Van Dyck Exhibition Report

Last Saturday I visited the exhibition of Anthony Van Dyck (Flemish/English 1599-1641) at the Frick Collection in New York.

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Self-Portrait, ca. 1613–15
Oil on panel Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna

With approximately 100 works on view, Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture is the most comprehensive exhibition ever to focus on his portraiture, and the largest exhibition of his work in the US in more than 20 years.

Van Dyck was just a teenager when he entered the studio of Peter Paul Rubens. Several of the prodigy's self-portraits are included in the exhibition.

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Lady Anne Carey,
Later Viscountess Claneboye and Countess of Clanbrassil,
ca. 1636 Oil on canvas The Frick Collection;
Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb

He absorbed the Rubens training into his pores and combined it with an admiration for Titian that he picked up from time spent in Italy. Those influences fused into an elegant style of portraiture that defined the look of portrait painting in England for more than 250 years.

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Portrait Study of Nicholas Lanier,
ca. 1628 Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on blue paper
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; Lady Murray of Henderland
gift 1860 as a memorial of her husband, Lord Murray of Henderland

The exhibition includes many of his etched and engraved portraits, tiny grisaille likenesses, and a variety of small drawings.

Van Dyck would typically do a chalk drawing of the full figure of the subject to capture their characteristic posture and the throw of the drapery. On those preliminary drawings, the face was only summarily indicated.

Source: WSJ

The drawings show tremendous sensitivity and descriptive ability. They never resort to mindless repetitive crosshatching, and giving no evidence of extensive construction lines, nor is there any sense if hurry or randomness. It's as if he just took his time and got it right the first time.

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Portrait Study of a Man, Facing Right (detail),
ca. 1634 Oil on canvas, with paper extensions along the four sides Private collection 

His practice when painting portraits was to schedule a one- or two-hour session for each person and to paint the face on the final canvas. If the canvas was too big, such as in a big group portrait, he would paint separate oil head studies.

After the hour was up he would dismiss that person and bring in another portrait subject. Between sessions, an assistant would wash his brushes and bring him a fresh palette of paints. By working simultaneously on several portraits, he kept a fresh eye on each.

When it came to the final painting, the master generally only painted the heads. Specialists in his studio painted the costumes, backgrounds, and sometimes the hands. Stand-ins modeled for the figure and the hands.

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Hendrick van Steenwijck the Younger (detail),
ca. 1632−38 Black chalk, gray wash; incised for transfer Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

The catalogue for the show, Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture, is excellent, with numerous closeups and considerable scholarship about his process, all based on primary sources and current research.

Exhibition tips:
• It's OK to sketch in the show, provided you work in a small pad with pencil.
• No photography in the exhibition rooms, and no audio zombies.
• The drawing rooms thoughtfully provide magnifying glasses, so you can get a close look.
• Avoid Sundays, the guards advised me. Because the tickets are free, the crowds are thick.
• The standing portraits are very tall and hung very high. Because of the distance and the inevitable glare, it can be hard to see the faces in the full length portraits, so it might be a good idea to bring some opera glasses.
• There's no café, but you can bring a bag lunch and eat it in Central Park, or find coffee three blocks east at Lexington Ave.
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Catalogue: Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture
The exhibition Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture will be on view through June 5,
Survey the exhibition in expandable thumbnails at their Visual index
Video lecture by Stijn Alsteens: "Drawing for Portraits"
Previous post: Van Dyck Exhibition in New York

Van Dyck Exhibition at the Frick

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
Self-Portrait, ca. 1620–21
 oil/canvas 47 1/8 × 34 5/8 in. (119.7 × 87.9 cm)

A major exhibition of the portrait art of Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) has opened at the Frick collection in New York. The exhibition contains about 100 drawings and paintings, making it the largest US exhibition of his work in over 20 years.

The show includes many of his supremely elegant finished portraits from Italy, France, Flanders, and England. But it also delves into his sketches and drawings, with considerable scholarship devoted to his preparatory sketches and working methods.

Anthony Van Dyck Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1640
29 7/8 × 23 1/4 in. (75.9 × 59.1 cm)
Speed Art Museum

About the portrait above, for example, the curators note:

"The treatment of the face is highly finished and refined, but the woman’s bust and hand await finishing glazes, and there are extensive areas of unpainted canvas that suggest a shawl wrapped around her body. As with many other works from his London studio, Van Dyck must have painted his sitter’s face from life, resulting in a halo still visible around her head. A workshop assistant would probably have completed the painting of the background and draperies before Van Dyck applied a few final touches."

