I have been studying portraiture by looking at the work of two well-known artists, Pablo Picasso and Amadeo Modigliani. Portraiture is an art form where the painter studies the human form. These studies can be of others and in some cases of the painter himself. This form of portraiture is known as self-portraiture.
Pablo Picasso was born on 25th October 1881 in Malaga, Spain. His father was a drawing master, so Picasso received early recognition and at 15 he already had a studio of his own. He passed the entrance examination for the Barcelona School of Fine Arts at the age of 14 in just one day.
During his lifetime, the artist went through different periods of characteristic painting styles; The Blue Period of Picasso lasted from about 1900-1905. He used different shades of blue and depressing subject matters. During Picasso’s Rose Period from about 1905-1906 his style moved away from The Blue Period to a friendly pink tone with subjects taken from the world of the circus.
In 1965 Picasso had to undergo a prostate operation. In spite of his health problems, he created a number of paintings during his last years. On April 8th 1973 he died at the age of 91.
The Cubist movement was developed by Picasso and Braque around 1907 and became a major influence on Western Art. The artists chose to break down the subjects they were painting into a number of facets, showing different aspects of one object simultaneously.
The 1st painting I’m going to write about is called “Weeping Women” by Picasso and was painted in 1937. This is an expressive painting and it shows the distress that the woman through. This portrait is not like a photograph, where it shows you what she actually looked like. Instead he painted her abstractly and has distorted the features with sharp, angular shapes. He has also outlined the different pats of the picture using bold black lines. The colours Picasso used in this painting represent the mood. He used blues and greens around the area where the woman was crying and he used contrasting warm yellows, oranges and reds in the background. If I had never seen this painting and I was asked to imagine it I would expect it to be all cold colours like blues because they are usually associated with sad moods. So Picasso has gone against normal conventions by using this contrasting warm palette. He used a white under the eyes as if it was tears flowing from her eyes. This use of white creates a focal point in the painting. Picasso used thick paint and you can see the directions of the brushstrokes. Even though this is not a very realistic painting it does show the grief she must be going through. I do not like this painting because it is not very interesting to look at. Picasso created a sad atmosphere in this painting well. I think Picasso used the tears in this painting to create the sad atmosphere. I don’t know exactly what is wrong with the women but we can tell she is deeply distressed.
