardly drawn shoes, just in case it’s not already obvious enough!
The part of the painting that really stands out (in a bad way) is the way her shoes have been drawn. There is an unnaturalness in her stance, particularly the way her feet are jutting out. Eakins was forced to draw this part without her (I explain why in my previous post, but she basically refused, and rightly so, to continue to pose for him for a few different reasons), and it clearly shows!
I find a little interesting how Eakins painted women for a living, yet he didn’t take the time to understand the female body and posture. It makes me wonder whether or not he truly appreciated and respected women in general. Without a model in front of him, he appears to be completely lost. This really made me wonder about what kind of man Eakins was, so I decided to search the internet for any clues. That’s when I found a summary of a book titled “Eakins Revealed.”
The following is a snippet of the summary (the link and entire summary can be found under the heading “Eakins Revealed: a biography that examines the dark side of Eakins’ life” in the sidebar):
Based on close study of Eakins’s work and new research in the Bregler papers, a major collection never fully mined by scholars, this volume shows Eakins was not merely uncompromising, but harsh and brutal both in his personal life and in his painting. Adams uncovers the bitter personal feuds and family tragedies surrounding Eakins–his mother died insane and his niece committed suicide amid allegations that Eakins had seduced her–and documents the artist’s tendency toward psychological abuse and sexual harassment of those around him.
How unsettling!
What do you think? Is this just a massively fabricated biography, or do you think this side of Eakins can be seen in his paintings?
lenals 