Picasso

Image 1: Selection of portrait of Picasso

 I merely try to place the greatest humanity possible in my paintings. It is just as valid if it offends some idolaters of conventional human effigies - they just need to look at themselves a little closer in a mirror. What is a face, in truth? (...) What we have in front of us? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn't everyone see it in their own way? 
(Picasso, 1946, cited by the Museu Picasso of Barcelona)






Little Pablo

Picasso understood the art of painting on a deeper level, already from when he was very young. His father, José Ruiz Blasco, was an artist. Not a very good one, but he also taught painting at the San Telmo School of Fine Arts. As soon as he discovered little Pablo's talent, he focused on teaching his son to paint. When Pablo turned 13, he finished one of his father's paintings, and is known to have said "So he handed me his paint and his brush, and he never painted again." (Walther, 2000, p. 8) At the age of 14, he could paint as realistic as some of the grand masters, but after just one year of impressing everybody at art school, he became bored and decided to take his education into his own hands.

This turned out to be the right thing to do for him, and after painting in Barcelona for some years, Picasso went to Paris with an artist friend, Carles Casagemas, where they both found inspiration and both fell in love. However, Casagemas's girlfriend didn't share his excitement, and turned him down, when he proposed marriage, which lead to Casagemas committing suicide. Picasso was now filled with guilt, and the fact that he's now sleeping with the girl who broke his friend's heart, didn't exactly help. This is believed to have been the main cause for Picasso's famous "blue period", where he painted lonely people, women mostly, in almost exclusively blue tones.

Image 2: "Mother and Son", from Picasso's Rose Period.

Big Picasso

In 1904 Picasso met Fernande Olivier, a new woman who would also inspire him to change his style to what we today know as his more positive Rose Period. Things were going well for Picasso, and two years later he was introduced to Henri Matisse, who turned out to be his life long rival. Picasso was inspired to again create a new style, this time something totally different from what people had ever seen before: Cubism. He started this new style with his painting Les Demoiselles D'Avignon, which didn't get the public praise he had expected.

Together, Picasso and fellow artist  Braque developed Cubism. One must bear in mind, that during this period of time, films where taking over theatre, and photography was taking over portrait painting, so the two gentlemen must have known that this was the time to revolutionize the art of painting.

In 1912 he swops Fernande for a younger model, Fernande's friend Eva Gouel. With her comes his inspiration to become even more playful with cubism, for example by portraying her as a guitar, and even producing cubist sculptures.

His father died in 1913, disappointed with Picasso's choice of style, still not understanding his son's great work. Two years later, in 1915, his lover Eva died of cancer, and Picasso was devastated.

In 1917, Picasso agreed to collaborate with Cocteau in designing a ballet in Rome. Here, far away from the battle front, he met Olga Khokhlova, one of the ballerinas, whom he married shortly after. Olga's extravagant lifestyle, with evenings at the opera or at fancy dress parties, inspired Picasso to embrace classicism again.

Image 3: Portrait of Olga.

Very big Picasso

During a summer stay at Antibes in 1923, a group of intellectuals showed Picasso a new form of expressing one self - surrealism. Picasso was crazy about this new style. He also met a new woman, or girl I should say, 17-year old Marie-Therese Walther. She inspired many of his surreal paintings, and many of her portraits are very sexual. He threw body parts around on the canvas, but it always ends up making sense in some strange way. Often these paintings have more than one image, so that if you turn your head for instance, you suddenly see a different motif than you saw at first.

Next woman in line was Dora Maar, who he met in 1936. By then, his love life was a bit of a mess. He himself was happy with having 2 women, but understandably enough, the women were miserable. Picasso, however, found inspiration in their grief and desperation, and painted these feelings into his art.

