Inspiration – Zorn: Water and Light

 

Anders Leonard Zorn became Sweden’s foremost artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like his contemporary John Singer Sargent, he was famed for realistic portraiture which conveyed spontaneity and character. In this post I will focus on his handling of light and water, and the lessons that can apply to atmosphere in architectural illustration.

Anders Leonard Zorn was born in rural Sweden to a German brewer and a farm girl. Although illegitimate, his father set aside money for his education, and he was raised by his grandparents on a farm near the town of Mora. Because of his exceptional talent at drawing he was sent to the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Stockholm. Once he established his career he married Emma Lamm, the daughter of a wealthy family with useful contacts. Most of his busy career was spent in the cultural capitols of Europe and the United States, although he always spent the summer in his hometown.

Zorn made his mark with wonderful portraits of the rich and powerful (he painted portraits of 3 presidents). My interest in Zorn is his handling of light and water. 

 

 

 

LIGHT ON FACES

This portrait of fellow painter Bruno Liljefors might seem spookily wrong, but it catches the strong reflected light coming from a field of snow to the left of Liljefors; something I experienced growing up in Minnesota.

These two portraits use a more conventional light coming from the right. Most traditional portraits use a light coming from over the viewer’s shoulder (“Beaux Art”).

Above are a couple variations of light that leaves the subject’s face in partial shadow, a form of “Saarinen Light”. Zorn was quite adventurous with modeling a subject’s face in middle value shadow.

This cigarette girl in “up” lighting illustrates Zorn’s skill in using an extreme light in a complimentary way (enhancing her beauty).

Zorn’s self-portrait captures not only the complex light of two light sources, but does it with the unforgiving technique of etching.

 

 

 

LIGHT AND BUILDINGS

Zorn painted surprisingly few views of buildings or cities. He graduated with a degree in perspective and anatomy, but I could not find any example of perspective layout in his drawings (The paintings do not however, show any blatant mistakes).

It seems that Zorn saw the built environment as scenery; there to “look” right and serve as support to the people in the painting. The paintings above exemplify this, a foggy London (Ambient light) and dancing in a farm village (Dusk lighting).

Interior views can be more exacting regarding perspective. This view of women baking shows that Zorn understands perspective. The light is straightforward except for the woman a far left who is lit by both the daylight on the right and the red oven on the left.

Curiously, Zorn seemed to have a preference for unusual viewpoints which is reflected in the assumed vanishing points at the top of the two paintings above. Note also that he is playing with multiple light sources, the second painting showing the color change between daylight and firelight.

These paintings, one of an informal rural dance, and the other a formal society affair, show Zorn’s love of contrasting light effects and color. They also represent the two worlds that he moved between most of his life; the simple farming community and the sophisticated urban world of social elites.

This self portrait uses conventional lighting for what could have been a conventional portrait. The mostly obscured model in the background sets up a tension which makes this painting so fascinating.

 

 

 

LIGHT AND WATER

The combination of light and water is one of the most difficult things to draw or paint. Zorn 

mastered water's translucency and movement, perhaps because he spent much of his student 

years in Stockholm, a city surrounded by inlets, lakes and rivers.

He uses the simplest of means to capture reflection, refraction, transparency and color in any situation. The result is always a fascinating and mysterious composition that draws the viewer into a closer exploration of the paint on paper or canvas.

A preliminary color sketch. Note: Zorn was very traditional in the extensive research, sketching, value studies, color studies and refining that went into what seems a spontaneous painting.

The final.

And detail. Amazing illusion of the play of light on the water surface.

 

 

 

Now I don’t expect architectural illustrators to paint like Zorn, but as inspiration he is worth checking out.

 

 

 

 

For a short bio with lots of images…

https://mydailyartdisplay.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/anders-zorn-part-1-the-early-years/

 

For a detailed biography…

http://www.artgraphica.net/free-art-lessons/anders-zorn-oil-painter/anders-zorn-oil-painter.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Cheating, Copying & Learning

I just read a review of a new book, Caveat Emptor by Ken Perenyi.  Perenyi was a talented fine art forger, who went legit, and thanks to the statute of limitations, is telling all.  The book sounds like a wonderful read, and Mr. Perenyi sounds like a technical genius, but I’d like to go off on a tangent (as I always do). 

