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The Handbook By Nick Leavey
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The Handbook
The Handbook Nick Leavey Atelier Art Classes Brisbane Australia The Handbook. A disclaimer. The work reproduced herein was photographed by me directly from the original artwork or sourced from Wikicommons. It is reprinted solely for educational purposes with reference to the Copyright Act (1968), and in accordance with the guidelines for fair dealing issued by the Australian Copyright Council. The Handbook may be downloaded and copied for individual use, but not for profit or gain. Its reproduction in its complete form is positively encouraged! V1.01. With the exception of the images on Pages 4&5: Text and images (C) 2017 Nick Leavey Graphic design (C) 2017 Nick Leavey Brought to you by Atelier Art Classes, Salisbury, Qld. Australia. www.atelierartclasses.com info@atelierartclasses.com Nick Leavey 2017
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Contents the Artists, in order of appearance... Bradshaw paintings
Nolan Sidney
Bunny, Rupert
Phillips-Fox Emanuel
Burne-Jones, Edward
Ramsay, Hugh
Cezanne, Paul
Sargent, John
Dargie, William
Strozzi, Bernardo
Dobell, William
Tintoretto, Jacopo Robusti
Hals, Frans
Van Dyck, Sir Anthony
Ingres, Jean August Domonique
Van Gogh, Vincent
Leavey, Nick
von Herkoma, Hubert
McInnes, William
Van Riyn, Rembrandt
Meldrum, Max
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The Handbook
The Handbook Nick Leavey Atelier Art Classes Brisbane Australia ‘The Handbook’ has been compiled as a response to the frequently heard lament from my students that the hand is the most difficult part of the body to paint. My choice of artworks might seem somewhat arbitary, however there is a common thread, being -with the exception of the Bradshaw paintings on this pagethat I have seen and photographed the originals myself. The artworks reproduced here are from an eclectic selection of post-rennaisance artists who have dealt with the problem. Most are masterful, and some are by Paul Cezanne or Sidney Nolan. Look especially for the unfinished work by Australian Artist Hugh Ramsay which gives a wonderful insight into his process. Also, the bravura brush strokes of Sargent, which show an enormous depth of understanding and a studied elegance. I’m not even going to pretend to show you the ‘how to’. There are plenty of books out there which attempt to do just that. Some, like Bridgeman or Loomis, very successfully. Of course, it all starts with the drawing, and if you get that right, the rest will follow as sureley as eggs is eggs. Be assured though, that there are no shortcuts to knowledge and understanding . I would invite you to relax, leaf through these pages, and then gather your paints and practice. A lot. The Handbook
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Rupert Bunny Australian 1864-1947 Bathers (1906)
Queensland Art Gallery
Brisbane Australia
Rupert Bunny spent a great deal of his life in France. Bunnys career can be seen as having two very different phases. The first saw him painting the very traditional pieces that won him praise and awards at the Paris Salon in the first few years of the 20th Century. Bathers, exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1906, is one such.
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Rupert Bunny Australian 1864-1947 Echo and Narcissus (circa 1920) Queensland Art Gallery
Brisbane Australia
The second phase took his painting into the realms of modernism and mythology. A heady mix.
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Edward Burne-Jones British 1833-1898 Aurora (1896) Queensland Art Gallery
Brisbane Australia
Burne-Jones was a close associate of the Pre-Raphelites, a group of British painters who looked for their inspiration to what they saw as a a simpler, pre-industrial era, where the grass was undoubtedly greener. Symbolism (and in this instance, cymbalism), myth, legend, and light, are their key signatures.
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Paul Cezanne French 1839-1906 Boy in a red waistcoat (1888-90) National Gallery of Art Washington DC USA It would be nice to be able to say that Cezannes understanding of tone and form, infused with knowledge and understanding of his subject, are highlighted by the following two exemplary paintings...
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Paul Cezanne French 1839-1906 Madame Cezanne in a red armchair (circa 1877) Museum of Fine Arts Boston USA ...I think it would be fair to say that we are asked to admire them for other reasons.
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William Dargie Australian 1912-2003 Albert Namatjira (1956) Queensland Art Gallery
Brisbane Australia
A beautiful painting of the famed aboriginal landscape painter by Dargie, who won the Archibald Prize for portraiture in 1956 with this piece (‘The Archibald’ is Australias most famous portrait prize. These days almost better known for the business accumen and taste for controversy of its awarding body, than for any other reason). The bold and simple strokes are laid over a dark underpainting which both underpins and highlights the planes of the fingers and the back of the hand.
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William Dobell Australian 1899-1970 The Cypriot (1940) Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane Australia William Dobell was an exceptional draftsman, whose student drawings (Julian Ashton Art School) have been described to me by the current Principal (Paul Delprat) as the finest ever to emerge from the school. Dobell was the winner of the Archibald Prize for Portraiture on two occasins (1943 and 1948). It was Dobells habit to make carefully observed studies of his subject before committing himself to painting them. The hands on this painting were carefully investigated using pencil studies before being painstakingly built up by many brushstrokes both along and around the hand to describe its form. Their place in space and their luminosity are a wonderful example of the work of an artist in full command of his skills.