In April 1937, the German air force bombs the town Guernica, and Picasso painted the 30 m2 Guernica to be presented at the International Exhibition in Paris. This painting shows dead people and random body parts floating around in the street, and a mother carrying her dead baby. Again, Picasso manages to show the deepest human feelings with a bunch of shapes. This time people got it, and cubism was introduced. (BBC, 2010)

Image 4: "Guernica" (click to enlarge)

Eight years after he first met Dora Maar, Picasso met yet another woman, Françoise Gilot, who also became his lover, and the mother of two of his children. Between 1941-1947 Picasso challenged himself with scriptwriting, pottery and lithography. And finally in1953, Françoise left Picasso, but he already found the woman to take over for her, the of course much younger than him, Jacqueline Roque, who was his lover and protector until his death in April, 1973, 91 years old.

Picasso lead a very interesting life, always searching for new ways of expressing himself, not to mention new inspiration, particularly in the form of women. Every time Picasso fell for a new woman, his style of painting changed completely. According to Zervos's Cahiers d'Art (Green, 2005, p 5), Picasso's work can be seen as a diary. Since he painted not what his eyes saw, but what he felt for the subject, every painting is a personal statement from him.



Some of my thoughts on Picasso

What a macho....
This guy must have been extremely charming, since none of these women gave him what he deserved and threw him off the nearest cliff. Art wouldn't have been what it is today, but still, in the moment I know I wouldn't have considered that.

I think Picasso is a "real artist". Art is supposed to make you feel, and what Picasso did, was to paint feelings and not physical objects. I think that most people nowadays can look at a Picasso painting and get a clear emotional response to what they see, probably even if you show it to the workers down at the harbor. He was also extremely productive, and I think that this was only possible, because he put, not his own, but his lovers' feelings up on the canvas. He didn't sacrifice himself in the name of art, but instead he sacrificed one beautiful young girl after the other.



More of these, please

Image 5: Picasso in the middle of his light drawing.

I think some of his most interesting techniques are seen in his sculptures and when he painted with light. For the light paintings he used a camera set to a very long exposure time, and then he basically drew in the air with some sort of light. I like that it's a way of looking at the whole movement at once, and only then does it make sense. It is like freezing time, but in pretty big chunks at a time. To me, that's almost like stop motion animation, where it really doesn't look like much when you're making it, but once you're done, and you put all the pictures together, it suddenly makes otherwise dead things come alive. Without light, we wouldn't have any kind of pictures at all, so you might say that it's taking the essential and only using that to paint a pure picture.


This one here, with Picasso in the very centre, caught my eye. He always adored attention, and here he puts himself in the middle of this light, that's already long gone, the moment his camera's shutter shuts. I like the thought of him standing there, in an almost completely dark room, swinging around a little flash light like a maniac, and when we then look at the final product, it looks ever so elegant, like he was almost dancing a ballet for us. When I look at his face, he reminds me of stories of mad scientists, who insist on bringing to life different kinds of monsters. Picasso just brings to life the feelings he can collect from the people around him, and in this very picture, it's all about him.

Image 6: "Weeping Woman"

An example of another "pure painting" I think could be this one, "Weeping Woman" (1937). It is a portrait of Dora Maar, after he got tired of her. He drove her almost insane, and that desperation really shines through the canvas here. This painting makes me feel scared of the man Picasso, and I truly feel for her. Even though I know I'm looking at a bunch of strange shapes in funky colors, I understand her, as if she were a real woman sitting right in front of me, screaming and crying her eyes out.

Image 7: "Woman Flower"

A much quieter and more comfortable painting could be The Woman Flower,  which makes me feel totally peaceful, and I just want to stare at it until my eyes hurt from not blinking. Well, that's exaggerating a bit, but I really do think think this is extremely beautiful. Looking at this, I immediately understand how much in love he was with this girl. And as a contrast to "Weeping Woman" I here get an idea of the tender, loving and caring man in Picasso. However, this is maybe not what he felt when he painted it, because according to the documentary Pablo Picasso - A Primitive Soul (2000), he painted this as a reaction to Matisse wanting to portray Picasso's beautiful young lover at the time, Françoise Gilot.





