Portraits conveying mood or atmosphere

Here Marlena Dumas has recorded a moment in time, that would have otherwise been lost. This is not merely a portrait, but a story unfolding. While the mood is sombre, the atmosphere is energetic. The girl depicted is young and fresh. She works with a limited palette of chilled hues in ink washes and/or diluted oils.  

Unlike Marlene Dumas’s above portrait, Picasso’s blue paintings convey subjects that are bedraggled, used, or downtrodden. The musician below looks to be already decomposing as if he’d been propped against a wall in a dark corner….no one wanted to fund his burial. The hands which once supported his livelihood are now stiff with rigor -mortis. Picasso has highlighted the bloodless fingers to accentuate the tragedy of this musician. The Guitar itself appears to be warm and alive, making even more of a mockery of the deceased. I’m surprised someone hasn’t stolen it. The subject must be freshly dead. The heavy blues which dominate this period of Picasso, become more monochromatic in other portraits. The paintings symbolize to me a plague of sadness that drained Picasso of his colour.

Pablo Picasso, The Old Guitarist, 1903, Art Institute of Chicago

Though the following painting by Vincent Van Gogh is warmer, the mood is sad and hopeless. I know how this story will end, and I am finding myself rather depressed by the scene. It also pangs me with guilt for taking the warmth of my shoe box apartment for granted, when this guy can’t even warm a kettle to boil.

In a self-portrait by Rembrandt, finally, my mood is lifted. With a limited palette, he creates great tonal contrast and a warm overall painting. The expression is kind and trustworthy. I’d let him walk me home at 3:00 am. The lighting is dim, and I presume he was not a man of means, though he appears hopeful and untarnished by all the scenes we know he has witnessed. I feel empathy for him and less intimidated by him, as an old master.

The portrait below was the least disturbing of the most disturbing of Goya’s nightmarish pieces. Yet still, I can only glance at it. I am grateful it is a sketch, not enhanced by colour. I do wonder if there is truth in this particular piece or not. It’s clear he is telling horrific tales of suffering during fowl times. So perhaps they are real, and his madness only a reaction to his environment.

German Expressionist, Emil Nolde, used a Chinese technique here, called woodcut print. I like the bold drooping shapes seen in the portrait below. It appears as though a light source comes from within the subject, which makes him more Jesus like. The face strikes me as disheartened. Perhaps because the artist was formally rejected by the Nazi’s, despite his anti-Semitic sentiment? This leads me to wonder how he rationalized his conflicting beliefs in both Jesus the Jew and fascism.

Alas, with Fauvism, we see more carefree colour. In researching figure paintings from this era, I feel like this was a friendly, happier time. I like how the subjects are often outlined in black and the light dictates changes in colour.

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