An art movement is a niche or art style with a specific and common goal or philosophy. An art movement is followed by a set of artists for a period that may span months, years, and sometimes decades. However, the best days of an art movement usually get to be within a few years, and it is within this period that the movement can reach its climax.
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There have been many different art movements over the past few centuries that have defined and redefined what exactly art is and can be. Each movement had a distinct style that made it unique in its appearance and how it depicted the art. Some of the most famous art movements include Expressionism, Impressionism, Fauvism, Renaissance, Neo-classicism, Cubism, Supremalism, and many others.
This article will examine art portraits and some famous portrait paintings painted in some of these art movements. These paintings will reveal some of the essential differences between art styles. We will now look through some of the most famous portraits of a few art movements and follow closely.
Renaissance Movement – Mona Lisa By Leonardo Da Vinci
“Mona Lisa” by Da Vinci is one of the most famous portrait paintings in the world. Da Vinci was the most popular artist of the Renaissance period, and this renowned portrait painting is the most reckoned with amidst a long line of classic works that have outlasted him.
The woman is seated erect and faces aside while in a chair, her face and chest tilted slightly towards the observer, a stance inspired by the ‘pyramid’ painting depicting a sitting Madonna. She rests her left arm comfortably on the chair’s armrest, and her right arm, which is draped across her front, holds her left arm. The armrest and her slightly defensive position give a separation between sitter and observer.
Utilizing its smoky blues and no strongly outlined vanishing point, Da Vinci created the background scenery behind the sitter with aerial perspective. Although the details indicate an apparent imbalance between the (upper) mountainous horizon to the right and the (lower) flatlands reaching away to the left, it gives the composition substantial depth. This imbalance enhances the picture’s slightly strange feel.
Leonardo’s impact on oil painting, specifically his mastery of sfumato, is exemplified by the Mona Lisa. This painting method uses very slight gradations in tone to create a smooth transition between colors. Leonardo’s use of sfumato may be seen throughout the work, but it’s especially noticeable in the mild contouring of the subject’s face, especially around the eyes and mouth. The Mona Lisa image conveys a sense of massive peace, amplified by a sense of mystery.
Fauvism Movement – Woman With A Hat By Henri Matisse
This movement was characterized by the use of bright colors and rough brushstrokes. It was greatly influenced by legendary artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne. Artists captured some famous portrait paintings in this movement, and our subject of discussion in this section is a 1905 painting by Henri Matisse.
Henri Matisse was a protagonist of the movement and a French painter, draftsman, and sculptor. From 1900 to 1910, he met several other painters and created countless masterpieces, though he kept painting for about 50 years even after the movement ended. His paintings received critical recognition for his expressive usage of colors and emotion, and his work is widely regarded as a significant influence on twentieth-century art.
Matisse’s wife, Amélie, is portrayed as a woman with a Hat. Amélie is wearing a beautiful dress with an ornate hat on her head. In addition, she carries a fan in her gloved hand in the painting, which features various characteristics typical of French bourgeoisie society.
The picture represented the artist’s transition from Impressionism’s more natural colors to Fauvism’s bright, clashing tones. The brushstrokes are noticeably rougher than in his earlier works, adding to the work’s ‘wild’ quality and surprising spectators.
Impressionism – Olympia By Edouard Manet
Manet is often known as the father of Impressionism, which he was reluctant to accept. Also, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas are two other well-known Impressionist painters. Olympia, painted in 1863, happened to be one very controversial painting by Manet. It is a work that he hid away for a year and a half before choosing to unveil it because he knew how much controversy it would generate.
A Parisian prostitute lies naked on a bed with her left hand concealing her modesty in the picture. A servant stands behind her, carrying many flowers, presumably delivered by a happy customer. A black cat with its tail lifted is located on the far right.
Because the painting used large brushstrokes, the establishment could have chastised it. The courtesan’s unabashed and blatant stare, however, made a stir. The fury was tinged with hypocrisy: prostitution was rampant in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century.
Expressionism – The Scream By Edvard Munch
In the early twentieth century, some of today’s most distinctive features of visual art can be traced back to a group of painters and artists in Central Europe, especially Germany, from the color palette and loose brushwork evident in modern figurative painting to the instinctive marks of abstract expressionism. Their utilization of colors, mark-making, and the subject matter set the path for some famous artists of the previous century.
Even if it is regarded as a predecessor of expressionism artworks, “The Scream” is probably the most memorable expressionist painting. Munch, a Danish painter, remembers strolling across a bridge in Norway when he seemingly caught the idea.
His work reflects the individual’s angst and conflict with nature and existence and is autobiographical but indicative of a collective mood at the beginning of the century.
Cubism Movement – Girl Before A Mirror By Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso is widely viewed as the leader of the Cubism movement, and his legacy speaks for itself in this style of painting. Picasso’s wife represents the girl in this masterpiece, and it is interpreted to be a depiction of a girl and her beloved.
The observer on the left and the reflection on the right side are two images in The Girl Before a Mirror (right). The portrait is indeed one individual: dark and light, internal and external, sound and (perhaps) bad, possibly life and death, because the observer possesses the inner image as her own.
Picasso was a transformative artist because he began the twentieth century by challenging Western art history’s stuffy and linear nature. Instead, it provided us with new spaces to be subjective and lighthearted, step across historical contexts, and mix and explore various media and art styles.
In a lifetime of work, most dedicated artists are fortunate to open even a single new point of view. For all of us, Picasso opened up new worlds of potential.
The Bottom Line
From century to century, art has evolved so much until this point and our current definition of modern art. Portraits are a mainstay in any art form or style, and the paintings and art portraits described above are some of the most popular in their different art movements.