Research Point: Figures in Interiors

Looking at paintings of figures in interiors, consider what you think are the artist’s intentions are and look at the technical and creative solutions that they’ve brought to the subject.

Edouard Vuillard, especially in his early career, was heavily influenced by his mother’s work as a seamstress and the patterned fabrics which surrounded her.  His art is very decorative, often confusing on the eye, frequently so much so that we struggle to see the subject(s) depicted.

In "Room with Three Lamps, Rue St Florentin", the only things that appear solid are the three lamps of the title because they are formed of solid blocks of orange and white.  Everything else is created of a tapestry of brush strokes and patterns; the walls, doorways, carpet, rugs, wall hanging, tablecloth and house plants used to create further patterns against the patterned walls!  Because there is no part of the painting which is not patterned, it is very difficult to focus on one point.  Because of this, you almost fail to see the figure sitting in the wheelchair in the centre of the painting, even though the diagonals of the runner beneath him converge centrally on his body.  It is also possible that there may be a figure in the bottom left, sitting at the desk but again, this is very difficult to decipher in this small view.

Vuillard’s technique somewhat echoes the pointillist techniques of Seurat and Signac but Vuillard does not appear to have focused on colour theory as the reason for his patterns – he was much more interested in the patterns themselves. 

Vuillard’s creative technique of placing a figure in an interior seems to be to treat it in exactly the same way as the background – there is no hierarchy in many of Vuillard’s paintings as to what he wants the viewer to see, I feel he wants the viewer to decide what they want to look at most in the painting.  In the painting above, he does not mention the figures in the title, just calls it “Room with three lamps” – the figures are not a significant part of the painting, it feels more like they were there included purely because they were there at the time

Edward Hopper’s painting "Chop Suey" does the opposite to Vuillard’s; it makes the figures the central focus of the painting.

Compositionally, Hopper has used the corner of the restaurant to provide us with two sets of figures that, at first glance, are relating to each other.   All the figures are placed in the bottom half of the painting, leaving the top half to give a sense of the physical space of the room they are in.  Large windows flood the scene with light and create strong shadows.  All the figures are placed on the diagonal to match the perspective of the windows and ledge.

Black tables are topped with white counters to create a strong tonal contrast and create a base on which the figures are displayed.  The focal point of this painting is the woman in the green top with a dark cloche hat.  This is heightened by the way he has painted her face – very pale skin, dark eyes and bright red lips topped by the dark line of the cloche hat.  She really should be talking to the woman sitting opposite her but appears very distant, and in fact, when viewed closely is staring out at the viewer, as it she has been interrupted by something.  With the couple in the background, she appears to be looking/talking to him, but he is indifferent, looking down towards the table. 

There is no intimacy between any of the figures. This gives the painting a sense of anonymity and coldness, which is accentuated by the darkness of the shadows behind the main figure contrasted against the light and warmth coming through the windows.  Although it appears to be winter (hats and scarves on the figures), the painting creates the impression that it is warmer outside.

A further way Hopper has created this impression is by the use of colour.  Outside the restaurant is the warm red of the sign, bordered by the warm brown of the window ledge, contrasted with the cool blues, greys and darks of the interior.  Even the woman’s green jumper is a cool shade.

"Girl Reading at an Open Window no 2" by the contemporary artist, Daniel Gonzalez Covers (a Spanish artist) was found on the Saatchi Gallery website.  On researching him further, most of his works (whether paintings or drawings) are very monochromatic in nature, with very little colour and so relying totally on composition and tonal contrasts for the painting’s effect.

This work is very clearly a reference/homage to Vermeer’s painting "Girl at a Window Reading a Letter".  Gonzalez Coves has used some of the same props in this painting – a diagonal window ledge to create perspective and space, and a draped curtain to add softness to the scene.  However, Gonzalez Coves has completely updated the image by the use of neutral tones and much starker, minimalistic background. 

However, the painting still has the same voyeuristic feel as the Vermeer – we are intruding on a woman’s private moment reading personal correspondence – she is not looking at us, she is lost in her own world.  Gonzalez Coves has considerably reduced the light in the room – giving the feeling of early morning/evening light; even in the modern age – she needs the window in order to read the letter.  

The artist has used strong verticals here – the curtains, window frame, doorframe, door and door panels, as well the vertical of the figure itself.  Apart of the diagonal of the window, the only other construction lines are the horizontals of the door panels, the 90° angle being replicated by the woman’s arm.

The artist has used a light tone on the woman’s clothing to draw attention to her – the background is few shades darker.  The strongest points of contrast are the drapes of her clothes next to her upper arm which leads the viewer’s eye out towards her hands, which contrasts the dark shadow on the back of the hand to the highlight on the knuckle, highlighting the letter (which otherwise gets lost in the background). 