For larger and more complex group portraits, Van Dyck painted individual studies from life. This one was only rediscovered in 2000 during an episode of Antiques Roadshow.

Van Dyck, drawing of Sebastiaan Vrancx, ca. 1628–31
 7 x 10 inches, black chalk

The show includes his informal sketches of fellow artists, which conveys the spirit of camaraderie that must have prevailed among working artists. Sebastiaan Vrancx was known for his landscapes and battle scenes, as well as being a poet, playwright, and book illustrator.
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Catalogue: Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture
Online:  Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture, March 2, 2016 to June 5, 2016
Survey the exhibition in expandable thumbnails at their Visual index
Video lecture by Stijn Alsteens: "Drawing for Portraits"

Samson and Delilah

The artists of the past were masters of visual storytelling. But which one is your favorite when it comes to Samson and Delilah?

In the famous story from Judges 16, Samson lets his wife Delilah know the secret of his God-given strength. If anyone cuts off his hair, he will lose his power. Delilah leaks the secret to Samson’s enemies, the Philistines. As Samson sleeps, Delilah—or one of her servants—cuts his seven locks. The Philistines arrive to bind him and put out his eyes.

Let’s look at how six different artists interpret the tragic tale.

Anthony Van Dyck shows Samson sleeping heavily on his wife’s fine dress as her servant closes in with the scissors. (Van Dyck 1)

Van Dyck’s alternate version shows Samson wakened to the reality of his betrayal as the cords of the Philistines tighten round him. (Van Dyck 2)

Matthias Stom gives Delilah the scissors. His picture is a psychological study, with a low hidden light source adding to the mystery and intrigue.

Court displays Samson awake. His muscle-bound body is parallel to the picture plane. Each of his antagonists grasps him at a different point. He himself reaches back to find his hair has been cut off.

Rembrandt shows Delilah with Samson asleep in her lap. She turns back to the man with the shears, who is spotlit behind her.

Peter Paul Rubens painting gives emphasis to the heavily muscled back and arm of Samson draped across Delilah as her servant delicately does his deed.

Solomon Solomon creates a volcano of energy by uniting three figures into a single shape. Delilah waves the lock of hair with cruel glee as Samson writhes against his captors.
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UPDATE: I conducted a blog poll to see which was the readers' favorite and the winner was Solomon Solomon with 60 votes. The next highest vote-getter was the Matthias Stom (39 votes). The best known old masters: Rubens (13), Van Dyck 2 (11), and Rembrandt (6) were far behind, but as some of you pointed out, I overlooked an important Rembrandt, "The Blinding of Samson," link.

Van Dyck’s Little Masterpiece

Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) was so proud of his portrait of Cornelius Van der Geest that he carried it around with him throughout his career as an example of his abilities. He did the painting before he was 20 years old.


The tonal organization is very simple, aided by the soft frontal lighting. The plane of the forehead and the front plane of the nose have the highest tonal value. The cheeks and the rest of the face are slightly darker.

Allowing the forehead to shine as the highest value in a portrait suggests a person with spirituality or intellect. It gives the face a generous, luminous quality.

According to Royal Academy instructor Solomon J. Solomon (writing about a century ago), the painting was made with the following steps*:
1. A brown grisaille, keeping the shadows warm.
2. Loading of stiff white impasto in the forehead and the ruff.
3. When the impasto was completely dry, glazing the skin tones and lips. The glaze sank into the pits around the impastos, making them come forward even more. Translucency like this is almost impossible to achieve with an opaque alla prima handling. 


Note the softness in the eyes:
1. The edges of both the iris and the pupil are soft.
2. The eyelashes and eyebrows are understated. You don’t see individual hairs.
3. The highlights are very carefully placed. On the bottom eyelid, there’s a highlight on the edge of the lid and the moist area where the lid meets the eye.
4. Finish is not a matter of greater detail, but rather of more complete consideration.

Softness takes conscious, deliberate effort, and it’s often the mark of greatness. 

According to British academic master Solomon J. Solomon, “there is more to be learnt in the painting of flesh from this picture than from almost any other I know, so luminous is this masterpiece.”

The painting is 14.75 x 12.75 inches. It is at the National Gallery, London. Their website lets you zoom into it.
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* ADDENDUM. Note: a friend of the blog, who knows a lot more than I do about historical painting methods, sent me the following clarification, based on his research:

"I've one disagreement though. Your step by step list says that he did a brown grisaille, upon which he impastoed with plain white. Then, on top of the dry impasto he glazed down.