“Good artists borrow, great artists steal” –Pablo Picasso (possibly)

“If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants.” – Sir Isaac Newton

Forgery is wrong, because you are attributing your work to a famous artist so as to cheat a buyer.  That the buyer wants the painting only for the name is silly, but that is the way the game is played these days.  In fact people sometimes seem to want to be lied to.  In the field of antique armor a good story regarding the history of a suit of armor (read lie) normally makes the buyer pay more and leave happier. 

 

Copying on the other hand, is good, because it makes the artist follow closely the master’s work, and thereby learn and assimilate the master’s genius.  That the copy could conceivably be sold as the original is, shall we say “caveat emptor” territory.  Further, the mere act of copying does not guarantee that you will become the master you are copying; genius and mastery are two separate things, as are technique and artistry.

Cheating is wrong, but, in the arts is an acceptable business.  I don’t want to get into the morality or legality of the “extreme” copying otherwise known as forgery.  I do want to discuss and illustrate the artistic cheating that starts via copying. 

To learn from another is part of our human makeup.  I have never met a masterful professional who was unwilling to give a student advice.  And we all, no matter how old and experienced, can learn something new by just looking around.  The following images are examples of my own “copy-learning”.

House El Even Odd by Peter Eisenman

When I was in architecture school all of the students in my class fell in love with isometric and axonometric drawings.  They were the cheap and easy alternatives to creating an aerial perspective or a model.  Some years after graduating, the isometric was being used to generate abstract art that furnished little or no practical information.  I took the elegant abstraction idea and produced the following drawing of a project on the boards at the time. 

Occasionally I play with oils, copying some painting I find intriguing.  Below is a portrait by Anders Zorn which caught my eye.  Zorn (1860 to 1920) was a Swedish artist with an amazingly sure hand, and a wonderful eye for color. 

The copy is small and crude, but was a good lesson in color and the difficulty in producing seemingly simple effects.

Below is another painting whose color combination was amazing to me.  It is a preliminary painting of the White Rabbit from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Disney.

Again, I found reproducing the effect was harder than I expected.  Since I did not have access to the original I could not be sure of the media used.  Whatever it was, my copy was oil on canvas.

One of my favorite artists is John Stobart, who specializes in marine subjects, ships and harbor scenes.  He is especially good at moon light views of 19^th century harbors such as the painting below. 

Long Wharf by Moolight in 1865

I seem to have captured the subtle effects in this oil sketch; at least it worked better than Zorn or the White Rabbit.  Perhaps the success is due to my interest in architecture and landscape subjects, as well as my love of artificial lighting and unusual times of the day.  At any rate it was fun doing this one, and I learned a lot.  Perhaps the take-away is to concentrate on subjects that interest you.

Below is a watercolor featuring a dull red-orange spot in a winter landscape.  (There seems to be an unintended pattern going on here; how to handle red perhaps?)  The rule breaking decision to place the horizon at midpoint peeked my interest .

Winter Valley by P. Austin

I tried simplifying this painting on my computer tablet.  I found matching color was easier, and the final art appears more exact due to the elimination of the scanning process.  Since my interest was in the unusual composition I kept the copy fairly loose.

The following rendering by Jane Grealy is both an accurate view and an abstract composition…

Business Facility Building by Peddle Thorpe

…which I tried to reduce to its basic components. 

This famous view of Rockefeller Center by John Wenrich has always fascinated me.  Wenrich was a watercolorist from Rochester, New York, who did renderings of many Manhattan high-rise towers in the 1930’s.  He was a contemporary of Hugh Ferriss, but had a completely different process to get similarly dramatic results.

The following rendering of the Port Authority building in New York City does not reproduce the light conditions of the Wenrich painting, but does try to emulate the effect of rear lighting, and dark on light composition.

Edward Redfield’s view of lower New York, circa 1910 has a romantic palette that I loved at first sight.  The sense of mystery and energy are something I attempt to capture in my own renderings.

This sketch of a proposed tower in Tampa by Cesar Pelli, copies the Redfield palette and reinterprets it in a vertical composition.  It is a good example of copying in the best sense: learning by reapplying an idea in a new context, format or style.

So go ahead and copy.  Just don't sell under the original artist's name... or wait 10 years before admitting it (per Mr. Perenyi's lead).