Expressive Portraits

We are asked to find portraits that convey a distinctive mood or atmosphere rather than just simply a physical likeness.  I found it more interesting to keep concentrating on self-portraits (as most of my paintings are!), so I have chosen artist’s self-portraits which are expressive in some way.

Rembrandt van Rijn - Self-Portrait 1629

I chose to look at this self-portrait by Rembrandt more closely because of the strong tonal contrasts and limited palette which he has chosen to represent himself.  What is particularly striking about this portrait is the depth of the dark shadows, clothing and hair – a very inky blackness which covers over 75% of the canvas.  The artist has chosen to paint his representation of himself only in the top left hand corner of the canvas, leaving the viewer to complete the image in his own mind.  There are two strong diagonals in this self-portrait; the line of his shoulder in black, contrasting with the white, lacy edge of the collar.  The artist has painted a lighter tone behind his shoulder to define the hair, collar and line of the body.  This lighter tone is necessary here to define the artist, and to make the portrait “sit” on the canvas – otherwise it would just have been a disembodied head floating in the middle of the painting.

The light in this portrait (either candle or lamp) is slightly above and to the left of the artist, creating very strong, sharp shadows across the face and highlighting the temple and hairline

The collar also frames the face and adds detail with the frilly edge and reflective surface of the under-collar (possibly leather?).  The face itself has limited colour – there are the pink lips, and touches of pink on the ears, cheeks and side of the nose, with the highlight areas  (side of the nose, temple and cheekbone are fractionally more yellow than the basic flesh tone.

The right side of the face is almost in total darkness – the only area slightly visible being the cheek just below the eye, and a feint line to delineate the right eye. 

This is a very strong portrait, in terms of its colour and contrast, but also the way the artist has deliberately shown only part of his face and by leaving so much of the canvas in total darkness.

Edvard Munch - Wanderer by Night (1923/4)

This appears to be one of a series of paintings on the same theme (I have found at least one other (in virtually a mirror image on the above) but with slightly different colouring. 

This is a very dark painting, not just in terms of the fact that it is obviously set at night (both by the scene and by the title).  The artist appears wandering around his home and appears to be peering at something out of the canvas. 

When viewing this in closer detail, it appears that the ground to this painting was an icy blue which has added an overall coolness to the painting.  The artist has chosen to allow many areas of this ground to show through the final layer of paint.  The background is loosely painted but contains strong lines vertical lines created by the windows/radiator as well as the opposing diagonal created by the (I think) piano.  I think the perspective has been played with to create stronger angles here which probably adds to the tension in the painting.

The artist himself appears to be wearing a thick, heavy dressing gown over a simple white nightshirt, both of which have been portrayed with very thick, heavy impasto strokes.  The dressing gown is made up of numerous colours when you look closely – dark brown, purple, maroon, pale blue and white, as well as the bands of yellow and tan across the shoulder to imply the lamp light  which must be behind him.

The same colours on the shoulder are replicated in the artist’s hair and the paler yellows onto the highlights (temple, cheek, jaw and nose) of the face.  The face itself is quite disturbing – the artist has chosen to use a strong, crimson red for the darker areas of the face (eye sockets, side of the nose, lips and furrow between the eyes).  This gives the portrait a very ghoulish overtone – it looks like the artist has had his eyes gouged out, is bleeding tears and has had his ear cut off. 

I compared this painting with another of the same title (Royal Academy ) which is not gruesome as this one (I cannot find out which one was painted first).  The other portrait is very blue in overall tone, as would be the case if one was using natural, very early morning light before the sun rises.  Although, the eyes are as deep-set and the figure as lonely, the shadows appear more natural and it is not as disturbing as the one above.

Leon Kossoff - Self Portrait 1972

As can be seen by the quote below, Leon Kossoff was very interested in the process of painting, and the application of paint, rather than creating a distinctive likeness.  I have found photographs of Kossoff, and you would not relate this painting to the man’s likeness.

“Painting consists of working over the whole board quickly, trying to relate what was happening on the board to what I thought I was seeing. The paint is mixed before starting – there is always more than one board around to start another version. The process goes on a long time, sometimes a year or two. Though other things are happening in my life which affect me, the image that I might leave appears moments after scraping, as a response to a slight change of movement or light. Similarly with the landscape paintings. The subject is visited many times and lots of drawings are made, mostly very quickly. The work is begun in the studio where each new drawing means a new start until, one day, a drawing appears which opens up the subject in a new way, so I work from the drawing as I do from the sitter. It’s the process I am engaged in that is important”.  [Leon Kossoff, page 78-79, The Shape of a Pocket by John Berger.]

