Assignment 3 – Research

Thinking that I might use a mirror to reflect my model’s image in assignment 3, I decided to do a little research to find artists that had also used reflected images to see how they approached the subject.

Alice Pike Barney – Mirror reflection 1911

https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/mirror-reflection-1269

This is a very gentle pastel on canvas. I note that the near, live figure is lit from the left and the reflected figure is drawn much darker. At first I felt the proportions were wrong until I considered the angle of the viewer who seems to be almost looking up and into the mirror. The reflection seems to be looking straight back at the viewer. I find my eye drawn initially to the face of the real person then over to her reflection that in turn appears to be looking back at me, like a three way relationship.

Jeffrey Kolker – Mirror Mirror on the Wall 2009

https://jeff-kolker.pixels.com/featured/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-jeff-kolker.html

I really love this painting. It is a painting of one of the artist’s daughters getting ready to be a bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding. There is a real intimacy to the composition, almost as if we are viewing a fleeting glimpse of a very private moment. I like the way Kolker has framed the face of his daughter with the light bulbs. The brushstrokes are bold but there is a delicacy to the way he has painted his daughter. I think this is a composition I will try with Jo for this assignment.

Salvador Dali – Dali seen from the back 1972-3

https://www.salvador-dali.org/en/artwork/the-collection/124/dali-seen-from-the-back-painting-gala-from-the-back-eternalized-by-six-virtual-corneas-provisionally-reflected-by-six-real-mirrors

I had to include this painting by Dali, my favourite artist. In it he is painting his wife Gala from the back reflected in a mirror. What makes this more unusual is that he has then painted the back of himself, a view he can obviously not see directly, also reflected in the mirror. I have no intention of including myself in my painting of Jo, but I really enjoy looking a Dali’s work, the way he manipulates paint and the interesting compositions he achieves.

George Hendrik Breitner – The Earring 1893

https://www.boijmans.nl/en/collection/artworks/101543/the-earring

This is oil on canvas and the first of two painting I have chosen with almost the same title. I this, a woman wearing a kimono is seen putting in an earring using a mirror. Again she is painted from the back and her face is shown as a reflection.

Konstantin Somov – Self-portrait in the mirror 1934

https://www.wikiart.org/en/konstantin-somov/self-portrait-in-the-mirror-1

I chose to look at this painting again because of the more unusual composition. This is a self-portrait of the artist looking into a mirror, but it is the offset positioning of his face that makes this so interesting. The viewpoint is slightly puzzling. I tried to replicate it in my own mirror but to have my face in this position in the mirror I needed to be sat so low my chin was almost on the table. One can only surmise that the artist has had someone take a photograph of him? Cameras were just becoming popular in 1934. The objects, painted in such detail also add intrigue to the painting, particularly as some of the objects appear to be very feminine.

Fairfield Porter – The Mirror 1966

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/porter-fairfield/artworks/

In this oil on canvas, Porter paints himself in the mirror. What is more unusual about this painting is that his daughter is depicted looking straight out with he back to the mirror which is reflected and the artist has painted. In this picture much of the canvas is taken up with the reflection of the room.

Ambrose McEvoy – The Ear-ring 1911

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mcevoy-the-ear-ring-n03176

This oil on canvas is the second of ‘The earring’ paintings. Again showing a woman, this time seated, adjusting an earring in the mirror. I think this is my favourite of the two; the tilt of the woman’s head indicates close scrutiny and concentration which can also be found on the expression on her face which is clearly painted. This time the face, reflected in the mirror in lit up with the back of the woman in shadow. The light source must be in front of the woman, hidden from view by her body.

Philip Wilson Steer – Model Seated before a Mirror circa 1894

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/steer-model-seated-before-a-mirror-t11973

This oil on canvas I find fascinating. It is of a muted brown monochrome palette and shows the model at the bottom of the canvas with her back to the viewer. The main body of the canvas shows the mirror which reflects the model, but she is not directly looking into the mirror but down and appears to be undressing. His handling of the fabric of her dress is very delicate and there is a glow to her skin. There is a voyeuristic quality to this painting; you feel like you are intruding on a very private scene.

Zsuzsi Roboz – Backstage at the Windmill Theatre/Closing Day 1975

Backstage 1975 Zsuzsi Roboz born 1939 Presented by Curwen Studio 1976 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P06682

Closing Day 1975 Zsuzsi Roboz born 1939 Presented by Curwen Studio 1976 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P06681

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/roboz-backstage-p06682

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/roboz-closing-day-p06681

These final two pictures are of women backstage at the Windmill theatre. The windmill was famous in the 1930s for its variety performances which featured nude women ‘Windmill Girls’ as living statues or ‘tableaux vivants.’ These lithographs show the women in quite despairing poses. As women who have to spend their stage life immobile in order to fall in with the law of the time, their backstage postures seem to also be very static; almost resigned. In both pictures you cannot help but wonder at the mental state of the women; are they alright?

I hope that I am able to reflect even a small amount of this vulnerability in my painting of Jo.