Learning to Draw

Nguyen Phan Chanh "Learning to Draw" Ink and Gouache on Silk mounted to board 

Nguyen Phan Chanh (1892-1984) was born in a rural village in Ha Tinh province (Nghë Tinh) in Vietnam.  He was raised in a family of Confucian scholars and at first intended to follow in the family footsteps, spending his young school years practicing calligraphy and drawing and studying traditional Chinese literature in order to pass the qualifying national exams. However, these exams, were abolished right before young Chanh was due to sit them. Instead he worked as a calligrapher and teacher for many years, and his mother sold his drawings in the local market. When word came of a newly established art school, the Ècole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de L’Indochine, now known as Vietnam University of Fine Arts, Chanh immediately applied. His application was successful despite the fact that he was at least a decade older than most of his classmates, and also came from a rural area (considered at that time a grave cultural disadvantage.) It is said that at school Chanh struggled with Western-style oil painting, but he had a natural and immediate feel for silk painting, a technique which uses ink, dye and gouache on stretched silk. After winning a painting prize in Paris in 1931 he went on to build a career as a teacher, eventually becoming an esteemed professor at his alma mater, Vietnam University of the Fine Arts.

Chanh was much praised for his National feeling. His daughter Nguyet Tu recalled, "My father's life is closely attached to rural Vietnam. His memories of the Vietnamese countryside are plentiful. If you see my father's work you will realize he's a painter of rural girls." ;-) It is true that almost all of his work concentrated on scenes of village life, and specifically on young women performing everyday tasks. He depicted his subjects in their ordinary activities with a kind of elegant, calm, reserve. His style employed a unique blend of simplification and stylization combined with a very Western observation-based verisimilitude. These lines from his diary seem to sum up his approach: "Going out painting at dawn, I usually walked along rivers and canals. Once, I passed by a girl washing vegetables at the water's edge, her white shirt and black trousers only half-glimpsed in the morning mist. It was dreamlike and really beautiful. And I always like misty, dreamlike and poetic scenes."

Nguyen Phan Chanh became one of the most significant painters of Vietnamese modern art. When he passed away in 1984, his contribution to the artistic heritage of Vietnam was posthumously recognized with the highest award given to artists by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: the Ho Chi Minh Prize in Literature and Art.

The Little Woman

Martha Miller "The Little Woman" 1984  Private Collection

Maine-based artist Martha Miller attempts to dig down into the archetypal characteristics of her portrait subjects, using whatever means she deems most helpful, often including in the work certain telling details of the individual's surroundings and activities. In her engaging self-portrait, "the Little Woman", Miller has painted herself reflected in the shiny metal side of an old-school style iron, surrounded both by art supplies and domestic equipment; we see a tube of paint and also a glowingly in-use toaster, perched on the left. Miller recounts: "I did this self portrait in a painting class at USM in Gorham, Maine, in the fall of 1984 when I was 30. I was an at home Mom with 5 young children, aged 10 and under, desperate to paint and starved for time to create art." Like many artists who work at home and care for children and/or elders, Miller squeezed her art work in when she could and just never stopped. The title is ironically endearing, symbolizing how the artist's busy domestic life was necessarily diminishing yet clearly not extinguishing her artistic fire.

A mother of 5, grandmother of 5, and professor through Continuing Studies at Maine College of Art, Miller has consistently shown her work over the years in such venues as the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland. Her website can be seen at: www.marthamiller.com

The Amazing Ms. Anguissola!

Sofonisba Anguissola "Self-Portrait Painting a Devotional Panel" 1556 Łańcut Palace, Poland

Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625) was an Italian High Renaissance painter whose ground-breaking career helped pave the way for other women artists. Born in Cremona, Italy to a wealthy, progressive-minded, family, she and her five sisters were all educated in many diverse subjects including Latin, philosophy and art. Apparently all the sisters were artistically talented, but Sofonisba and her sister Elena eventually became apprentices to local artists Bernardino Campi and Bernardino Gatti. The Anguissola sisters' apprenticeships set a precedent for other women to be accepted as students of art. Elena eventually abandoned painting to become a nun, but Sofanisba Anguissola pursued her career as an artist, with the support and encouragement of her father and her teachers. She traveled to Rome where she met many of the leading lights of the day, including Michelangelo (with whom she famously traded sketches) and Vasari, considered the Father of Art History. Vasari included her in his influential book of 1550 Lives of the Artists in which he said of her, "Anguissola has shown greater application and better grace than any other woman of our age in her endeavors at drawing; she has thus succeeded not only in drawing, coloring and painting from nature, and copying excellently from others, but by herself has created rare and very beautiful paintings."

In 1559 Anguissola was invited to join the Spanish Royal Court in Madrid.  She spent the next fourteen years as a court painter and was also a Lady-in-Waiting and painting instructor for Élisabeth de Valois, Philip II of Spain’s third wife, with whom she developed a close friendship. She painted formal portraits of the Spanish nobility and also informal scenes of their lives, many of which now hang in the Prado Museum. After the death of Queen Élisabeth, Philip II arranged for Anguissola to marry a Sicilian nobleman Fabrizio Moncada Pignatelli, son of the Prince of Paterno, Viceroy of Sicily, out of respect for her friendship with his wife. Fabrizio was said to be supportive of her painting. Anguissola received a royal pension of 100 ducats that enabled her to continue working and tutoring would-be painters. Her private fortune also went to supporting her family back in Italy. After eight years with the Spanish court, Anguissola and her husband left Spain with the king's permission. The couple settled in Palermo, where Anguissola's husband died in 1579.

