SEPTEMBER 2015 : CUBISM
Cubism is an early 20th century style and movement in art in which perspective with a
single viewpoint was abandoned and use made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking
planes and sometimes collage.
It was a reaction against traditional modes of
representation and impressionist concerns with light and colour. The style, created by
Picasso and Braque, and first named by the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908, was
inspired by the later work of Cezanne and African sculpture.
By breaking the objects and figures down into distinct areas or planes, the artists aimed
to show different viewpoints at the same time and within the same space and so suggest
their 3D form. In doing so they also emphasised the 2D flatness of the canvass instead
of creating the illusion of depth. This marked a revolutionary break with the European
tradition which had dominated representation from the Renaissance onwards of creating
the illusion of real space from a fixed viewpoint using devices such as linear perspective.
Examples of Cubist work which were chosen by members of the group are shown below:
“Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon”
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Oil on canvas 1907
243cm x 234cm
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The painting, which was considered
immoral when first exhibited, depicts five
female prostitutes from a brothel in
Barcelona (not Avignon). The African mask
influence is shown on the two figures on
the right hand side.
The painting is often compared with Paul Gauguin’s
work “The Bathers” which was painted between
1895 and 1905.
“Man with a Guitar”
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Oil on canvas 1912
116cm x 81cm
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Braque painted Man with a Guitar in a mode that
came to be called Analytic Cubism. Abandoning
traditional use of perspective, Braque created a
convincing three-dimensional illusion of space,
challenging viewers to understand a subject
broken down into its geometrical components and
often represented from several angles at once. He
once said, “Fragmentation helped me to establish
space and movement in space.”
Many of
Braque
and
Picasso’s works of this
period are similar. To the
right is Picasso’s version of
Man with a Guitar painted
in 1911.
“Portrait of Picasso”
Juan Gris (1887-1927)
Oil on canvas 1912
93cm x 74cm
Art Institute of Chicago
Juan Gris, a Spanish
artist, travelled to Paris in
1906 and met Picasso and
Braque and, on giving up
his work as a satirical cartoonist, became an analytical cubist
painter. He eventually progressed to Synthetic Cubism
involving extensive usage of papier collé or collage.
This collage, (right) held in the Museum of Modern Art in
New York, is an example of Synthetic Cubism by Picasso and
is one of many called Guitar which were constructed by him
between 1912 and 1914 using paper, cardboard, wire, glue and
string.
More colourful paintings emerged from French artists, Robert Delauney and his close
friend Jean Metzinger. Below are samples of their work.
“Red Eiffel Tower “
Robert Delauney (1885-1941)
Oil on canvas 1911-12
125cm x 90cm
Guggenheim Museum, New York
“Nature Morte”
Jean Metzinger (18831956)
Oil on Canvas 1911
93.5cm x 66.5cms
Auctioned at Sotheby's
in New York, 2008.
Christopher Nevinson (1889-1946) was one of the
most famous war artists of World War I. However,
he also did some beautiful, colourful paintings such as
this one entitled The Arrival which was painted around
1913 and is part of the Tate collection, donated by the
artist’s widow in 1956.
Finally we have an example of Cubist architecture
from Josef Chochol (1880-1956). This house is in
Vyšehrad, Prague in the Czech Republic and was
one of three he designed in 1913.
OCTOBER 2015 - 17th Century English Artists
Some of interpreted “English” liberally but we
had a good selection to discuss. Among them
were Robert Streeter (1621-1679) who painted
landscapes, portraits and still life and became
serjeant-painter to Charles II. He painted the
ceiling of the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford
which consists of 32 oil on canvas works,
restored in 2008.
Inigo Jones (1573-1652) was the first
significant English architect. Amongst his
many buildings is the classical Palladian
Queen’s House at Greenwich, originally
commissioned for Anne, wife of James I, in
1619. Work halted when she died but was
restarted in 1629 and completed in 1635
for Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.
William Hogarth (1697–1764) was an
English painter, printmaker, pictorial
satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist
who has been credited with pioneering
western sequential art, an art form that
uses images deployed in sequence for graphic
storytelling or to convey information such as
comic strips and film animation. He also
painted “conversation pieces” such as the
cast of the Beggar’s Opera, a popular 3-act
play by John Gay written in 1728.
Anne Killigrew (1660-1685) was only 25 when she died of
smallpox, already a noted poet and painter. She was
related to Thomas Killigrew who wrote plays and was
responsible for the building of the theatre now known as
Drury Lane. Her father and uncles were close to the royal
family and opposite is her painting of James II painted
shortly before her death. It forms part of the Royal
Collection.
Aert van der Neer (1603-1677) was a
Dutch landscape painter who specialised
in moonlight and winter scenes. This oil
on canvas is entitled “A river landscape at
sunset with fishermen drawing in their
net in the foreground, windmills beyond”.
It was sold for £75,650 at Sothebys in
2011.
Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) was a
Flemish Baroque artist who became the
leading court painter in England after enjoying
great success in Italy and Flanders. He is most
famous for his portraits of Charles I and his
family and court, painted with a relaxed
elegance that was to be the dominant influence
on English portrait painting for the next 150
years. This well-known painting of Charles I
(1635 or 6) is part of the Royal collection.
John Michael Wright (1617-1694) managed to
stay on good terms with both sides of the civil
war, painting Cromwell’s daughter and also various
members of the Court after the Restoration.
This portrait of Barbara Palmer, the Duchess of
Cleveland (the most notorious of Charles II’s
mistresses) painted in 1670, is held by the
National Portrait Gallery.
A similar portrait by Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) and painted
in 1666 is also held in the National Portrait Gallery. These
are obviously good likenesses of the Duchess as they both
look the same.
Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) was the
leading portrait painter in England during
the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and
was court painter to English and British
monarchs from Charles II to George I. The
Chinese Convert is a famous 1687 painting by
Godfrey Kneller depicting the Chinese man
Michael Alphonsius Shen Fu-Tsung. The
painting was ordered by King James II when
he met Shen Fu-Tsung during his visit to
England in 1685. The portrait still hangs in
Windsor Castle.
Shen Fu-Tsung was able to catalogue the
Chinese books that were present in
the Bodleian Library, and to describe their
content, something which nobody had been
able to do until then. He also showed the
librarian the correct way to hold a Chinese
book, starting with which way was up.
Mary Beale (1633-1699) was the daughter of a Suffolk clergyman, John Cradock, and
married Charles Beale, an artist's colour-man, in 1652. A painter working professionally
from the mid-1650s, Mary Beale produced numerous portraits, particularly of her family
and friends, who included a number of prominent churchmen. She was a friend of Sir
Peter Lely and Robert Streeter. Many details of her busy working life are recorded in
the notebooks kept by her husband, who acted as her studio assistant. In 1665 the
Beales moved from London, to escape the plague, to Hampshire where Mary set up her
studio and wrote Discourse of Friendship, on the equality of the sexes in marriage and
society.
These two oil sketches of her
son Bartholomew were painted
by Mary in 1660, found in a
Parisian trinket shop by an art
historian and now hang in Tate
B r itain.
U nf o r tu n ate l y,
Bartholomew died at a early age
so these must have been a
poignant reminder for her. It is
not clear whether Mary was
related to Marmaduke Cradock,
the Somerton painter.