Feature-Distorting Makeup Fashions

If you don't have a model handy, the next option is using a photographic reference. And if you want to paint a picture of a pretty woman, why not use a photo of a movie star.

I'll tell you why not.

One reason is that publicity photos are usually retouched, and that retouching can distort light-shade relationships, hiding the true facial structure to some degree. This was particularly evident before 1950, when most publicity shots were in black and white which made extensive retouching easier to perform. (It's interesting that Joan Crawford had a heavily freckled complexion, yet nearly all publicity photos hide it.)

Another reason has to do with fashions in make-up. From the mid-1920s to around the mid-1940s, lipstick and eyebrow makeup practices were tailored to distorting natural facial features. Such distortions make it somewhat difficult to understand exactly what the underlying face was like.

Combining these two problems results in photos that are not worth using for reference unless one's goal is painting a period-piece scene. The photos below illustrate my point.

Gallery

Clara Bow - late 1920s

Evelyn Brent - late 1920s
Not all women did this, but some important movie stars did: Note the "bee sting" lipstick pattern where the edges of the mouth are not painted while areas above and below the lips at the center of the mouth are. The Cupid's bow feature of the upper lip is slightly exaggerated by the lipstick application shown in these photos.

Constance Bennett - 1933

Jean Harlow - mid-1930s
During the early to mid 1930s the Cupid's bow continued to be exaggerated, as can be seen in the photo of Constance Bennett. At least coverage now extends to the corners of the mouth. The Jean Harlow photo shows another fad of that era: natural eyebrows plucked and replaced by a penciled-in line. I have no idea why people thought that stunt improved beauty.

Ann Sothern - late 1930s

Hedy Lamarr - early 1940s

Veronica Lake - early 1940s
Natural eyebrows returned by the late 1930s and even received eyebrow pencil enhancement. Lips were enhanced by lipstick extending very slightly beyond the edges of the lips themselves.

I find that there are still a fair number of 1925-45 photos acceptable for reference. After 1945, matters improve somewhat. But an artist's best bet is to rely on informal photographs where retouching is absent and makeup is more likely to be lightly applied.

The Mural as Artistic Immortality

Murals still get painted, but seldom do I learn of a new one that is a Truly Big Deal.

A century ago, that wasn't the case. Murals were a major player in the history of Western art, and a few remain world-famous. (I'm thinking the "The Last Supper" by da Vinci and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel work, even though the latter was painted on a ceiling rather than a wall.) In fact, murals were so prestigious that at least two important artists twisted their careers to become mural painters in an attempt to "play Shakespeare." One did so as a sideline to a varied career and another is better known for his murals than for his easel paintings. For this post, I'll deal with them along with two other Americans involved in that trade.

Let's see what they produced.

Gallery

From the Holy Grail series by Edwin Austin Abbey
Abbey had a varied career ranging from illustration to fine arts painting to a good deal of mural work. The image above is of one of his murals (or really, really large paintings) in Boston's Public Library.

"City Activities with Dance Hall" by Thomas Hart Benton - 1930-31
Although some writers lump Benton into an "American Regionalist" category, a good deal of his work does not feature Midwestern scenes. The example above is from a set of murals he painted for a new building housing New York City's New School for Social Research (as it was known at the time).

Mural study for Los Angeles Public Library Building

Mural for Los Angeles Public Library Building by Dean Cornwell
Cornwell was one of the most successful illustrators of the 1920s. Apparently this did not satisfy him, so he decided to take up mural painting in an effort to (I suppose) become more artistically respectable. He went to England to learn some of the muralist's trade under Frank Brangwyn. The Los Angeles library project seen above was his greatest effort, though his expenses and the time it took for completion did not make it profitable; he continued to rely on commercial art to subsidize his mural painting. Despite that, he took on other mural projects, as the link indicates.

Rotunda murals, Boston Public Library

Boston Public Library rotunda"Heaven" in Boston Public Library, by John Singer Sargent
Sargent was an extremely successful portrait painter who felt that such work was somehow not worthy enough. So he managed to get in on mural projects for the new (1895) Boston Public Library building on Copley Square. Two decades later, he was still working on those murals.

Seen from today's perspective, mural painting seems a more risky route to artistic immortality than easel painting. That's because paintings on canvas, board or a similar support are portable. They can be stored comparatively easily and snatched from harm's way. The fate of a mural is usually tied to that of the building that houses it.

Henry Tonks: Physician-Painter-Teacher

Henry Tonks (1862-1937) studied and practiced medicine before switching to art when in his early thirties. This is sketched in his Wikipedia entry, but better biographical information can be found here.

