Daily Art Fixx - Art Blog: Modern Art, Art History, Painting, Illustration, Photography, Sculpture » Albrecht Durer

Father’s Day: Portrait of the Artist’s Father

Wendy Campbell — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:00:46 +0000

Happy Father’s Day all you dads out there! In honour of this special day, and to go along with my earlier post on Mother’s Day, I give you a selection of well known portraits of artist’s fathers. Throughout history, artists have painted their fathers for numerous reasons; “as a tribute, to capture a memorable face, to work through conflicting emotions, as a family legacy, or the simple availability of a model.”

The development of photography in the 19th century however, had a significant impact on portrait painting. Many turned to photography studios to have their portraits made as a cheaper alternative. Some artists found photography to be a useful aid to composition and from the Impressionists onward , artists have found numerous ways to expand their techniques and reinterpret the portrait to compete effectively with photography:

“Henri Matisse produced powerful portraits using non-naturalistic, even garish, colors for skin tones. Cézanne relied on highly simplified forms in his portraits, avoiding detail while emphasizing color juxtapositions. Gustav Klimt’s unique style applied Byzantine motifs and gold paint to his memorable portraits. Picasso painted many portraits, including several cubist renderings of his mistresses, in which the likeness of the subject is grossly distorted to achieve an emotional statement well beyond the bounds of normal caricature.”

As a result of an increased interest in abstract and non-figurative art, portrait painting in Europe and the Americas declined in the 1940s and 50s. In the 1960s an 70s, however, a revival of portraiture began. Artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, and other contemporary artists have made the human face a focal point of their work. As well, photographic portraiture has become fully accepted in the art world and photo portraits are exhibited alongside painters in galleries and museum.

Have a great day everyone!

Sources: Wikipedia, National Portrait Gallery

Albrecht Dürer: 1471-1528

Wendy Campbell — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:00:14 +0000

Born on May 21, 1471, in Nuremberg, Germany, Albrecht Dürer was a painter, printmaker, theorist, and one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance.

Dürer first trained in his father’s shop as a goldsmith. In 1486, he apprenticed with the painter Michael Wolgemut where he produced his first dated painting of his father in 1490. Upon completing his apprenticeship, Dürer followed the German custom of taking Wanderjahre where an apprentice learns skills from craftsmen in other areas. It is thought that his travels included the Netherlands, Cologne, and parts of Austria. He returned to Nuremberg in late 1494 and married Agnes Frey on July 7 of that year.

After visiting Venice in 1495, Dürer intensely studied mathematics, geometry, Latin, and humanist literature. He began his career primarily as a printmaker. While he did paint, “painting was less profitable, and Lutheran church reformers disdained most religious artworks.” Dürer gained success quickly and his woodcut series, “The Apocalypse” of 1498 made him famous throughout Europe. It was the first book entirely produced by an artist and included fourteen woodcuts illustrating the Book of Revelation. “Its vivid imagery, masterly draftsmanship, and complex iconography established his reputation.”

Dürer visited Italy again from 1505-07 after which his art began to assimilate Renaissance principles. From 1511-114, Dürer worked mainly on wood and copper engraving. The major work produced in this period was the thirty-seven subjects of the “Little Passion” on wood, published first in 1511, and a set of fifteen small copper-engravings on the same theme in 1512.

In 1513 and 1514 Dürer created his three most famous works in copper-engraving; “The Knight and Death”, “Melancolia, and St. Jerome in his Study”. “Unlike his earlier, more Gothic woodcuts, Dürer’s engravings of 1513 and 1514 suggest the influence of Italian Chiaroscuro and were conceived in painterly terms, using a range of velvety tones rather than lines.”

From 1515 – 1520 Dürer produced a variety of works including commissions from Emperor Maximilian I, tempera on linen portraits, numerous engravings, and experiments in etching on plates of iron and zinc.

In the final years of his life, Dürer concentrated more on his theoretical writings including Teaching of Measurements (1525) and Various Instructions of the Fortifications of Towns, Castles and Large Villages (1527). His final work, Four Books on Human Proportion, was published posthumously on 31 October 1528. Dürer produced some painted and engraved portraits during this time, but his major work was the Four Apostles, in 1526, which was presented to the city council in Nuremberg.

Albrecht Dürer died on 6 April 1528, possibly as a result of a malarial infection contracted in 1521 during a trip to the Netherlands. He is buried in the Johannisfriedhof cemetery in Nuremberg.

Dürer had a great influence on the next generation of artists. “His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium. Durer’s introduction of classical motifs into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists, have secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. This is reinforced by his theoretical treatise which involve principles of mathematics, perspective and ideal proportions. Himself influenced by the work of Mantegna, Leonardo and Giovanni Bellini, he in turn influenced many Italian artists through his prints.”

For a full biography and to view Durer’s complete works, visit Albrect Durer.org or see the source links below.

Sources: J Paul Getty Museum, National Gallery of Art, Albrect Durer.org, Wikipedia

Mother’s Day: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother

Wendy Campbell — Sun, 09 May 2010 15:00:42 +0000

Happy Mother’s Day all you moms out there! In honour of this special day, I give you a selection of well known portraits of artist’s mothers. Throughout history, many artists have painted their mothers for a variety reasons; “as a loving tribute, to capture a memorable face, to work through conflicting emotions, as a family legacy, or the simple availability of a model.”

Whether a portrait of one’s mother or family member, friend or a stranger on the street; in our era of mass-media and the web, where images can be exchanged seconds, our desire to create and commission unique images of ourselves lives on.

Sources: Wikipedia, National Portrait Gallery