• HOME
  • ABOUT
  • ARTIST BIRTHDAY CALENDAR
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • CONTACT
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Daily Art Fixx

visual arts blog, painting, drawing, sculpture, illustration and more!

  • Art History
  • Drawing
  • Illustration
  • Mixed Media
  • Painting
  • Photography
  • Sculpture
  • Video
  • ART QUOTES
  • MORE CATEGORIES
    • 5 Women Artists Series
    • Architecture
    • Art & Technology
    • Art-e-Facts
    • Body Art
    • Collage
    • Cover Art
    • Crafts
    • Design
    • Digital
    • E-Learning
    • Eco-Art
    • Group Feature
    • Mixed Media
    • Nature
    • Street Art
    • Weird Art
    • Women in Visual Arts

Mother’s Day: Portraits of Artists’ Mothers

May 10, 2020 By Wendy Campbell


Happy Mother’s Day all you moms out there! In honour of this special day, DAF presents a selection of well known portraits of artists’ 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.”

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, colours for skin tones. Cézanne relied on highly simplified forms in his portraits, avoiding detail while emphasizing colour 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 and 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.

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 in seconds, our desire to create and commission unique images of ourselves lives on.

The Artist's Mother-James McNeill Whistler
Rembrandt-van-Rijn---The-Artist's-Mother-Seated,-in-an-Oriental-Headdress---1631
Artist's Mother - David Hockney
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
ALBRECHT DÜRER portrait-of-the-artist-s-mother-albrecht-durer
Pablo Picasso. Portrait of the Artist's Mother. 1896
Portrait of the Artist's Mother-Vincent van Gogh-1888
Portrait of the Artists Mother - Mary Cassatt - 1889-1890
The Painter's Mother-Lucian Freud
Portrait of the Artists Mother- Hyacinthe Rigaud
Berthe-Morisot-The-reading.-1869.-Portrait-of-the-mather-and-the-sister-of-the-artist
Portrait-of-the-Artist's-Mother-Juan Gris
portrait-of-the-artist-s-mother-GUIDO RENI
PortraitOfArtistsMother-Salvador Dali-1920
The Artist's Mother Paul Gauguin
The-Artists-Mother-Paul-Cezanne-1866-1867
The Artists Mother Edouard Manet
The Artists Mother-Arshille Gorky
The-Artist's-Mother-Pierre-Auguste-Renoir-1860
The Artist's Mother Sleeping-Egon Schiele - 1911

 

Sources: Wikipedia, National Portrait Gallery

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Collage, Drawing, Painting, Photography Tagged With: Mother, Mother's Day, portraits

Joey Monsoon – Painting – 2018

January 8, 2018 By Wendy Campbell

It’s been a while since we posted about Columbus, Ohio based artist Joey Monsoon (featured) – and we don’t know why – there’s nothing out there like his work.

In the artists words:  “Joey Monsoon’s paintings are an effort to construct revelations of our imperfections. Built on narrow structures of flesh and bone, the portraits depict the turbulence and resilience of the body. The subtle distortions of anatomy point inward to the marks of a life endured and overcome. The figures are isolated from contextual environs just as living tends to isolate the image one has of oneself. These paintings are brutal with beauty.”

See more of Monsoon’s artwork on his website joeymonsoon.com as well as on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Joey Monsoon - A Silhouette of Streets Delivers Him 2017
Joey Monsoon - Never In Doubt 2017
Joey Monsoon Never Needed Anybody's Trust 2017

Filed Under: ART, Contemporary Art, Painting Tagged With: Joey Monsoon, Oil Painting, portraits

Alfred Cheney Johnston: 1885 – 1971

April 8, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Alfred Cheney Johnston was born on April 8, 1885 in New York to a wealthy family who had connections with New York’s upper class.  In 1903, Johnston attended The Art Students League of New York but transferred to the National Academy of Design in New York in 1904 where he studied illustration and experimented with photography. While there, he met fellow student Norman Rockwell with whom he became lifelong friends.