Thanks to his anatomical expertise, London's Slade School of Art hired him to teach drawing. According to the link above, Tonks was a formidable teacher who, consciously or otherwise, intimidated many of his students. On the other hand, he was at Slade when it turned out many of its most famous graduates. Those who were instructed by Tonks included Augustus John, Gwen John, Percy Wyndham Lewis, C.R.W. Nevinson, Mark Gertler, Stanley Spencer, John Currie, Dora Carrington, Maxwell Gordon Lightfoot, Dorothy Brett and Paul Nash. Even though many of these became modernists of one stripe or another, Tonks himself had no use for Cubism or any of the other movements.

As can be seen in the selection below, Tonks seemed to prefer social scenes featuring young women. However he became a war artist in the Great War and did medical-related art in the form of a series of studies of soldiers who sustained severe facial wounds.

Gallery

The Hat Shop - 1892

The Matinee Rehearsal - c.1900

The Torn Gown

Study of a woman

The Birdcage - 1907

An Advanced Dressing Station - 1918

Spring Days - 1928

As for Tonks' paintings, my take from images found on the Internet is that he was certainly competent, yet lacked whatever kind of spark it takes to make his work truly distinctive and compelling.

Deco by Dupas

The painting shown above is Les Perruches, c.1925, by Jean Dupas (1882-1964) who, along with Tamara de Lempicka and perhaps a few others, epitomizes Art Deco art. A short Wikipedia entry is here and a more extensive biography is here.

It seems that Dupas was very well-trained, but chose to earn his living more in commercial art than in fine arts. As for the latter, he was a muralist as much as he was an easel painter.

Dupas' commercial style is distinctive in that he regularly drew women with long necks and often with narrow, aquiline noses. And although it was hardly Deco fashion, he sometimes gave his women elaborate hairstyles and hats evoking fashion of 200 years earlier.

Given that I'm greatly interested in the 1920s and 30s, I am fond of Dupas' work.

Gallery

Poster - 1924

Poster - 1925

Bordeaux poster - 1937
Dupas was born in Bordeaux, so might have put more heart than usual into this poster.

L'Hiver - 1928

Woman seated in front of portrait

Deco scene - 1929

History of Navigation mural from the Normandie - 1934
A link with information about the mural is here.

Jeune fille aux fleurs
This seems to be a later work -- say, from 1940 or later, given the hair style of the subject.

Molti Ritratti: John F Kennedy

President John F. Kennedy (1917-63), as we all know, did not serve even one full term in office. So if portraits of him were to be painted while President, there was less opportunity than usual.

On the other hand, Kennedy was the subject of thousands of photographs, and it is through these that we shape our visual image of the man. Those photographs also served as the basis for posthumous portrait paintings created by both professionals and amateurs. Below are examples of Kennedy portraits done by professionals. Some were painted while he was alive, others later. And some paintings done before his 22 November 1963 death might have been entirely photograph-based.

Gallery

By Norman Rockwell - 1960
The Saturday Evening Post magazine would sometimes feature covers with paintings of presidential candidates in the weeks leading up to an election. The painting shown above was published in its 29 October 1960 issue. I don't know if Rockwell saw Kennedy in person while working up the image. He was able to spend an hour and a half with Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 in conjunction with a Post cover appearing before the voting that year.

By Cecil Calvert Beall - 1962
This looks like it might have been done from life, but I have no solid proof.

By Elaine de Kooning - 1962
This was probably done from life because it is known that Kennedy sat for her.

By William Franklin Draper - 1962
Also probably done from life.

Sketch by Bernie Fuchs
Fuchs was an illustrator and not yet a fine-arts painter when he visited the White House to make sketches of the President. David Apatoff posted useful information about it here.

By Daniel Greene - pastel, 1963
I have no information as to whether this was done before or after JFK's 1963 death. And if it was done before, I don't know if Greene did it from life.

By Bernie Fuchs
I don't have a date for this, but it was probably painted on the basis of photographs and the sketches mentioned above.

By Jamie Wyeth - 1967
Clearly posthumous.

By Aaron Shikler - 1970
This is the official White House portrait of Kennedy, painted years after he died.

I apologize for the information gaps noted in the captions above. If readers can supply facts regarding whether or not Kennedy actually sat for the unverified (in my remarks) portraits created in his lifetime, please let us know via a comment.

Covarrubias the Caricaturist

Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957) was a multi-talented man, his activities ranging from cartooning to ethnography, as his Wikipedia entry indicates. As you might imagine, it was the artwork, not the anthropology, that made him widely known and popular over three highly productive decades; his illustrations seemed to be popping up everywhere.

