Research Point - Dutch Realist and Interiors

As we saw when researching Still Life paintings, the Dutch market in the 17^th Century was very buoyant with the proliferation of many genres of painting.  One genre was interiors, whether scenes of everyday family life, the life of servants or group scenes.  These paintings of people differed from earlier works as they were not portraits, and in many cases were not even meant to be identified at all.  And although, on the surface, they appear to provide a view into the daily life of the Dutch of that age, many also contained symbolism or illustrated moralistic messages.

Probably the most famous artists specialising in this genre were Jan Vermeer, Nicholas Maes and Pieter de Hooch.

Jan (or Johan) Vermeer “The Milkmaid” 1658/60

Whilst probably now most famous for his portrait “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (due to the film of the same name!), Vermeer specialised in domestic interior paintings of middle class life.

Whilst researching his works on Bridgeman Education, it becomes quite clear that Vermeer never strayed far from his home – most of his paintings are clearly done in the same room (although with slight redecoration and moving of objects!) as the windows, the tiled floor and the tiles around the base of the wall are the same.

I have chosen to look more closely at “The Milkmaid” (oil on canvas 1658-60).  This is an interior view of a servant girl pouring milk into a bowl on a table covered with a dark cloth which also holds a basket of bread and a jug (possibly of wine).  The girl is using the natural light from the window to see clearly what she is doing.  There is a dirt (possibly sawdust?) floor with rough textured walls and baskets hanging on the wall.  Even though we only see one corner of the room, the impression is that it is a small room because of the dark shadows.

The composition places the serving girl centrally and leaves an almost empty space behind her, just the wall (the white of which strongly contrasts with the clothing and creates strong negative space) and the floor.  To her left the window is the light source, only just in the painting, but illuminating her face, arms and bonnet as well as the bread on the table.  This light source also creates the shadows around the window itself to draw the eye.  The placement of the table on a diagonal leads the viewer towards the maid and the act of her pouring the milk.  Her downward eye gaze also leads the view down towards the bowl. 

Notwithstanding the yellow and blues used for the fabrics, this painting is very cool, as it to emphasise that it is, perhaps, a cool larder or cold store.   If you look closely at her arm, the skin tones here are very pale blue and pink, the colours skin would be if cold.  The rough texture on the whitewashed walls serves to emphasise that it is a working space in the house.

The artist clearly wants the viewer to look at the servant, and the task she is performing, but she is not aware of the viewer, just quietly getting on with her task.  She has an ambiguous expression – she could be deep in concentration or mentally “miles away”.  The composition is designed to pull you into what she is doing – the diagonal from her head towards the flagon on the table passes through the wrist holding the jug, and the strong chiaroscuro between the blackness of the depth of the jug and the stream of pure white milk flowing from it.

Pieter de Hooch – A Boy Bringing Bread

This is a much more expansive painting than the intimacy of the “The Milkmaid”, and shows the lady of the house (I have assumed this because of the way she is dressed and the fact that she is wearing earrings) taking bread from what is probably a delivery boy.  The entrance is clearly not for servants because of the intricate windows, carved wooden chair and tapestry cushion atop it.

A strong perspective is shown by the three different tiled floors: the foreground is a black and white squared tile floor, leading through to a red and white checkerboard floor, then a black and white checkerboard floor.  These different floor spaces clearly delineate the different areas and provide a strong linear perspective by their diminishing size. 

The doorways also use linear perspective.  There are three doors – the stable door the woman has opened, and then a corridor to an archway leading to another door space, and finally one in the distance opposite the street or doorway which frames the small figure of a woman in the distance.  T

The artist has used strong colour contrasts both to separate the spaces between the doors and lead the eye towards the small figure in the background.  There is very little furniture or decoration in this space, only the chair in the corner which adds interest to the right hand side of the painting, so the artist has used red and orange hues to attract the viewer to the top right space where there are decorative stained glass windows and a view onto the street beyond.

The main focus here is clearly the figures in the foreground – the artist has used strong sunlight to highlight the boy’s white colour and cap, and the very strong tonal contrasts between the woman’s matt black jacket, her red skirt and white apron.

Contemporary artists

Ken Howard RA

I have chosen to look at two works by Ken Howard, an artist who’s work I have seen on numerous occasions at the Royal Academy, to demonstrate the contrast between the interior being the subject and as a secondary concern to the figure.

The first is “St Clements Studio”, a square canvas depicting the artist at work painting a nude model.  However, the focus here is more clearly on the actual space of the studio, rather than the art being made in it.  The artist has chosen a long view, probably from the corner, of a room with very high ceilings and large windows, flooding the studio floor with a bright light. 

The first thing that drew my eye here was the iron candelabra hanging from the ceiling in the foreground.  This led me down towards the model, sitting on a chair on a low table to elevate her, with her white gown hanging behind her to create a contrast with the dark shadows behind.  I almost didn’t spot the artist himself, he has chosen to make himself almost invisible by placing the figure right at the very edge of the painting.  The dark beams on the walls draw the eye up towards the ceiling, even though the artist has chosen to depict the walls and ceiling very loosely with marked brushstrokes.