In 1908, Johnston graduated from the Academy and married classmate and painter Doris Gernon in 1909. With the encouragement of family friend Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the “Gibson Girl”), Johnston continued to develop his photographic skills. His wife Doris was known to complete the darkroom retouch work on his prints and glass plates.

Johnston was invited to become official photographer of the Ziegfeld Follies by its founder Florenz Ziegfeld around 1916. Ziegfeld promoted his productions as “Glorifying the American Girl” and it was Johnston’s job to capture that vision in photographs. His photos were considered sexual at the time and his props included tapestry backgrounds, pearls, and shawls and scarves  for draping.

Through his relationship with Ziegfeld, Johnston also became known for his portraits of silent film stars, the upper class society, advertising work, layouts for industrial firms and cigarette companies.

Johnston’s photographs became famous around the world and he had a very successful career with the Follies until the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent death of Ziegfeld in 1932.

In 1937, Johnston, with Swann Publications,  published his book of artistic nude photographs entitled “Enchanting Beauty” which had only limited success. Johnston continued to work in New York until 1939 when he and his wife moved to a rural property in Oxford, Connecticut where they converted their barn into a studio space. There are few records of Johnston’s photographic work in Connecticut though he is known to have belonged to photographic clubs and associations where he gave numerous lectures.  Johnston also taught photography from his studio during this time.

In the 1960’s, Johnston attempted to donate his studio and photographic works to several organizations in New York and Washington but received little interest in the proposal.  Johnston died in 1971 at Griffin Hospital in Ansonia, Connecticut. In 2006, the book “Jazz Age Beauties: The Lost Collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston” by Robert Hudovernik was published. Today, Johnston is considered a top photographer of his time, among the ranks of Edward Steichen, Horst, Arnold Genthe, and others.

Sources: Alfred Cheney Johnston.com

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Photography Tagged With: Alfred Cheney Johnston, American photography, Portrait Photography, portraits, Ziegfeld Follies

The Art of Portrait Photography | PBS Off Book

September 1, 2013 By Wendy Campbell

“Humans have been creating likenesses of each other for thousands of years, but with the introduction of photography, a new language developed for capturing the human image. Photography created opportunities for not just for biography and documentation, but also depth, empathy, and experimentation. Many portrait photographers today elevate their work from mere photo to art, communicating ideas and capturing the human subject with dignity, all while exploring the meaning and potential of portraiture.” (PBS Offbook)

Filed Under: ART, Photography, Video Tagged With: PBS Off Book, Portrait Photography, portraits

Françoise Nielly: New Works 2011

April 13, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

More blasts of colour by French painter Françoise Nielly.  “Nielly grew up in the South of France where she lived between Cannes and Saint-Tropez – never far from the light, the color sense and the atmosphere that permeates the South of France.  This is coupled with her studies with her studies at the Beaux arts and Decorative Arts, and her sense of humor and of celebration.

Nielly’s painting is expressive, exhibiting a brute force, a fascinating vital energy. Oil and knife combine to sculpt her images from a material that is , at the same time, biting and incisive, and sensual. Whether she paints the human body or portraits, the artist takes a risk : her painting is sexual, her colors free, exuberant, surprising, even explosive, the cut of her knife incisive, her color pallet dazzling.” (from artist’s website)

Nielly currently lives and paints in Paris near Montmartre.  She shows and sells her work in Europe, in Canada and in the United States.

To see more of Nielly’s work, visit Francoise-Nielly.com.




Filed Under: ART Tagged With: Francoise Nielly, French Art, portraits

Michael Shapcott: Mixed Media

December 10, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

auburn_by_michaelshapcott

Auburn © Michael Shapcott

I love this new piece by Michael Shapcott.  To see more of his work, see my post earlier in the year or visit Shapcott’s profile on Deviant Art or his website Michael-Shapcott.com.

Filed Under: ART, Deviant Art, Drawing, Mixed Media Tagged With: portraits

GET DAF'S MONTHLY E-NEWS!

Categories

Archives by Date

Privacy Policy ✪ Copyright © 2023 Daily Art Fixx