This very silly painting of a musketeer (1968), I believe it's a self portrait, brings yet a different mood. At first glance, I find it funny and silly. Especially his face, with the way the eyes and the mouth form this happy and careless expression. The first time I looked at this, I thought for a few seconds that he was doing a very naughty hand gesture with his right hand, but that didn't really make sense, and of course I soon realised that it was only a pipe. His oversized feet made me think of Buddhist sculptures, where the feet are made big to show that this particular god is very strong, but in Picasso's painting it really has the complete opposite effect. He is more comparable to a circus clown with big shoes, than a Buddhist god who can take lightening in the head without even blinking. So far so good, he's a funny guy. But after chuckling a bit to myself, I begin getting annoyed with him. Who does he think he is? Sitting there without a worry in his life. He probably doesn't even know how to wipe his own bum! Well.. Pardon my French... This character's attitude has now made him so alive, I seriously want to give him a good punch in the face, to see if he runs away crying for his mom, or stays to fight like the musketeer he's pretending to be.

Image 8: "Musketeer with Pipe"

Something clever...

Trying to make a statement on Picasso's work as a whole makes me dizzy. He has created so much, and in so many different styles and medias, that it is nearly impossible to judge all of it as one. During the research for this blog, I kept thinking "this must be his last change of style then", but it just never ended! This guy understood the painted medium better than anybody else. He was a macho man with the empathy of a woman. He was a monster and a lover, and he was nuts and brilliant. All at once. I deeply hate him for what he did to his loved ones, and I equally deeply respect him for the genius he was, and I think we all owe him for making us able to understand pictures with our feelings, instead of our logic.






Reference list:

Museu Picasso of Barcelona (2008) Picasso in Conversation. Available at: http://www.bcn.cat/museupicasso/en/picasso/conversation.html (Accessed: 30 November 2010)

Walther, I. (2000) Picasso. Germany: Taschen

Green, C. (2005) Picasso - Architecture and Vertigo. London:  Yale University Press

Historic Figure . Pablo Picasso (2010) BBC. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/picasso_pablo.shtml (Accessed: 30 November 2010)

'Pablo Picasso - A Primitive Soul' (2000) Biography. Edited by Dina Potocki. Written by Molly Thompson. First broadcast 2000 [DVD] Canada: History Television Network.


Images:
 
Image 1: Robert Doisneau (1952) Pablo Picasso With Bread Fingers [Photograph].

Image 2:  Picasso, P. (1905) Mother and Son [Gouache on canvas] On-line Picasso Project [Online] Available at: http://picasso.shsu.edu/index.php?view=ArtworkInfo&OPPID=OPP.05:018 (Accessed: 30 November 2010)

Image 3: Picasso, P. (1918) Portrait of Olga Khokhlova [Oil on canvas] On-line Picasso Project [Online] http://picasso.shsu.edu/index.php?view=ArtworkInfo&OPPID=OPP.18:089 (Accessed: 30 November 2010)

Image 4: Picasso, P. (1937) Guernica [Oil on canvas] On-line Picasso Project [Online] Available at: http://picasso.shsu.edu/index.php?view=ArtworkInfo&OPPID=OPP.37:001 (Accessed: 30 November 2010)

Image 5: Mili, G. (1949) Picasso in the Middle [Photograph] Available at: http://www.life.com/image/50378942/in-gallery/24871/picasso-drawing-with-light (Accessed: 30 November 2010)

Image 6: Picasso, P. (1937) Weeping Woman [Oil on canvas] Picasso and Matisse [Online] Available at: http://www.picassoandmatisse.com/product.php?xProd=350&xSec=3  (Accessed: 30 November 2010)

Image 7: Picasso, P. (1946) Femme-fleur (Woman Flower) [Oil on canvas] [Online] Available at: http://allart.biz/photos/image/Picasso_Late_Works_64_Woman_flower.html (Accessed: 30 November 2010)

Image 8: Picasso, P. (1968) Musketeer with Pipe [Oil on canvas] [Online] Available at:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1178258/Tale-Picassos-Madoff-victims-auction-38m-worth-paintings--finds-buyer.html (Accessed: 30 November 2010)


Resource list:

Sateren, S (2002) Picasso. Mankato, Minnesota: Capstone Press.

