beside the easel

Portrait of Claude-Henri Watalet, 1763 Tomorrow is the birthday of French artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze, born in 1725, in the east central region of France. His style of portraiture has at times a strong British influence, yet other times he is distinctly French, and other times the influence of Venetian color is highly evident. Greuze would later become eclipsed by other French giants such as David and Ingres, but what he may have lacked in consistency of style he made up for in emotion and mood, when he did get it right. His greatest strength was his draftsmanship, as his drawings that survived prove he could draw, and draw incredibly well. He had a unique cross-hatching style that is deceptively complex to imitate, and he often imbued those portraits with more character and personality than many of his very best paintings. The above portrait of Claude-Henri Watalet, respected engraver, painter, writer, art lover and expert on gardens, reveals a man highly esteemed by Greuze. The...

Drawing is not the form; it is the way of seeing the form. Degas A male nude from behind, c.1630 Gian Lorenzo Bernini In this blog I talk about painting but the importance of drawing cannot be understated of course, and I believe we can learn just as much from studying their techniques of line and strokes as we can from brushstrokes...more in most cases as the drawing is more expressive and intimate. It reveals the personality and character of the artist. The above drawing apparently comes from the period of Bernini's teaching at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, one of four from the exact same model. This drawing is fairly big for a study, at 55.6 x 42cm (21 x 16 inches). Consider Michelangelo's study for Libyan Sibyl , is only 28.9 x 21.4 cm (11 3/8 x 8 7/16 inches), a small study for a fresco which would be painted several times larger than life size. I can only guess that Bernini was teaching a big class and that maybe his work was on display for students to stud...