The first painting I came across was the ‘Girl on a red carpet’ painting by Felice Casorati. It features a girl surrounded by items that reflect both her childhood and adolescence. I think it grabbed my attention because of the downward perspective onto this patterned carpet, and how the artist uses this pattern to place the figure in the space. The floral design is larger in the foreground and gradually gets smaller the further away you get.
The second painting by an artist called Hugo Grenville again uses pattern, but in a way that doesn’t help to create perspective. Bold and contrasting colours help to place the objects and the figure. Everything seems to merge and blend and yet you can still differentiate between the items. I like the colour palette of this painting, and how a room doesn’t necessarily have to have precise linear perspective.

My third and final painting is by the artist Vilhelm Hammershoi and is completely opposite to the other paintings I have chosen. It has in contrast a very limited and muted colour palette, which I think adds to the atmosphere and effect of the painting. The figure also faces away from the viewer giving you a kind of suspense and wonder about the character. I liked the light coming through the window highlighting this stark silhouette and her gloomy surroundings. I think there is a real beauty and interest to this mundane setting.

Sources

Websites

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felice_Casorati

Home

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhelm_Hammershøi

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’.

Sources

Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasso%27s_Blue_Period

https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/vincent-van-gogh-life-and-work/van-goghs-life-1853-1890/from-dark-to-light

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauvism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kees_van_Dongen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Brücke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Blaue_Reiter

Books

Movements in Painting – Chambers Arts Library by Patricia Fride-Carrassat & Isabelle Marcade

The first artist I chose was Frida Kahlo, not only because she is one of my favourites but also because she stands out in my mind as one of the most famous self-portrait artists I could think of. Through the style of naïve folk art she explores identity, gender, class, post-colonialism and race in Mexican society. I think her self-portraits work so well because she was such a unique character. She was not afraid to reveal who she was and had this great ballsy attitude which was reflected in her artwork. Shunning the term ‘Surrealist’, she described her work as her own reality, using symbols to depict current events. It was difficult to choose between all of her paintings but I decided I liked the one below best. I like the bright green foliage in the background and the cat and monkey perched on her shoulder. Its strange that such bold, warm colours have been used when actually the paintings are based around such sad circumstances. Frida is quite solemn in this painting and there are numerous items she has used to reflect the pain and suffering she endured throughout her life. This painting makes you feel both happy and sad at the same time.

The second artist I chose was Vincent Van Gogh, again because I admire the bold colours he uses in his paintings, but he is also another artist who comes to mind when you think of self-portraits. He created dozens of paintings of himself depicted from a mirror, all at different stages throughout his life or when he simply couldn’t afford to pay for a sitter. He seems to have this intense gaze and yet his eyes never quite meet the viewers in some of his self-portraits. I think the paintings say a lot about his emotional state, he was someone that judged himself too harshly and perhaps that’s why he doesn’t look directly at you? He also implements colour to reflect mood, using bright yellows, oranges and blues in happier, earlier times and then ashen tones just before his suicide. He wrote in a letter to the artist Emile Bernard “I strongly urge you to study portrait painting, do as many portraits as you can and don’t flag. We must win the public over later on by means of the portrait; in my opinion it is the thing of the future”
In a lot of ways he was right, we are now obsessed with taking pictures of ourselves with terms like ‘selfie’ referring to a photo taken of oneself and even though the medium used is different, it would seem the self-portrait has never been more popular.

The paintings below are of Vincent by other artists and reflect I think perhaps someone different to what the artist thought of himself. The first portrait by John Russell paints Vincent in a good light, with him looking serious and perhaps a handsome version. The second painting is by Paul Gauguin and depicts what Vincent first thought looked like that of a madman. But I think the painting shows a softer, warmer side to the artist.

The third artist I found while looking for early female artists, was Judith Leyster who was one of only a few professional female painters around during the Dutch Golden Age. The self-portrait below has this great cast of light that highlights the material of her dress wonderfully. I think it shows a confident and perhaps playful person and its quite sad to learn that her work became largely forgotten about or regarded as works from other male artists. The self-portrait became important for female artists to present themselves in a way that is removed from the objectification of the female form, so often painted by male artists.
Lucian Freud is another artist whose self-portraits grab my attention and in particular the self-portrait below. I like how every line and crease of his facial expressions have been depicted. His flesh tones are also impressive, the use of the colours green, yellow and orange is something I would like to take note of from this painting. Lucian Freuds self-portrait gives an unapologetic and candid view of the ageing process.
The last artist I looked at was Cristina Troufa and the beautiful self-portrait below. I love the colour palette and the use of negative space in her paintings. She really goes into exploring her state of mind, beliefs, her past and personal development, with many of her self-portraits depicting this struggle with her own self. I also found the different viewpoints she uses in her paintings really inspiring.

Sources

Websites

https://www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-with-thorn-necklace-and-hummingbird.jsp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

https://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/selfportrait.html

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/judith-leyster

Artist Feature: Cristina Troufa

Books