Mallen, E. (2010) On-line Picasso Project. Available at: http://picasso.shsu.edu/ (Accessed: 30 November 2010)

Jules Chéret

Image 1: Poster for opera by Offenbach.

The father of the poster

Jules Chéret was born in 1836 in Paris, France, to a family of artisans with little money. Age 13, his family could no longer afford to keep him in school, so he became an apprentice to a lithographer, and his interest in art was awakened. He spent days visiting the big art museums in Paris, where he let himself be inspired by the old masters, such as Rubens and Watteau (Les Arts Décoratifs, 2009). He was lucky enough to get a course at the Ecole Nationale de Dessin, but that was the limit of his formal artistic education. In 1854 he went to London to find a way to make a living out of being an artist, and here he discovered Turner's landscape paintings, another great inspiration. Unfortunately for Chéret, he didn't manage to earn much in London. His first big order was a poster for Offenbach, but it didn't lead, as he had hoped, to any more orders.

In 1866, he returns to Paris, and with help from Rimmel, the perfumer, he set up his own printing firm. This was the beginning of a very creatively busy period for him. His works became so popular, he had to hire four artists to help him out with all the orders. By 1900, they had produced over 1000 posters.

Image 2: Poster by Chéret

Chéret was not only a great artist, he also played, through his art, an important role in liberating the women of Paris. In most of his posters, you see happy, dancing and smiling women. These women are not portrayed as prostitutes or in otherwise degrading roles, they are clearly enjoying themselves, and seem to invite the audience to come and enjoy life with them. I see it as when you've experienced something too great not to share, and you invite others to come have the same experience with you. So, what he did, was to make these women equal to the customers of whatever business the poster was advertising for. These women became known as "Cherettes", and actually, it became more acceptable for women to wear low-cut corsets and smoke in public, because that was no longer acting like a hore, but being a Cherette, almost a walking piece of art.

In 1926, Chéret said in an interview that he could still distinguish the shapes of the azaleas in the garden as the sun went down (Lanthony, 2009, p. 169), but he soon turned completely blind, and died in 1932, age 96.



Clear communication

Chéret created a whole new style in posters. He took away most of the text, that had so far been covering many posters, and made the illustration communicate the message. This way, his posters are easily understandable, even for those who can't read. The irony here, is that he only took on poster jobs to pay the bills, while really wanting to be a fine artist. It's hard not to  compare Chéret with Toulouse-Lautrec. Lautrec found a lot of his inspiration in Chéret works, and their visual style is very much alike. However, I think that Chéret has a much more "commercial" look to his posters. It's like I don't really feel connected to the people he prints, because they're all just happy-happy and it almost seems fake. I see it like they might as well have worn masks. Unlike Lautrec, Chéret uses the people on the posters to advertise a place, whereas Lautrec advertises the people themselves, who then just happen to be performing at for instance the Moulin Rouge.




Why I don't like Chéret

According to cheret.info, "His dancers came to life, these Cherettes, light-footed, hedonistic nymphs beckoned you to come and share a night of frolic and fun at any one of a number of cabarets and theaters (...)" (2004, my italics). I can see what they mean, I really do agree that the ladies are all very attractive, but they're the kind of girls you wouldn't expect to say anything clever. So "came to life" I think is an overstatement. To me, they're more like Barbie dolls, set up in interesting positions.

All of the women portrayed in the examples I put in this blog, don't have real faces. I don't really care about them, because I see them like I would see a mannequin doll in H&M's window. They can be very pretty and decorative, but if they suddenly lose one arm, I really couldn't care less. Same thing with Chéret's women. Beautiful, but boring. Braindead models. Well, that's an exaggeration, but I'm not joking 100%.

Image 3: Part of painting by Chéret

Take this painting as an example that this also applies to some of his non commercial works. It's a very nice situation, but when I look at it, I don't imagine myself hiding behind a tree all day to enjoy the view of these pretty ladies and their spoiled kids. I imagine myself passing by on my bike thinking that this looks like the high point of their week, spending all their lives being bored at home. Really, it's not even the baby's mother playing with it. She looks more like a nurse, and the poor kid is reaching towards mama, who's busy looking ever so lovely. Yes, I'm annoyed. Again, the women are used as decorative objects, and not as individuals with each their interesting life story.