She married again two years later, a ship's captain she'd met while traveling to Genoa by sea, and was happily married for the second time for forty-five years. While she had no children of her own she was a fond aunt and by all accounts had a happy relationship with her husband's son by a previous marriage. Her fame as an artist continued to grow, though in her very last years she developed eye trouble (probably cataracts) that hindered her art production. When that happened she turned to collecting the work of young artists, encouraging others as a way of "paying it forward." When she was age ninety, the great Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck traveled to visit her in Palermo, and painted her portrait. He remarked that she was still mentally quite sharp despite her great age, and they enjoyed talking shop. She died at age 93. Her doting husband placed an inscription on her tomb a few years later that read in part, "To Sofonisba, my wife, who is recorded among the illustrious women of the world, outstanding in portraying the images of man. Orazio Lomellino, in sorrow for the loss of his great love...dedicated this little tribute to such a great woman."

Painting and Poetry

Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso "Self-Portrait, Painting and Poetry" 2014

Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso is a wonderfully inventive and lyrical painter. This piece's very direct gaze combined with the gold leafing caught my eye, I asked the artist about the piece's title, which also intrigued me. Delosso responded, "If you look carefully you will notice the word "poesia" collaged into the background behind my head, copied from an an original poem written by my great grandfather. I believe the poem was written about 1929. I wanted to create tension between my brush and the written word: instead of writing I am using my brush the same way a poet uses his or her pencil." Delosso loves writing, and her abundant artistic energy comes to her at least partially through natural inheritance. Her father was a painter and not only was her great-grandfather a poet, but so was one of her grandmothers, and one of her cousins, Karina Galvez, is also a poet, of international recognition. 

Dellosso (b.1968) is a native New Yorker, and she studied her craft at several of that city's finest schools including NYU, the School of Visual Arts, The Art Students' League and the National Academy. She has won numerous awards and honors and is represented by the Harmon-Meek Gallery in Naples, FL. The artist's website is: www.gabrieladellosso.com

Self-Expression

Mia Robinson "Self-Expression Using iPad" 2011 digital image

Mia Robinson (b.1979) is one of the growing number of artists using digital apps as a way of creating their artwork. This lively piece was created using an iPad, a finger and a mirror! It's a creative twist on the ubiquitous selfie. Robinson, currently based in  Washington, D.C., has exhibited her work internationally. Her website can be found here.

The Multi-Talented Solange Legendre

Solange Legendre  "Self Portrait" 1953 Private Collection

Solange Legendre (1929-2004) was born in Montréal, Canada. Passionately interested in art from an early age, she attended the École des beaux-arts de Montréal from 1947-1952, working most notably with painter Stanley Cosgrove. (You can see the Cosgrove influence in her self-portrait!) She received a study and travel grant from the Québec government which helped fund several years of study in Paris, France, where she lived and worked 1952-1955. While in Paris she studied painting and printmaking, but also branched out into set and costume design, taking classes at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. This course of study was to form the basis of her subsequent career.

On her return to Montréal Legendre was quickly recruited by the Radio-Canada theatrical costume department. Over the course of her long career she worked for numerous prestigious theatre companies and won several national design awards. She was a gifted teacher as well, and taught in well-known institutions including the Conservatoire d’art dramatique, the National Theatre School, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. A collection of her personal papers is held at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. 

Liotard's Ladies

Jean-Étienne Liotard "Portrait of Archduchess Maria-Christina of Austria" 1762  Black chalk, red chalk, graphite pencil and watercolor glazes  Museum of Art and History, Geneva 

This charming informal portrait depicts the twenty-year-old Archduchess Maria-Christina of Austria (1742-1798) who was known as Mimi to her friends and family. She was the fifth child and fourth daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa, and was reputed to be a talented and enthusiastic amateur artist. We see her here painting in watercolors, while being painted herself. 

Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789) was born in Switzerland, where he first trained as a miniaturist. Perhaps through the early effort of working on a very small scale he mastered an extraordinary fineness of application that later became the hallmark of his pastel style. Always primarily interested in the human face and figure he moved to Paris, where he studied with prominent portrait painters Jean Baptiste Massé and François Lemoyne.

Despite his skill and industry he was rejected by the Académie Royale. Disappointed, he left France for Italy where he obtained numerous portrait commissions including the patronage of Pope Clement XII and various Cardinals. Liotard, who apparently was an adventurous soul, then embarked on a journey throughout the Mediterranean region, eventually settling in Constantinople for four years. Fascinated by the native dress and customs of his temporary home he grew a long beard and began dressing as a Turk, earning himself the nickname of "the Turkish painter." While in Constantinople, he painted portraits of members of the British colony living there as well as drawing and painting his Turkish neighbors and servants. 

For the remainder of his life, Liotard traveled throughout Europe drawing and painting portraits, usually in pastels, among the highest echelons of the European aristocracy. He gained an international reputation for his skill in achieving an almost uncannily accurate likeness of his sitters. While he is mainly known as one of the greatest pastel artists of all time he also worked with a high degree of skill in other mediums including enamels, copper engraving, glass painting and watercolor.  At the age of seventy-nine, he published a treatise on the principles of painting, in which he explained his belief that painting is and should be a mirror of nature. 

Jean-Étienne Liotard "Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt" 1745 medium and location unknown

Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt (1723-1783), also known as Karoline Luise von Baden, was one of the most learned and influential women of her generation. She was a talented amateur musician, scientist and artist and a discerning art collector whose extensive collections became the foundation of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe and the Karlsruhe Museum of Natural Science. She spoke five languages and corresponded with most of the great intellectuals of her day. Despite her position as a member of the nobility she successfully and profitably managed a soap and candle factory which substantially augmented her income (and probably supported her collecting habit!)  She was about seventeen years old when she posed for this portrait by Liotard, and her lively inquiring intellect is evident in the bright glance she directs out at the artist as she herself sits working at her easel.It's fun to think that she might be painting Liotard's portrait while he painted hers!