Research – Portraits that Convey Mood or Atmosphere

The first artist suggested to look at was Pablo Picasso and his blue period of portrait paintings. This era of artwork was inspired by the sorrowful characters he witnessed in Spain including beggars, prostitutes, drunks and poverty stricken families. The blue tones in which he uses were analogous to the internal battle he had with depression at the time, and enhanced the theme of sadness and despair in the paintings. I liked the artworks below, they show how effective it is to use a cool and monochromatic palette to enhance this sombre atmosphere.

The second artist Vincent Van Gogh is renowned for using colour to portray mood and his early work was quite dark to begin with. The painting ‘The Potato Eaters’ depicted peasants huddled around a table eating by the light of a small lamp. The painting is quite sombre and shows the reality of poverty and a life much removed from the civilised people Vincent had known. In contrast to this painting and from the guidance of his brother and the influence of modern art he began painting in brighter hues of colour. The painting below (right) is vibrantly painted and would reflect the optimism he had for his new life in Arles. I automatically think of yellow as a colour of happiness and I like that the sunflowers are at different stages of blooming.

Rembrandt is another portrait artist that creates atmospheric paintings, using a limited colour palette of White, Black and Earth tones. He uses the chiaroscuro technique to perfection, choosing to highlight the faces and hands in his portraits and leave the clothing and setting to almost meld into the background. I quite liked the two paintings below with their dramatic contrast of light and dark areas. They definitely give off a gloomy vibe even though the colours used are earthy warm tones?

Fauvism was a style of painting in which colour and heavy brushstrokes were accentuated rather than portraying subjects in a realistic manor. An extension of post-expressionism and the beginning of the movement towards abstraction. It also dabbles with a form of expression with the vibrant colour use and impulsive brush marks. The two paintings below by Henri Matisse (Left) and Kees Van Dongen (Right) do not have a sense of traditional depth or form, however the clever placement of contrasting colours helps to make the paintings pop and almost jump out of the canvas. Colour has been used to express how the artist feels towards their subject. The painting by Henri Matisse is a portrait of his wife and I think he uses lots of soft pastel hues to encapsulate someone that he’s very fond of, its almost dreamlike in its quality. I also think that the colours build this idea of a playful, kind and peaceful individual. The second painting by Kees Van Dongen was thought to have been a portrait of the artist and model Fernande Olivier, but it was a touchy subject and was never disclosed by the artist. Its almost like the artist had a more covert side to his personality and to the meagre life he had with his wife of that time. There seems to be quite a lot of black and different shades of red used, which when I think of those colours I relate them to black being a sense of mystery and red to sexuality.

In the early twentieth century German Expressionism came about with the two famous art groups; Die Brucke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue River). Again emotion and colour were more important than the integrity of form and realism. German Expressionism would have not only an impact on modern art but also on architecture, dance and cinema.
I came across the painting below that I liked, it has an almost childlike quality to the brush marks but again the clever use of contrasting colours makes the portrait exciting and vivid. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was one of the founding members of the group ‘Die Brucke’ and it was a movement again that wanted to shun the traditional academic styles of the past but also create a connection with past and present art, hence the name ‘Die Bridge’.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Image