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Frans Hals Dutch 1582-1666 Portrait of a bearded man in a ruff (1625) The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York USA Franz Hals was comdemned in his time by some as being a ‘rough’ painter, whose apparent lack of finish precluded his work from being positively accepted by more of his contemporary critics. Those ‘rough’ brush strokes are the very qualities that speak so clearly to us today. The anatomical structure of the hand and his obvious understanding of tone, form, and in this and the following two portraits, indicate somebody whose art was far from being ‘rough’.
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Frans Hals Dutch 1582-1666 Portrait of an elderly lady (1633) National Gallery of Art Washington DC USA Nothing is known about the sitter for this painting beyond her age, an old fashioned and pious woman (the book she is clutching has been identified as a bible) was Sixty at the time of sitting. This portrait, which hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, provides us with a wonderful example of the loose technique employed by Hals, which through his simplified brush strokes gives us the illusion of complexity to such great effect.
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Frans Hals Dutch 1582-1666 The Smoker (1626) Metropolitan Museum of Art New York USA Painted circa 1624, Described as ‘less ambitious’ than his usual ouvre, this piece was painted at a time when Hals was a devotee of the pubs and taverns of Haarlem.
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Jean August Domonique Ingres French 1780-1867 Marcotte d’Argenteuill (1810) National Gallery of Art Washington DC USA These days, Ingres is considered as a romanticist in the tradition of his compatriots and peers, Poussin and David. What is certain is that he considered himself to being a staunch defender of the conservative tradition as embodied by Raphael. Odd then, that many of his paintings and drawings display some very obvious distortions of form and space. You can tell a lot about somebody from their hands. This fellow never did a hard days work in his life.
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Jean August Domonique Ingres French 1780-1867 Madame Moitessier (1851) National Gallery of Art Washington DC USA Painted in 1851, this is one of two splendid portraits (the other is in the National Gallery, London) and numerous studies by Ingres of Mme Moitissier.
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Nick Leavey Australian 1961Herb Armstrong (2015) Private collection Brisbane Australia Herb is a larger than life character who lives and performs sometimes in Brisbane, and sometimes in New Orleans. Professing to be the grandson of the great trumpeteer Louis, Herb sat for this portrait at the Atelier Art Classes studio in Salisbury, Queensland. This is one of those rare paintings that was finished in one short session.
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William McInnes Australian 1889-1939 Miss Collins (1924) Art Gallery of South Australia Adelaide Australia Considered as a conservative painter in comparison to peers such as Penleigh Boyd and Elioth Gruner, McInnes was a prolific painter and a capable teacher (National Gallery of Victoria, head of the gallery school). McInnes won the Archibald prize for portraiture on seven occasions, in 1924 with ‘Miss Collins’.
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Max Meldrum Australian 1889-1939 The yellow screen - Family group (1910-11) National Gallery of Australia Canberra Australia Meldrum was an Artist and teacher of great influence in Australia during the early 20th Century, advocating a tonal theory that is still taught today. Meldrum in his turn, was heavily influenced by the work and technique of the Spanish artist Velasquez. Tonalism has been described to me as a manner of painting in which the artist indicates planes by placing a brushmark of the correct tone, of the correct shape, of the correct colour, into the right place. And then doing it again and again until the painting is finished. This work is a supreme study of tone, the forms of the sitters existing only as they are defined by light. The painting of form as exemplified by William Dobell, can be described as the three dimensional volume in space of an object, described by line.
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Sidney Nolan Australian 1917-1992 Mrs Fraser and convict (1962-64) Queensand Art Gallery Brisbane Australia Sidney Nolan once claimed that he couldn’t paint. I see no reason to disagree with him.
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Emanuel Phillips-Fox Australian 1865-1915 Bathing Hour or L’Heure de bain (circa 1909) Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane Australia Phillips-Fox is another Australian Artist who found great success in Europe, and like Bunny and Hugh Ramsay, returned only shortly before the end of his life. This is one of two versions of this painting (the other is in the Castlemaine Gallery in Victoria) and shows the great pleasure Phillips-Fox derived from playing with light. The hands in this piece are a study of hands in shadow, set against a brightly lit background. This echoes a similar study of backlighting by Sargent, ‘Artist in his studio’, which can be seen later on.
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Hugh Ramsay Australian 1877-1906 Portrait of Mrs L Robertson - unfinished (1905) Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane Australia Hugh Ramsay was well on the way to having a successful artistic career when he contracted tuberculosis, dying at the age of 28. This incomplete painting -one of his lastindicates with great clarity Ramsays working process, from a brief linear placeholder, to the clearly defined planes on Mrs Robertsons right hand.