Image 4: Théâtrophone poster by Chéret

The woman in the "Theatrophone" poster at least has eye contact with the audience, but still I get the feeling that she has been standing in this position for too long, and she's only modeling, not acting her role out as she should. In other words, I don't get the feeling that she was actually paying any kind of attention to the play going on via this theatrophone, and I also don't believe that she just happened to look up and was then surprised to see someone she already knew. She's just standing where she's been told to stand, and that's that. Easy work. Or maybe Chéret just didn't catch her soul when he made the poster, who am I to tell.

Image 5: Yet another uninteresting woman by Chéret

With that said, I have to add that I see the point in not distracting the audience with a too interesting person, when it's really a product you're supposed to sell. And I think that this way of thinking is used a lot in today's advertising. The person is there to draw your attention to whichever product as the centre of the ad. I'm not sure I think Chéret really catches my attention the right way. I admire and envy him for his technical skills, but his choice of motives really annoy me.


















 Reference list:

Les Arts Décoratifs (2009) Jules Chéret 1836-1932. Available at: http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/francais/publicite/collections-97/l-univers-de-la-publicite/metiers-et-grands-noms/affichistes/jules-cheret-1836-1932-1913 (Accessed: 22 November 2010)

Lanthony, P. (2009) Art & Ophthalmology: The Impact of Eye Diseases on Painters. Paraguay: Wayenborgh Publications.

Cheret.info (2004) Jules Cheret's Revolution of Color. Available at: http://www.cheret.info/a_revolution_of_color.html (Accessed: 22 November 2010)


Image list:

Image 1: Chéret, J. (1886) Poster advertising the opera"La Vie Parisienne" by Offenbach [Poster] Jules Cheret - The Complete Works [Online]. Available at: http://www.jules-cheret.org/Poster-advertising-%27La-Vie-Parisienne%27,-an-operetta-by-Jacques-Offenbach-%281819-90%29-1886.html (Accessed: 22 November 2010)

Image 2: Chéret, J. (na) Palais de Glace. [Poster] Jules Cheret - The Complete Works [Online]. Available at: http://www.jules-cheret.org/Poster-advertising-the-Palais-de-Glace,-Champs-Elysees-large.html (Accessed: 22 November 2010)

Image 3: Chéret, J. (na) Idylle Champêtre. [Oil on canvas] Jules Chéret: paintings, drawings, posters from the collection of Baron Joseph Vitta [Online]. Available at: http://www.oldmasters.com/english/mostredet.php?id=125 (Accessed: 22 November 2010)

Image 4: Chéret, J. (1896) Théâtrophone. [Poster] Jules Cheret - The Complete Works [Online]. Available at: http://www.jules-cheret.org/Poster-Advertising-the-%27Theatrophone%27-large.html

Image 5: Chéret, J. (na) Saxoléine. [Poster] Jules Cheret - The Complete Works [Online]. Available at: http://www.jules-cheret.org/Poster-advertising-%27Saxoleine%27,-safety-lamp-oil-large.html


Resources:

Doordan, D. (2000) Design History: An Anthology. 2nd edition. Cambrigde, Massachusetts: the MIT press.

William de Morgan

Image 1: Tile by de Morgan

 

I am not sure if it was in the autumn of 1859 or the spring of 1860, when I was working in the schools of the Royal Academy, that a tall, rather gaunt young man arrived as a nouveau, who excited among us of a term's seniority some interest. He was an original, that was evident at starting. His capacious forehead denoted power, his grey eyes tenderness, his delicately formed nose refinement, and his jaw strength. But the commanding characteristic was unmistakably humour. He spoke with a curious accent, his voice, as if it had never quite settled to soprano or bass, moved with flexibility up and down the scale, and every sentence was finished with a certain drawl.  ...  This youth was William de Morgan. (Stirling, 1922, p. 9, italics in original)

De Morgan's life

William de Morgan was born in 1839 into a family of intellectuals. His father was the first Professor of Mathematics at the University College London, and his mother was a strong woman, who campaigned alongside Elizabeth Fry in the early 19th century to promote prison reform (the de Morgan Foundation, 2010). He began studies at the Royal Academy Schools in 1859, where he met William Morris and Edward Burnes Jones, who turned out to be lifelong relationships. Morris was, among other things, designing and producing tiles, but it didn't really become a success, until de Morgan took over the design around 1863.

