1. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 2. George
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SESSION 17 Portraits 1800 - 2000 (Monday 2nd December & Tuesday 5th November) 1. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 1.1. Portrait of Monsieur Bertin 1832, oil on canvas, 116.2 cm × 94.9 cm Louvre 2. George Frederick Watts 2.1. Choosing (ELLen Terry) 1864 oil on strawboard (47 x 35cm) National Portrait Gallery 3. Cezanne, 3.1. Madame Cézanne (Hortense Fiquet, 1850–1922) in a Red Dress, c1888/9 oil on canvas, 116.5 x 89.5 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 4. OdiLin Redon 4.1. Portrait of VioLet Heyman 1910 Pastel on paper(72 cm x 92 cm,) Cleveland Museum of Art 5. Henri Matisse 5.1. Woman in a Hat 1905 oil on canvas (81 x 60cm) San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art 6. Picasso 6.1. Portrait of DanieL-Henry KahnweiLer, 1910 oil on canvas (100 x 72cm) Chicago Institute of Arts 6.2. Weeping Woman 1937 oil on canvas (61 x 50cm) Tate 7. Otto Dix, 7.1. Portrait of the JournaList SyLvia von Harden 1926 oiL & tempera on wood (121 x 89cm) Georges Pompidou Centre 8. Leonora Carrington 8.1. Bird Superior: Portrait of Max Ernst c.1939. NationaL GaLLeries of ScotLand 9. Andy WarhoL 9.1. Portraits of ELvis 1963 siLkscreens on canvas c.200cm high, various Locations 10. David Hockney 10.1. Mr and Mrs CLarke and Percy 1971 Acrylic on canvas (213 x 305cm) Tate Britain 11. Lucien Freud 11.1. HM Queen ELizabeth II 2001 (15 x 22 cm) Queen's GaLLery, Buckingham PaLace, The Portrait of Monsieur Bertin is probably Inges’ most famous portrait; Bertin’s daughter wrote, "My father looked like a great lord; Ingres turned him into a fat farmer." Which is a bit hard on the artist who agonised for months trying to get it satisfactory to his own eyes. Édouard Manet described Bertin as "the Buddha of the self-satisfied, well-to-do, triumphant bourgeoisie." The painting can be admired for its sharp detaiLs and I think kinder critics might have pointed out how he has caught the restLess energy of the founder of the Journal des Débats, with a hunched body, hard set mouth and eyes fixed on the viewer. In 1864 the 46 year old George Frederick Watts painted the 16 year oLd actress ELLen Terry and her sister – and he married ELLen a week before her 17th birthday. The marriage was a compLete faiLure but he painted her severaL times and Choosing is the most famous of these portraits. His works are full of symbolism; the young woman must choose between showy but scentLess cameLLias or the vioLets she is cLutching to her heart. Her eyes are cLosed because for Watts’ knowing comes from intuition from within, not from Learnt response to the externaL world. She wears the brown wedding dress that HoLman Hunt had designed for her. Cezanne didn’t marry Hortense Fiquet, fearing Loss of his father’s financiaL support, untiL he thought it prudent to secure their 16 year oLd son’s inheritance. She aLways seems rather dour in his portraits of her – and has the same soLidness that he gives to Mt Saint-Victoire! The painting has an instability and sense of motion from the irreconcilable expressions on her face and perspective. Odilin Redon was an eminent forerunner of ‘Post-Impressionism’ and “SymboLism’. His earLy works were mainLy bLack and white – charcoaL drawings and Lithographs – but this Late work makes fuLL use of the boLd coLours possibLe with pasteL. Violette’s stiLL and focused profiLe suggests she is in a dreamlike state – so we may wonder if the bLossoms exist onLy in her imagination. The artist said he tried to “place the visible at the service of the invisibLe”. Henri Matisse caused an outrage with his Fauvist portrait of his wife in Woman with a Hat as it was seen as disrespectfuL to her, although that wouLd not have been his attention and their marriage was stabLe and happy. He has taken Cezanne’s advice and painted what he reaLLy ‘saw’; when asked what she was actuaLLy wearing he is reputedLy repLied “BLack of course.” The Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler breaks up of form to the point at which the sitter seems bareLy discernibLe, KahnweiLer's face can just about be picked out in the upper-right of the image, identifiabLe mainLy by the incLusion of a wave of hair and a simpLe Line to suggest a moustache. Two simiLar Lines in the lower centre of the image register his watch chain, whilst his cLasped hands can be seen at bottom-centre. And Picasso included a barely discernable African mask in the top-left. When it was included in an exhibition the Guardian described it as "probabLy the greatest work of modern art currentLy on view in London", mentioning how Picasso "demoLished everything peopLe had beLieved a portrait to be for the past 2,000 years or so." After compLeting the mural ‘Guernica’, Picasso spent months producing other images of weeping women based on one figure. The Weeping Woman in the Tate is his then mistress Dora Maar. Otto Dix claimed that the journaList Sylvia von Harden represented the age when he stopped her in the street and asked to paint her. She responded “So, you want to paint my lacklustre eyes, my ornate ears, my long nose, my thin lips; you want to paint my long hands, my short legs, my big feet — things which can only scare people off and delight no-one?” He responded, “You have brilliantly characterized yourself, and all that will lead to a portrait representative of an epoch concerned not with the outward beauty of a woman but rather with her psychological condition.” The young Leonora Carrington portrays her oLder Lover in Bird Superior: Portrait of Max Ernst. Leonora refused to accept the expected role of muse and the white staLLion – a surrogate for herseLf – is twice present, both trapped in the ice and encased in the Lantern held by Ernst. He, a shamanic figure dressed in a shaggy feather robe compLete with a merman taiL and garish striped stockings, Looks despondent in the desoLate, gLaciaL Landscape. The painting conveys a strong sense of the emotionaL and physical captivity that Carrington feLt and from which she was desperate to be freed. In 1962 Andy Warhol began using screen-printing, thinking that his previous use of rubber-stamp method appeared too homemade. He wanted to recreate something that reflected the assembLy Line. The image of Elvis was taken from a pubLicity stiLL for the 1960 fiLm Flaming Star and the images were sent to an exhibition in Los AngeLes. WarhoL wrote “Very few people on the (West) Coast knew or cared about contemporary art, and the press for my show wasn't too good. I always have to laugh, though, when I think of how Hollywood called Pop Art a put-on! HoLLywood?? I mean when you look at the kind of movies they were making then — those were supposed to be reaL???” David Hockney attended the wedding of his friends, fashion designer Ossie CLark and textiLe designer CeciLia BirtweLL and Mr and Mrs Clarke and Percy was painted shortLy afterwards. There is a minor anomaly; they had two cats and this is BLanche, not Percy. In a Long tradition of using symboLs in portraits, with “Percy” sitting on Clarks’s Lap, Hockney may be aLLuding to his friend’s tendency to have affairs with other men (the marriage onLy Lasted a few years). This is one of Hockney’s Large portraits begun in 1968 – first of imaginary couples then of friends. Some tabLoids argued Lucien Freud shouLd be imprisoned in the Tower for his portrait of Queen Elizabeth. More sober judgements have commented on the psychoLogicaL insight the artist achieved. We have come a long way from the propaganda ‘armada portrait’ of the first ELizabeth. .