Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Photo of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

De Toulouse-Lautrec was born on November 24, 1864 in Albi, France. 
“He pursued painting as a youth and went on to create innovations in lithograph drawing” (Haynes). He was born with a rare bone disease condition, similar to today’s dwarfism, where his body was an average size, but his legs significantly shortly. At the age of 14, he fell and broke one of his legs, and later broke the other leg. Due to his health conditions, he never really fully recovered and he had a hard time walking. During his convalescence he kept busy by drawing and painting a lot. He died on September 9, 1901 at the age of 36, due to heavy drinking, and various illnesses (Haynes).  

Image 1. Self Portrait in Front of Mirror (1882) 

Self-portrait of Henri is a beautiful piece of art. After studying this painting closely, I noticed, he included the mirror used for his self-portrait. I really like this piece.

Henri attended several schools in Paris, Bonnats’ Studio and Cormon’s studio among others, where he learned different techniques (Gruitrooy 6). He was mainly a portrait and poster painter. He painted variety of subjects, closeups, full length, he painted them in still sitting or in motion (Gruitrooy 69). His paintings were full of life, describing the people’s personality, feelings, or lifestyle. 

Image 2. Moulin Rouge: La Goulue (1891) 

This poster of the Moulin Rouge advertisement, was one of Lautrec’s pieces that made him famous for life (Gruitrooy 31). His ability to portray the uplifting spirit and fun in the Moulin Rouge, the famous dance hall in the center of Montmartre was priceless. I have seen his posters as a framed art in the past, but I never knew it was Lautrec’s art. I am glad to learn the artists behind these phenomenal paintings.

Image 3. Study for Woman Putting on Her Stocking (1894)

Unlike Picasso, a painter I studied previously, Lautrec’s paintings mostly seemed very realistic. When I saw his art for the first time, I noticed the brown background on many of his paintings. I learned he used cardboard quite a bit for his art. This added an interesting touch to his art. It almost seems like the picture is already half way painted before he started, as the brown base gave him opportunity to focus on what is was going to paint. 

Image 4. The Young Routy (1883)

I really liked this artist. As I mentioned before, I have seen his art around, I just didn’t know who the artist was. I am excited learning about these talented painters. I love his style, and I really enjoy his portraits. They are very realistic, and the mood and spirit are so well portrayed! I also love his ability to use one color and use so many other shades of that color in his paintings! Amazing. He had several different styles, but his theme of painting people was always present.

References:

Gruitrooy, Gerhard. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. New Line Books Limited, 2006.
Haynes, Clarence. "Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec. "Biography.com, A&E Networks Television,  15 Nov. 2017.

          www.biography.com/people/henri-de-toulouse-lautrec-9509115. Accessed May 27, 2018. 

Image 1: Self Portrait in Front of Mirror (1882) (Gruitrooy 5).
Image 2: Moulin Rouge: La Goulue (1891) (Gruitrooy 29).
Image 3: Study for Woman Putting on Her Stocking (1894) (Gruitrooy 114).
Image 4: The Young Routy (1883) (Gruitrooy 10).
Photo of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: https://discovertarn.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/henriatwork.jpg

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain and died on April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France. He was a Spanish writer, painter, poet, and sculptor who spent most of his life in France.

Photo of Pablo Picasso

I must admit, after seeing his first pieces, before I researched this artist, I was a bit puzzled by his style. At first glance, his art seemed dark, twisted and hard to recognize what goes where. After reading a few books, researching online and watching him paint on a DVD movie “The Mystery of Picasso”, I felt a little more comfortable with his art (Clouzot).

Image 1. Woman in an armchair, 1929 by Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso didn’t have only one style. He had many of them. Looking through his paintings, there are some that have strong “Picasso” features: he often painted large eyes; L shaped noses, and used a lot of straight lines. At times, I feel like some of his paintings looked like a kid painted it. He used a lot of circles and X shapes in his pieces. This can be seen in his movie “the Mystery of Picasso” (Clouzot). Watching him paint, I noticed he never spent too much time on one part of his painting. He would make a small mark in one place and moved on to a completely different section of his painting. The amazing part of his art was, that he could start painting one idea, and as he continued painting , his original idea was completely changed into a completely different subject, for example: he started painting flowers, and a few moments later, the flowers were a part of a fish, and that fish suddenly became a hen! This was the best part of watching the movie. On the other hand, some of his pieces were different. I invited my children to watch this artist with me. All of us starred at the TV with our mouths open, trying to guess what his painting will end up being, which was fun, along with spending a little extra time with the kiddos.

Some of Picasso’s art pieces were painted using the Cubism style, which was developed between 1908-1912. “Analytic cubists "analyzed" natural forms and reduced the forms into basic geometric parts on the two-dimensional picture plane” (Pablo Picasso). His paintings could be recognized as he combines some of his other styles along with cubism. Those art pieces looked like someone cut pieces of paper and glued them together creating a picture.

Image 2. Three Musicians, 1921 by Pablo Picasso

All in all, did I like Picasso’s style? I am not sure. His art is definitely interesting, but is twisted in some ways. Many of his pieces make you look twice, or study them closer to actually figure out what he was trying to say in those paintings. On the other hand, I learned some fun facts about him: Picasso’s full name has 23 words! He was baptized Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. Also, his first word was “Pencil” (Pablo Picasso). Wasn’t that fun to learn?!

References:

Clouzot, Henri-Georges, director. The Mystery of Picasso (Le mystère Picasso). Film Sonor, MK2, 1956.
Image 1: Woman in an armchair, 1929 by Pablo Picasso (https://www.pablopicasso.org/woman-in-an- armchair.jsp)
Image 2: Three Musicians, 1921 by Pablo Picasso (https://www.pablopicasso.org/three-musicians.jsp)
“Pablo Picasso and His Paintings.” Pablo Picasso: 150 Famous Paintings, Biography & Quotes by Picasso,
www.pablopicasso.org/, accessed May 14, 2018.
Photo of Picasso: https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/monografia/picasso/