Research point 2 Looking at faces 2 Paintings conveying a distinctive mood or atmosphere

Picasso's blue paintings: Pablo Picasso's blue period lasted about four years - from 1901- 04. But what triggered it? Partly, it is believed, that the suicide of his closest friend Carles Casagemas was a major factor.

Jaime Sabartes, a close friend at the time, wrote:“Picasso believed Art to the son of Sadness and Suffering… that sadness lent itself to meditation and that suffering was fundamental to life… If we demand sincerity of an artist, we must remember that sincerity is not to be found outside the realm of grief.”

In these moving paintings, he portrayed sad, destitute people. The colour blue is all pervading. It is a very subdued and cold blue. He used it very effectively to exude a mood of despair and hopelessness. These people were regarded as outcasts of society - beggars, itinerants, prostitutes, circus people, disabled people and out of work actors. The figures wear dark sombre clothing contrasting with the icy paleness of their skin tones. Their mood reflects Picasso's own poor and lonely circumstances at the time - it is ironic that these are some of his most popular works now.
Drunk Woman is Tired:
http://uploads1.wikiart.org/images/pablo-picasso/drunk-woman-is-tired-1902.jpg!Large.jpg
Seller of Gulls:
http://uploads4.wikiart.org/images/pablo-picasso/seller-of-gul.jpg!HD.jpg

The potato eaters 1885
oil on canvas,
82cm x 114 cm,
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Van Gogh - The Potato Eaters 1885 and  Peasant woman cooking by a fire 1885:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/436531
. He has depicted these people as simple and unpretentious. Heavy contours emphasize the boney hands and faces to show they work on the land and indicate that they are the very hand that helped to put the food on their plates. It is almost as though he could feel the contours as he was painting them or was carving them out from wood. This reinforces the weariness of each person. The steam rising from the platter and the lamplight help to soften the rough hewn features of the painting.

It really encapsulates the hard labour involved to earn their food.
The rather sombre feeling is captured wonderfully also by the contrasting light
and deep shadows in earth tones.


Rembrandt - Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer c1653
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_013.jpg
This contains much more background detail than many of his usual head and shoulder portraits. It is said to shows the philosopher looking weary and deferring to the bust of the humble Homer.
It is possible to zoom in very closely and check the fine detail, the quality of this image on wikipedia is so good. The layers of glazing are quite visible - I can see the undulating depths of the dark blues and umbers in the background and there is a beautiful misty quality about the whole image, characteristic of Rembrandt's paintings. The two faces are the main focal points as they are the most brightly illuminated. The illusion is one of a spotlight on the faces. This is chiaroscuro, an effect typically characteristic of Rembrandt's work.The surrounding background areas particularly, are very dark.  as the overall light effect is quite soft when compared to, for example the dramatic contrasts of Carravaggio. Rembrandt's painting here, to me exudes an air of understanding, gentleness and quiet contemplation.

Van Gogh, the Fauvists and Expressionists: 

Both the Fauvist and German Expressionist painters were heavily influenced by Van Gogh in the use of bright contrasting colours and thick impasto brushwork and he is noted for introducing this method.
He tried to explain to his brother, Theo: "Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily, in order to express myself forcibly. ...
Many in the art world of the time were very critical of  the work of Van Gogh, the Fauvists and Expressionists and even regarded some of it as grotesque. How times have changed....
Amongst members of the Fauvist movement were of course Matisse and Derain, also Charles Chamoin, Louis de Vlaminck, Georges Roualt and Raoul Dufy.
The work of Georges Roualt, who was also an Expressionist,  usually consisted of glowing colour and heavy black contours, probably influenced by his earlier apprenticeship as a glass painter and restorer. Most of his subjects have a haunted look.
The work of both Fauvists and German Expressionists were influenced by primitive art and would typically be dominated by flat unbroken areas of saturated colour and simplified forms. They used colour in portraits in an experimental way, creating their own equivalent of traditional skin tones in bright saturated mostly complementary colours. The German Expresssionists also used colour to evoke emotions with their dramatic, powerful colours, dynamic compositions. They were divided into two groups: Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) in Munich. Wassily Kandinsky was a member. and De Brucke (The Bridge) based in Dresden and Berlin.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner often depicted uncomfortable looking figures in movement. His outlook that powerful destructive forces were behind western civilisation affected his techniques.
http://www.wikiart.org/en/ernst-ludwig-kirchner/street

In this landscape it is possible to get a real close up view of the brushwork, while not impasto, it has been applied very freely.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/impressionist-modernt-art-evening-sale-l12002/lot.37.html
In another one he appears to have used sgraffito, impasto and scraped back some of the paint to expose the texture of the canvas here and there.
http://lifeodyssey.net/art-kirchner-expressionism/

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff  used intense thick  impasto brushwork and strong colour in his early paintings. In this self portrait, the colours are unmixed, yet work effectively as skin tones. Although the colours used here are muted, in spite of that they are strong and mostly unrealistic. The detail shows just how thickly he applied the paint:

Detail of brushwork

http://www.germanculture.com.ua/december/dec1.htm
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schmidt-rottluff-woman-with-a-bag-n05953