In “The Studio”, the artist has painted a nude model asleep on a day bed under a window.  The focus here is very much on the model, even though she is not in the foreground.  He has achieved this by placing a table in the foreground, and using the strong light coming through the window reflecting on the table, has created a strong diagonal which leads up towards the model’s feet.  He has created an opposing diagonal, again leading to the model, by leaving some of the table in the shadow of a screen.

The model is further emphasised by placing her on a dark purple throw, which serves to enhance the light from the window creating highlights on her body.  Although the objects on the table are painted with the same (if not more) clarity than the figure, the compositional devices draw us towards her and not the objects.

In terms of colour, the artist has used mainly blue and purple tones, suggesting an early morning light.  Added vibrancy has been achieved by using yellow as a contrast to the purple, both in the object on the table, in the decoration of the scheme and the (brass?) object on the windowsill.

This painting is in mixed-media by Karen Armitage - Last Chance Saloon.  It doesn’t say exactly what on Bridgeman, but looking closely, it appears to have been painted onto brown wrapping paper, probably in acrylic or gouache.  Here, the eye is drawn through the painting mainly by the use of colour and aerial perspective, even though it is only a small space.  The only furniture you can see is the bar area and loose representation of bar stools in the centre of the painting.  The figures in the painting are very unclear, adding to the atmosphere of the piece.  You are drawn to the outside by the strong white used for the windows above the bar and the lack of definition in this area makes the room feel very large, even though you can’t actually see where it starts or ends.

This painting by Charles Hardaker (Open Doors, Framed Objects, Albers) is very clearly about the space.  It is painted very low key, in whites, greys and lilacs, with the only different colour coming from the cardboard box, flooring on the right and the small area in the far room which can be glimpsed through the spaces on the left.

The artist has created “pictures within pictures” here: 

• The central are has two tables pushed together covered with a white cloth, and has then created a still life by placing the jug, open cardboard bow and objects in boxes on a shelf above them (a cube and sphere set into wooden, backless boxes.
• To the left are a number of doorways, with another still life effect created by placing a jug on a table and then hanging a lute above it.
• To the right appears to be an empty room, with empty picture frames on the floor.
• The open doors and windows create the sense of depth and space, while the muted colours provide harmony.  Even though the painting is mainly in shades of white, the artist has created texture with his brushstrokes to bring it to life.

While not completely understanding the artist’s intentions, it appears to me to be very symbolic by the deliberate placing of the objects and their nature (the open box, the open frames surrounding the sphere and cube, and the empty frames in the room on the right.

Walter Sickert, Dawn, Camden Town

As with many of Sickert’s interior paintings, this is quite depressing and seedy.  The painting shows quite a bare bedroom, with a single metal-framed bed on which sits a naked woman and a clothed man.  Both figures are painted with loose brushstrokes, but the woman is more defined because the artist has chosen to outline areas of her body (breasts, tummy and legs) while leaving the face quite vague.  By having the man sat on the edge of the bed, leaning over, the artist has diminished his stature, making the woman larger and more obvious.  She is also placed centrally in the painting.

The interior here is used as a backdrop, with only the sickly green walls and bare floorboards (similarly in shades of green).  The only other furniture is the very front of a chest of drawers, in a yellow-green shade.  It is almost as if the artist if a voyeur, peeking through a doorway.

The green background is complemented by the red of the bedspread, which the artist has also used in the woman’s body, especially on the side of her face in shadow and her red lips.

Matisse - The Pink Studio

A completely different style here, although from the same period.  Matisse has created a very colourful view of an artist’s studio, using the space to show a range of objects – tables, rugs, screen and a number of sculptures and paintings.

Matisse has completely flattened the perspective, leaving us with no lines to guide the eye.  He has also omitted any shadows or highlights (except for the folds of the fabric) and has made no attempt at aerial perspective – all the objects are portrayed with solid blocks of colour which has been applied transparently.  However, despite this, the painting does have depth which has been created purely by the placement of objects which creates a sense of recession within the room.

Raoul Dufy - Studio with a Fruit Bowl 1942

At first glance this painting seemed to me to be from the 1960’s, almost cartoonish, but it was actually painted in 1942, right in the middle of World Word II.  It is a very confident painting – all the forms are created with fast, sweeping brushstrokes of mainly transparent paint, meaning the underneath forms are clearly visible (such as the table below the orange figure (not sure if statue or model!)).  The artist has used a very wet paint in many areas, allowing the paint to drip down unhindered (such as on the easel).  He has left the only area of dry paint in the foreground as a counterpoint to the strong streaks and stripes which make up the rest of the painting.  Unlike Matisse, he has used conventional perspective, but applied it loosely to create the sense of space.  Although these is no light in the room, he has created the impression of lamplight by making the exterior wall dark, and has scraped through the black paint for the buildings outside the window to show balconies, windows and doors.

The thing that drew me to this painting was how the artist has managed to make the canvas on the easel at the centre of the painting the focus of attention, especially as there is nothing on it!