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Rembrandt Van Riyn Dutch 1606-1669 Self portrait (1659) National Gallery of Art Washington DC USA Rembrandt van Riyn was a Dutch draughtsman, painter, and printmaker. He is generally considered one of the greatest Artists in the history of art. His works depict a wide range of styles and subject matter, from portraits, selfportraits, to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, biblical and mythological themes as well as animal studies. Rembrandt’s contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the ‘Golden Age’. Praise and accolades mean nothing though, when you stand in front of this extraordinary work, and begin to realise the depth of the genius that lay behind its creation.
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John Singer Sargent European 1856-1925 Madame X or Madame Pierre Guatreau (1883-4) Museum of Fine Arts Boston USA Sargent. A superb and versatile painter who was able to bring life and vitality to any subject he cared to address. Sargent was born to expatriate American parents in Italy, studied in Italy and France, and then settled in England, visiting the USA when it suited him to do so. Strangely, the Americans claim him as one of their own, although he never lived there. Sargents career has been extensively documented with a nine volume catalogue raisonne being issued during the past decade or so (Yale University Press). The following five paintings have been chosen to illustrate the growing maturity of his work from his days as a young portrait artist in Paris, to his days as a society painter in the UK and USA. This first piece, ‘Madame X’, was the cause of great scandal when it was first shown, and the reason for Sargent leaving France to settle in England. A fascinating window to its time, and well worth following up.
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John Singer Sargent European 1856-1925 Mrs Henry White (1883) National Gallery of Art Washington DC USA When I first saw this piece, I sat down in front of it and just looked at it for half an hour. This piece is stunning. So much so that I went back on four occasions during my five days in Washington DC to see it again. Despite the apparent loosness of the painting, the illusion of reality is so complete you can almost hear the silk rustling.
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John Singer Sargent European 1856-1925 Mrs Adrian Iselin (1888) National Gallery of Art Washington DC USA Commissioned at the end of Sargents first professional trip to the USA, the relationship between Sargent and wealthy socialite Iselin was rather strained. Late in life, Sargent was asked if he remembered Mrs. Iselin, he diplomatically replied, “Of course! I cannot forget that dominating little finger.�
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John Singer Sargent European 1856-1925 Mrs Edward Darley Boit (1887) Museum of Fine Arts Boston USA Another piece from Sargents first working trip to the USA. The Boits were friends of Sargent from his early years in Paris, and did a great deal to promote him within their social set. This portrait, despite its appearance of immediacy, actually took thirty sittings before Sargent was happy with it.
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John Singer Sargent European 1856-1925 An Artist in his studio (1904) Museum of Fine Arts Boston USA This fine piece shows some of the versatility of Sargent. It has its echoes in the piece by Emanuel Phillips-Fox illustrated earlier, in describing a hand in shadow against a brightly lit background.
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Bernardo Strozzi Italian 1581-1644 The release of St Peter (circa 1635) Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney Australia Strange that we think of this sort of religious painting as ‘Realist’ when one of the subjects has wings. Beautifully painted though.
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Tintoretto Jocopo Robusti Italian 1518-1594 The risen Christ (circa 1555) Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney Australia Tintoretto is noted for the drama and scale of his compositions, and the virtuosity and speed of his brush work. His rapidly executed canvases earnt him the nickname, ‘Il Furioso’. The speed is evident in the unconvincing, sausage like fingers of the hand of the Jesus figure.
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Vincent Van Gogh Dutch 1853-1890 Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a cradle (1889) National Gallery of Art Washington DC USA As an aspiring Artist, Van Gogh tried as hard as he could to draw in the manner accepted by the art establishment. In order for him to achieve just that, he undertook Bargues ‘Cours de dessin’, a French nineteenth century distance education course in drawing and fine art. The Bargue course is a set of excercises devoted to copying dozens of ever more complex drawings with the greatest precision the student can manage. It was designed to enable potential students of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris to build a portfolio of sound drawing technique. Interesting as an historical footnote, tedious in the extreme, and enough to drive most people quite mad. Van Goghs letters to his brother Theo suggest that he went through the excercises many times, and then found his own way of doing things. The world would be a poorer place without him having been in it.
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Hubert von Herkomer British 1849-1914 H H Richardson National Portrait Gallery Washington DC USA This delightfully loose description of Richardson, a well known American Architect, is one of the stand-outs at the National portrait Gallery in Washington DC. A perceptive portrait of a well-founded gentleman.
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The Handbook End notes:
The paintings illustrated in ‘The Handbook’ can be seen at the following locations: Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney Australia Art Gallery of South Australia Adelaide Australia Atelier Art Classes Brisbane Australia Kimberley region of Western Australia Metropolitan Museum of Art New York USA Museum of Fine Arts Boston USA National Gallery of Australia Canberra Australia National Gallery of Art Washington DC USA National Portrait Gallery Washington DC USA Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane Australia
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