In 1887 William de Morgan married Evelyn Pickering, who was also a highly respected artist. They were both very intelligent people, and involved themselves in many of the leading issues of the day. (the de Morgan Foundation, 2010)  Being a close friend of both William Morris and Edward Burnes Jones, placed William de Morgan at the heart of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and in 1888, de Morgan became a founding member of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000)


About art...

Many of his design are clearly influenced by Turkish and Persian styles (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000), which again shows that he had a general interest in the world, also further away than his own back yard.

Image 2: Peacock tile by de Morgan

In spite of producing fairly highly priced pottery and tiles, de Morgan never obtained a great financial success with his art. It wasn't until when he, at the age of 65, began writing novels, that he could ensure him and his wife a comfortable and secure old age. 



Me and de Morgan

William de Morgan's fantastical animal designs remind me of a child's wild imagination. It's like looking at something made by a child, who is exceptionally good at painting. And I love it. Particularly the dragon-like figures are something I really wouldn't mind having in my home. For most of his animals, I feel like he kept this childish playfulness, so that you just cannot help but smile when you look at it. This, mixed with great technical skills, make up a quite impressive collection of interesting works.


Take for instance this peacock (De Morgan, na). Looking at the plumage in the tail, I can't help being impressed by the attention to detail, he put in there. Following the bird's body up, my eyes are pleased by the elegant line it forms, and the feathers are as beautiful on the body, as they are in the tail. But what's this? Reaching the bird's head, it suddenly look utterly insane! I'm again back at smiling, and I feel that this piece of art is on my level, something that I can enjoy without having to treat it like God were inside it.

Image 3: Illustration by de Morgan

This red dragon-like creature (de Morgan, na) makes me look for little arrows with explanations of the different body parts and their function. Like my sister and I used to do when we were younger and competed about who could draw the coolest monsters. I love the asymmetrical eyes, that make it look like it's considering whether you're worth eating or not. Even after looking at it for quite some time now, I have let out a little chuckle every time I see it.

William de Morgan didn't only produce strange looking animals. He also spent a lot of his career producing tiles with patterns, that would form a larger pattern when put together. These patterns are all very pretty, but to be honest, I feel quite indifferent towards them. I know that they're meant as frames for other artworks, like for instance his more interesting animal designs, and for that purpose, I'm sure they're great, because they don't draw too much attention. Not mine anyway.



De Morgan private

I'm very impressed with the amount of different skills that William de Morgan is said to have had. According to the de Morgan foundation (2010) he, apart from producing pottery, had ideas for how to make grinding mills and other equipment for his workshop, he knew a lot about chemistry, worked on a new gearing system for bikes and developed telegraph codes. He even suggested to the Admiralty during the First World War, how to destroy U-boats. Quite a geek, if you ask me, but I think that these many talents and interests had a lot to say in all of his art. Having a deeper understanding of all those different areas, must mean that he had a general understanding of and interest in the world, and this shines through in his works. Think about it, he made tiles in not only one style, but any style from medieval to figural to scenic, or even art nouveau for that matter. And through all of these styles, I can still see that the same guy is behind it all.

De Morgan died in 1917, age 78, and he is still today considered the most important potter from the Arts and Crafts Movement. (the de Morgan Foundation, 2010)

Image 4: Owl tile by de Morgan

Sources:

Reference list:

Stirling, A. M. W. (1922) William de Morgan and his wife. New York: H. Colt and Company.

