Lord Leighton • "de chic"

"…pupils were expected to invent draperies and accessories.   Leighton had shown himself a great adept at doing this, making skillful drawings of folds that he told a friend afterwards were made de chic." 

~ from Frederic Leighton (1904) by Alice Corkran

"…an artist who paints a picture without a model says that he did it "de chic." ~ A Social Mirage (1899) by Mrs. Frank Leslie

A Social Mirage (1899) by Mrs. Frank Leslie

Fire & Life

Edward J. Poynter ~ Study for Advertisement of an Assurance Company

Guardian Assurance Company - Edward J. Poynter - 1886

Drawings of Sir E. J. Poynter .. (1905) ~ https://ia600506.us.archive.org/13/items/drawingsofsirejp00bell/

I went with the jp2.zip

On the Cover: Edmund Blair Leighton

Woman's Home Companion September, 1902
 Edmund Blair Leighton ~ God Speed! - 1900

Swipe Spot #14

or: Frazetta helps himself to a handful of Bridgman

Frank Frazetta Billie Movie Poster
Unused Illustration, Original Art (MGM, 1965)

George B. Bridgman Hands
cut and pasted from Bridgman books

Frank Frazetta Billie with Bridgman Hands overlay

sample page from The Book of a Hundred Hands by George B. Bridgman

Norman Rockwell ~ May 1921

Norman Rockwell ~ The American Magazine, May 1921

"But it is not enough to draw things as they actually are, declares Mr. Rockwell. Behind every drawing that means anything must be an ideal…"

The article explains what things in the picture may symbolize. I would like to add that each thing has an ideal, not through association, that is, each thing doesn't symbolize other things, but that each has it own qualities; structure, texture, color, rhythm, energy …the nature of the thing which the artist attempts to bring forth in an ideal form. The intelligent design of line, pattern, value and color.

or as Rockwell's drawing master said ~

Once in a life class George Bridgman said to me, "My boy, you have drawn a leg, but you have missed the design of the leg." ~ Andrew Loomis, Eye of the Painter 

Anders Zorn • Tur hos Damerna

or: Why what I first thought shouldn't surprise! (see previous post)

Photographed …Drawn …Altered …Refined …Painted

Anders Zorn: The Art of the Power Portrait

Anders Zorn ~ Portrait of Adolphus Busch - 1897 oil on canvas, 51 x 37 1/2 in.
Painted during Zorn’s second trip to the United States from 1896 to 1897.

Anders Zorn, power portraitist.

I planned this post ~

What does a traveling and much in demand portraitist do when commissioned to paint a busy executive who has neither the time nor the inclination to pose…

Anders Zorn, portrait of Adolphus Busch portrait with photo overlay.

~ but upon further study I realized that the photo was an old school photoshop. Busch's head is a photograph from life, which has been grafted onto the body in a photo of the Zorn painting. This monster was then photographed and printed!

Anders Zorn ~ Adolphus Busch portrait - photoshop/painting

old school photoshop portrait of Adolphus Busch
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Details of the Zorn painting showcase how thinly he painted but for the highlights.