Examples of his work can be found here, and this site seems to be devoted to him exclusively.

As can be seen below, Covarrubias' work was witty, charming and inoffensive to most viewers. In those respects, it was in line with the tastes of the day. In recent times, illustrators seem to feel compelled to create "edgy" works that lack charm, are often offensive, and incorporate no wit whatsoever. Pendulums do swing back eventually, though I see little sign of it happening as yet.

Gallery

Sally Rand and Martha Graham contrasted
This Vanity Fair illustration from around 1933 was part of a long series where Covarrubias caricatured two individuals who possessed both similarities and differences. Martha Graham's dance troupe worked in a modernist idiom. Sally Rand gained fame for her fan dancing at the 1933 Chicago world's fair.

Tea Gossip - c.1925
A cartoon from early in his career.

Cartoon map of Mexico - 1947
He painted a number of cartoon maps and murals. Click to enlarge.

Vogue cover - 1 July, 1937

Herbert Hoover - Vanity Fair cover - October, 1931
For non-American readers, Herbert Hoover was President in 1929 when the stock market crashed and was blamed for the severity of the Great Depression even though his policies were similar to those followed by his successor, Franklin Roosevelt, which didn't work very well either.

Mussolini - Vanity Fair cover - October, 1932
I trust we all know who this guy was. The little fellow tugging on Mussolini's ear is probably the king of Italy.

Bali scene - c.1930s
Covarrubias and his wife visited Bali a couple of times in the 1930s. He did ethnographic work there and wrote a book about it.

Back in Time: Saab 96 Series to the Ur-Saab

Not long ago Saab, the Swedish automobile firm (not to be confused with Saab, the aircraft manufacturer, though they once were one and the same) expired. I suppose there might still be a movement afoot to resurrect the corpse, but that would be a triumph of nostalgia over business reality.

I never seriously considered buying a Saab, though I never disliked the brand. The problem was that whenever I was in car-buying mode, whatever Saab was offering at the time was out of synch with my needs or financial resources. In recent decades, the problem was price. Thirty or 40 years ago, I didn't like the styling (take that!, model 99). In the late 1960s it was my concerns about the reliability of front-wheel-drive. Before that, it had to do with the fact that Saabs were powered by a two-stroke motor that required adding oil with every gasoline full-up.

Wikipedia has comprehensive coverage of Saab. Here is their introductory entry which devotes considerable space to the company's final crises. Below are links to entries about the Saab models in the photos.

The present post deals with the first generation of Saabs that were small and featured perhaps the most aerodynamic styling of their day. The photos begin with the final version of that series and work back to what some observers call the "Ur-Saab" -- the prototype Saab automobile. (The term Ur-this or Ur-that is a Germanic locution linking the name of Ur, supposedly the earliest city in the world, to class of something with a history. The Ur-whatever would be the very first known example.)

Gallery

Saab 96 - 1960-80
The Saab 96 was the last of the early Saabs that featured teardrop streamlining. A useful improvement over previous 9x Saabs is the wraparound rear window. The final 96s got a four-stroke motor, eliminating the need for continually adding oil.

Saab 93 - 1955-60
The first Saab that came to the serious attention of American buyers was the Saab 93, shown here. When Saab began exporting cars to the USA, they were only marketed in the northeastern states where severe winters and hilly roads in northern New England and Upstate New York made front-wheel-drive a desirable feature.

Saab 92 - 1949-56
The Saab 92 was the initial production model. Front end styling is a little different from the prototype. The production motor generated 25 horsepower, but the streamlined body allowed model 92s to reach 65 miles per hour (around 100 km/h) -- or so it is said. Note the size of the rear window in the 92 and and compare it to that of the prototype below.

Prototype Saab 92 (1947) - as seen in museum
The Wikipedia entry on the prototype Saab is here.

Prototype Saab 92 (1947) - showing front

Prototype Saab 92 (1947) - showing interior

Prototype Saab 92 (1947) - showing rear

Phantom Corsair prototype - 1938
The Phantom Corsair (Wikipedia entry here) was a prototype ultra-streamlined luxury car by millionaire Rust Heinz of the 57 Varieties Heinz clan. Sadly, Heinz died in a car accident in 1939, so any prospect of a production Phantom Corsair vanished with him.

I include this photo so that you can compare its styling (on a long Cord platform) with the Ur-Saab's rear styling on a much shorter platform. The little Saab's styling was extremely elegant in an era when streamlining created an awkward appearance. (See this recent post for examples.)