The de Morgan Foundation (2010) William and Evelyn de Morgan. Available at: http://www.demorgan.org.uk/de-morgans (Accessed: 13 November 2010)

The de Morgan Foundation (2010) William de Morgan. Available at: http://www.demorgan.org.uk/de-morgans/william-de-morgan (Accessed 13 November 2010)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2000) Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/23.163.2ab#ixzz154gxxhKL (Accessed: 13 November 2010)

Image list:

Image 1: De Morgan, W. (no date) Fantastic Bird [Tile panel] [Online]. Available at: http://www.williammorristile.com/demorgan_fantastic_bird.html (Accessed: 15 November 2010)

Image 2: De Morgan, W. (no date) Peacock [Tile panel] [Online]. Available at: http://www.williammorristile.com/demorgan_fantastic_bird.html (Accessed: 15 November 2010)

Image 3: Higgins, R. and Robinson, C. (2010) William de Morgan: Arts and Crafts Potter. Grand Britain: Shire Publications, front cover, illus.

Image 4: De Morgan, W. (1895) No title [Tile] [Online]. Available at: http://www.museumeducation.bedford.gov.uk/bedfordbytes/nature/images_nature/gallery_designed_objects/pages/C_1218_jpg.htm (Accessed: 15 November 2010)

Resources:

The de Morgan Foundation (2010) Available at: http://www.demorgan.org.uk/ (Accessed 13 November 2010) 

Mackail, J. W. (1899) The Life of William Morris.  London: Longmans, Green and Co. Volume 1.

Knaff, D. (1995) 'True to the Craft', Orange Coast Magazine, Nov 1995, p. 107.

De Morgan, W. (1906) Joseph Vance: an Ill-written Atuobiography. London: Heinemann.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Image 1: Lautrec painting Lautrec.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, described in Life (1950) as a "talented, misshapen rake", was born in 1864,  grew up to have a very fragile health, and various physical deformities, the most famous one being, as visible on image 1, his short legs. Due to his strange looking physicality, he never really knew the true love of a woman, so he frequented the brothels of Paris' Montmartre. He is even known to have said to one of his models: "If you sang of desire people would understand. But love, my poor Yvette, love does not exist." (Life, 1964, p. 82). In Montmartre he became a central figure in the night life, and changed a big part of his artistic focus from fine art to posters, a choice that affects the way we see poster art today. He promoted the famous can can dance hall Moulin Rouge, individual dancers like Jane Avril and  La Goulue, as well as singers like Artistide Bruant, most of whom probably wouldn't have had the same fame, had it not been for Toulouse-Lautrec's interest in them. In 1899, his health collapsed, and Toulouse-Lautrec retreated from his work. After some time in a nursing home, he went back to his mother's house, where he died in 1901, age 37, of alcoholism and syphilis.


We all know that in order to be a great artist, you have to suffer. Toulouse-Lautrec sure did suffer, and I admire how he managed to turn his misfortune into beauty. I find it ironic, that when he was once hospitalized in a mental institution, he drew circus performances to prove his sanity to the doctors (Life, 1950, p. 96). From what I can tell, he himself was a part of a bigger circus, the nightlife of Montmartre. To me, the dancing girls and the prostitutes, who Lautrec depicted so often, were like horses of a circus. They were trapped doing what they did, looking pretty every evening, doing the same thing night after night, which, to the audience, must have been nothing more than another night out. This world of entertainment must only have been magical for the people who could choose whether to be in it or not. Lautrec chose to be a part of this society, and I think he saw himself as being more on the girls' side, than being himself one of the spectators of the show. This led to him treating the girls with much more respect than they were used to, and so they let him into their private lives, outside the smokey air of the dance halls and cafes.

Image 2: Poster by Toulouse-Lautrec

      Lautrec represents Montmartre very well at that time. In spite of being sensitive about his lack of physical attractiveness, Lautrec managed to handle life with humour, and made himself a favourite subject for his caricatures. Dressing up in costumes, posing for crazy photographs (Life, 1964, p. 82) and hosting big parties in his studio, he still never got the one thing he really wanted: the true love of a woman. You could say the same thing about most of Montmartre. The girls, the lights, the drinks probably all looked amazing during the night, almost like entering a fantasy world, but imagine how much of all this fun and free loving community was really just an act, even to oneself, to keep up the spirit in a world where nothing was given to you for free.

