Composition - examples of note

[Mike McCarty]

Hello Ant,

I think you make a reasonable observation. I would love to be burdened with the choice of which to hang over my sofa, assuming that they matched the fabric that is.

[Mike McCarty]

Below is an excerpt taken from a much larger text. It certainly goes to the subject of composition. I've had these same thoughts but have never been able to find a proper term, which the Viscount identifies as "arrested action."

It's one of those things that can be refuted by any number of beautiful examples, but still I think it's noteworthy.

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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS

TWENTY-THIRD ORDINARY MEETING
WEDNESDAY, 20TH MAY, 1936

Chairman: THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT ULLSWATER, P.C., G.C.B.,

One of the conditions which I think also necessary in a portrait is that there should not be arrested action. There should be repose. After all, the picture will probably be looked at for many years. Generations to come will look at it, and arrested action always leads the spectators to a sense of fidget and uncertainty as to when the action is going to be completed. A man who is just raising a glass to his lips, for example, is annoying, and fidgets. I begin to think, how long will it be before he drinks that cup of tea or glass of wine?

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These thoughts are cousin to the thinking that a person should not show a broad toothy grin. What are they amused by? What joke was told stage left which brings the sitter to this state of excitement? And on and on. These questions, having been brought to the viewers attention, could be considered a distraction from the essence of the individual being portrayed.

Once again, many examples could be brought to bear which refute this line of thinking, but it never hurts to have them in your note bag.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Originally Posted by Mike McCarty

It's one of those things that can be refuted by any number of beautiful examples, but still I think it's noteworthy.

It most certainly is, Mike.

[Julie Deane]

I agree with the arrested action in general, but I'm thinking of a piece by Sargeant portraying a famous writer, who was in constant motion, pacing the floor. And that is the way he portrays him, and - it works.

I think a portrait should reflect the personality of the sitter. There are exceptions to almost every "rule".

For example, If a person smiles frequently in a broad toothy grin, and it is the most true reflection of their personality, then anything else may strike a false note to those that know them.

A commercial piece is always a balance between what the ones paying want and what the artist recommends.

[Mike McCarty]

I am of the opinion that one could paint a portrait a month for the rest of their life in nothing but the head and shoulder pose and still not complete all the possibilities.

One of my many mistakes as I began to focus on portraits was to try and paint the sweeping cinematic compositions like some of the masters above. I wish I had started from from the center and worked my way out, instead of the other way around. It seems that the more challenged the artist , the more they are apt to take on the impossible. It seems counter intuitive that it would be that way.

Here are a couple of head and shoulder paintings by Lord Frederick Leighton. These compositions, of the same girl it would seem, are anything but typical. And then the last by Wm. Bouguereau. What in the world can be said about this painting?

[Ant Carlos]

Bouguereau was clearly experimenting on Vermeer's GWAPE pose. Even Lord Leighton's black backgrounds reminds that painting (or at least he was trying some sensual, perhaps implicit, approach).
But if you ask me what a portrait painter should portray in order to achieve success in his works, I'd say he must make a mix of the three main ingredients: the way he sees his subject, the way his subject wants to be seen, and the very truth. No photo, no camera, no lens but only an artist can show that.

Ant