This is clearly a face, although as said previously, you would not necessarily relate it to any one person without knowing it was a self-portrait.  The features and outline of the face have been added simply by using thick, solid black paint, which has been broken by the application of further colours dragged through it.  I think he must have dragged the paint with an implement (such as the handle of a brush) in order to create this technique – I doubt it would easily be replicated with a brush.  In some areas (such as the left eye) this technique creates an effect similar to an image viewed in a broken mirror – cracked, splintered and fractured.

The painting is obviously a very thick impasto – although I could not zoom this on Bridgeman – you don’t really need to to see the texture in this painting (on board, would probably be too heavy for canvas).  There are four basic colours in this painting – cream, tan, bright green and black – which have been applied heavily, either with a brush or palette knife, and the colour has been dragged through while still very well.  You can clearly see swirls where one colour has been dragged through another.  Paint has also been dripped and drizzled over the top of the painting to add to the textured finish (thin drips of white paint around nose and chin area).

You would not say this is a joyful self-portrait.  All indications on this portrait, from the downcast nature of the eyes and lips, as well as the tilt of the head, look like a depressed or sad person which, combined with the acidic green and stark black, creating a depressing painting.

Anita Ree - Self Portrait 1915

While researching Anita Ree, I found the following history on a blog (http://bjws.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/women-artists-self-portraits-german.html) which describes her life, as a Jewish artist, fearing persecution by Nazi Germany and her suicide after fleeting to a remote island.  She was a member of the Hamburg Secessionist Group until it was disbanded and her work was designated as “degenerate art” by the Nazis. 

Anita Ree did many self-portraits, some more true to life than others (a photograph of her is pictured in the link above) but I have chosen to look more closely at the self-portrait she completed in 1915, reminiscent of the blue-greens used in Picasso’s Blue Period.

This painting, is very stylised, semi-abstract and, I feel, quite symbolic.  However, it is still recognisably the artist.  She has chosen here to simplify and emphasise her features: the elongated neck, simple semi-circles for the ears and exaggerated curve of the jawline.  She has also overstated her nose and browbone (perhaps a reference to the “big-nose” Jewish stereotype).

The paint appears very dry (cannot zoom this one on Bridgeman), applied over either a natural or beige ground, allowing the canvas to show through – especially on some of the lighter areas, such as the jawline, where it appears the paint has been partly rubbed off to reveal the ground.  Paint has also been scratched out in her hair to reveal the ground.  She has simplified her clothing, wearing just a simple top.  This painting has strong contrasts between the hairline and forehead, and background behind the neck which creates a very linear feel to the portrait.

The pose of the head, turned to one side but staring directly back out at the viewer is very challenging and strong.  

Clifton Ernest Pugh - Self Portrait 1960

This is not an artist I had come across previously but found the above painting on Bridgeman which I found very intriguing.  On researching him further, he is an Australian artist and, in a quote found on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Pugh) found the following quote (which he wrote to Bernard Smith in 1959)

“Art must be indigenous...arising out of the environment and background of a particular place and time. This could be nationalistic but I prefer to call it geographical art. For instance, Chinese and Mexican art reflect the background and the 'soul' of the country but are also universal... I therefore believe very much in the development of an Australian art -- it is the only truth for us to express to the rest of the world”

The Australian influence is very clear in this painting; from the outfit he is wearing, the desert/bush background and even the way he has applied the paint.

The painting has been created from a black ground, which has been left visible to form both the top he is wearing and to create a halo background which serves to draw the eye towards the face.  The backdrop to his portrait has been painted in thick impasto, using earth tones of yellow, ochre, and red to replicate the red earth that is so synonymous with the Australian outback, although in this case, the background has been semi-abstracted to colour, large rocks and vertical sticks.  The black ground has been left to create parched sticks of vegetation, the most prominent of which has a row of white notches, symbolic of the style of art of Australian Aborigines.  This notching is also visible just to the left of the artist’s head and appears to have been created by using an implement (card or palette knife) rather than a brush.

The artist’s body has been painted in a monochrome style using a brown/ochre paint.  He has represented himself squinting against the harsh light, coming from above as if walking through the bush at midday.  The paint on the face has been applied transparently; the brushmarks are clearly visible in the glazes which have been layered over a cream/white base.  The curls of the hair have been similarly created by transparent paint, using just the pressure of the stroke to create the curls and leaving areas of much thinner glaze for the highlights.

This painting appeals to me the most out of the expressive self-portraits I have chosen – it is representational, but has strong contrasts coupled with warm colours and is very striking.  The effect of the background serves to ask the viewer what exactly they are looking at, and where the figure is.  Is the figure actually in the landscape?  The black behind the head creates an ambiguity on this point, as does the flat black clothing which, if the figure was actually walking in bright sunlight, should actually be showing highlights where the light strikes the fabric.