Portrait painting

On the third floor of the Harvard Art Museum, there hangs a self-portrait of Kerry James Marshall, depicting the African American artist with a large, colorful paint palette in his right hand. Across the room rests an old, wooden arm-chair in a glass display case, used by the President of Harvard on special occasions such as convocations and commencements. These two seemingly dissimilar objects echo each other in intricate ways, and they bring about a unique part of Harvard’s history to the…

For this assignment I visited the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts and chose a painting from the 2016 Cumberland Valley Artists Exhibition. The oil on linen painting was titled Professor Quimby and was made in 2014 by Cyd Goodwin. Goodwin appears to be influenced by theatrical plays as most of her paintings revolve around the same subjects/people. In Professor Quimby, one can see a young woman in a greenish dress, standing, looking over her shoulder at the viewer. Diagonally from the woman…

of the most important things to consider when analyzing a painting by an unknown artist is the combination of visual characteristics and how that plays into the artist’s sociopolitical message that is imbedded within the work. Initially, the viewer notices the texture of the deep attention to color and texture specifically of the fruit and clothing of the women displayed. The ruffles in the outfits worn by the two subjects of the painting are very realistic, which shows mastery of this type of…

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: The Portrait’s effect on Cubism and Abstract Art When someone sees a simple painting of vibrant triangles and simple shapes representing humans, the viewer will often wonder if the certain piece is painted by Pablo Picasso. What many do not realize is that Picasso did not just start off painting shapes and abstract-like sketches. He went through many phases of art including: his blue and rose period, realism, surrealism, and cubism. The creation of cubism is by far the…

is studying a locket on a painting of a lady who seems surprised by his attention. There are three men as a painting on his right side looking as if they are jealous or concerned about what he is doing with the magnify glass. These are the few things that can be seen from the first glance of the painting. The artists seem so focused on examining on one spot of the portrait with his magnify glass he is oblivious of his surroundings. The facial expression of the painting on the wall shows the fact…

was able to experience my first time attending an art exhibit. With only a short period of time to let everything sink in I came across a few portraits that caught my eye. I was instantly drawn to the Athlete’s collection by Andy Warhol. A series of his art portraits hung on the wall with a variety of different athletes painted on each one. Each portrait in his series were oddly unique but slightly in common. They all appeared to have similar bold colors that blurred the background making…

Specifically, this painting depicts a young man who is leaning forward to inspect a portrait of a woman and looking through a magnifying glass to examine a brooch clasped close to her chest. Light and shadow are used to create the illusion of depth on the young man’s form; he almost appears to be three dimensional as he gazes at her portrait. The colors on the woman’s portrait are bright, involving the primary colors at a greater intensity than anywhere else in the painting. In addition, the…

Vincent Van Gogh: The Portrait of Dr.Gachet The Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent Van Gogh is sorrowful, but alluring. Iam drawn to this piece because of the heavy brush strokes and the usage of dark colors, and because of this I automatically knew there was more to the story as I analyzed-- from the subject's facial expression to the purple flower lying on the table. I began to know more about this painting’s story as I investigated Vincent’s past and other works. The greatest dutch painter…

She then brought this inspiration to life as she began to create photorealistic paintings. One of her first photo-realist pieces was called “Macarena of Miracles” that she created in 1971. Macarena of Miracles was also one of the first photorealistic paintings in America. Most photorealist would create still art (motionless objects that are recreated through art) but, unlike them Audrey felt she couldn’t reach her audience…

In Thomas Gainsborough art work, Portrait of the Honorable Anne (Baston) Fane, the audience observes a sophisticated, beautiful, wealthy noblewoman named Anne Fane. As the observer looks from top to bottom, he or she will see Fane’s blue and black hat. The expression on Anne’s face shows sophistication and grace, and her cheeks are flushed with pink blush that matches her pink lipstick and has smooth pale skin. Continuing down, the viewer will notice the beautiful, brunette, curly hair Mrs. Fane…