Image 3: Mademoiselle Nys by Toulouse-Lautrec

Image 4: Crouching Woman With Red Hair by Toulouse-Lautrec

    I keep wondering why he was so fascinated by the very bottom of society, and of course especially the prostitutes. Was it because he really did admire them, or did it just come from the fact that they were more or less the only women, who would talk to him? It seems to me like he's genuinely interested in them as human beings, and I honestly think that he got a lot of his inspiration from their strength. He was creating beautiful illusions, just like them, whether they were singers, dancers or prostitutes, and like they were trapped in poverty, he was trapped in his weak and strange looking body. Perhaps it also had to do with his general fascination of the body as an object of art: "Nothing exists but the [human] figure; landscape is nothing ... but an accessory." (Life, 1950, p. 94)

Sometimes I'm even tempted to think that he is being ironic about sexuality. Take for instance his painting Crouching Woman With Red Hair (1897). This is definitely not a very flattering way to portray a female body. She looks more like someone who has been told to pretend being a horse, even though she doesn't want to, than an attractive redhead. I don't really understand his fine art, and I can never figure out whether he is being serious or not. His posters however are made so well, that even an ignorant student like me gets it. That deserves some recognition!
      Toulouse-Lautrec's posters personalise the performers so much, that they make me more interested in the person behind the performance, than in the performance itself. I guess that is why his posters stand out, and why they worked so well. To know the person, you go see the show, and the show automatically gets better, if you're already a fan of the performer. Lautrec understood this, and he understood how to communicate, through a painting, his own personal interest in a person. I think Lautrec had a lot of empathy for his surroundings, and I think that was what kept him going. Having so many problems of his own, I think he eased his own existence by taking on other people's unfortune, for a while at least.

Image 5: Poster by Toulouse-Lautrec, La Chaine Simpson

Reference list:

• No author credited (1964), 'Women in an Artist's Life', Life, Oct 16th 1964, pp. 82-92 

• No author credited (1950), 'Toulouse-Lautrec', Life, May 15th 1950, pp. 93-100

 

Imagery:

• Image 1: Guibert, M. (1892), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec [Online]. Available at: http://www.all-art.org/history658_photography13-9.html (Accessed: 3 Nov 2010)

• Image 2: Toulouse-Lautrec, H. (1896), Troupe de Mlle Eglantine [Lithograph] [Online]. Available at: http://www.marysecasol.com/Art-World-Guide.html (Accessed: 1 Nov 2010)

• Image 3: Toulouse-Lautrec, H. (1899), Mademoiselle Nys [Oil on unprimed wood] [Online]. Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/european_paintings/mademoiselle_nys_henri_de_toulouse_lautrec/objectview_enlarge.aspx?page=97&sort=0&sortdir=asc&keyword=&fp=1&dd1=11&dd2=0&vw=1&collID=11&OID=110002287&vT=1&hi=0&ov=0 (Accessed: 12 November 2010)

• Image 4: Toulouse-Lautrec, H. (1897), Crouching Woman With Red Hair [Oil on cardboard] [Online]. Available at: http://www.abcgallery.com/T/toulouse-lautrec/toulouse-lautrec86.html (Accessed: 12 November 2010)

• Image 5: Toulouse-Lautrec, H. (1896), La Chaine Simpson [Lithographed poster] [Online]. Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/toulouselautrec/nms_0208_hdtl_11-jpg.htm (Accessed: 12 November 2010)

 

Resources:

• Larson, K. (1985), 'Pure in Spirit', New York Magazine, Dec 2nd 1985, pp. 146-148

• No author credited (1953), 'Razzle-dazzle Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec', Life, Jan 19th 1953, pp. 64-68

• Geraldine Norman (1977), Nineteenth-century painters and painting: a dictionary, Part 2, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press

• Bond, R. C. (1988), 'The Gift of Toulouse-Lautrec', Orange Cost Magazine, Nov 1988, pp. 214-215