Generally, the evidence does not seem to support that as his usual procedure. Both the NG (London) Technical Bulletin #20 and the catalog from the 1990 exhibition in Washington (NG) show flesh cross sections which contain other pigments in addition to lead white, within the lead white layer.

Contemporary writings, written by those who purport to have known van Dyck also do not mention a brown grisaille followed by a white system as you have described. All list a dead color layer followed by a carnation color layer."  

Thanks for the insight!

Previously on GJ: Eye Highlights
Wikipedia on Anthony Van Dyck
National Gallery website
“Muddy Colors” blog post on eyes.

Solomon’s Book, Day 2

How the Book is Organized 
The Practice of Oil Painting is divided into two parts. In the first, Solomon provides a series of  seful exercises to help the student progress from charcoal drawings to full-color oils. Drawing upon his long experience as an instructor, he proposes remedies for common faults in student work. He makes a point of explaining the materials he uses at each stage, such as grounds, palettes, brushes, and paints, and he offers sound methods for achieving accurate measurements of lines and shapes in drawing, and precise relationships of values in painting.

The second section, “The Methods of the Masters,” comprises more than half of the book. It extends the practical advice of the first section by applying the same principles to the work of great artists of the past, such as Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Velázquez. He analyzes both the strengths and the shortcomings of composition in these works, but he leaves the usual iconographic interpretations to art historians. His is a tour by a working artist for other working artists.

The paintings he selects as examples come mainly from the collection of London’s National Gallery. The original editions of the book showed those works in black and white, but Dover's new edition includes a section with the old master works reproduced in color. 

Solomon’s approach to painting 
Solomon was a thorough and methodical craftsman, and he practiced what he preached. According to an eyewitness, he spent “an infinity of time over draughtsmanship and composition.”

Eternally dissatisfied, he painted, scraped off, and repainted key figures until they were right. He once destroyed a painting called "Sacred and Profane Love," even after it was accepted and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was uncompromising in his quest for accuracy of historical detail or realistic lighting. Once, to properly observe the effects of theatrical footlights on a portrait of the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell as “Paula Tanqueray,” he had a replica of the Saint James’s stage erected in his studio, complete with footlights. 

What Solomon taught in Oil Painting and Drawing was in some respects consistent with the tradition of academic instruction in Britain. Drawing instruction was based on careful observation of the figure, as well as the emulation of old masters and the study of Greek and Roman sculpture. The Elgin Marbles, removed from the Parthenon in the early 19th century, were available to art students of Solomon’s day. Together with other originals and casts they provided a standard of excellence for all figural work.

By observing classical sculpture, students learned not only to accurately measure proportions and to use tone to suggest three dimensional form, but they also came into contact with the ideals of classical art. Subjects for paintings sprang from the timeless stories of the Greek myths. Many of Solomon’s famous canvases were based on mythology: Niobe, Echo and Narcissus, Venus, and Judgment of Paris. He once said, “Art reached its highest expression in the hands of the Greeks. Their mythology, so rich in imagery, so inspiring for the artist, so beautiful from the aesthetic side, could not fail in the course of time, among a race so sensitive, to produce the wonders both of sculpture and architecture that are unsurpassed and unsurpassable.” 

At the same time, Solomon’s teaching methods were notable for their divergence from the practices current at the time in England.

A contemporary reviewer remarked on his “fine sense of drawing and harmonious colour, pitched, as a rule, in rather high keys, due no doubt to his French training.”

Instead of requiring the pupil to follow Solomon's own individual style, his strategy was to equip his students with universal scientific principles and practices that provided a basis by which an aspiring artist could pursue an individual vision. This flexibility and openness to varied styles was consistent with Solomon’s teacher Cabanel, who was said to resist fettering any temperaments or constraining any goals of dissimilar minds.

As Solomon says, “Many roads lead to Rome.”

Alla Prima versus Indirect Painting

Solomon’s British contemporaries Forbes and La Thangue also studied in Paris but they fell more heavily under the influence of the opaque, painterly manner of plein air work, an approach that Solomon refers to as “direct” or “à prima” painting, today more commonly called “alla prima” or “impressionist” handling. Although he was certainly capable of this method and sympathetic to it, he argued that in all but the most capable hands, it tends to lead to chalky, dead mixtures, particularly in skin tones. For his large-scale serious work, Solomon preferred the “prepared” or “indirect” painting method of Rubens, Van Dyck (below) or Titian rather than the bravura brushwork of Hals. 

This involved rendering the tones of the figure first in monochrome, and then bringing out the colors of the skin with semitransparent scumbles and glazes. In keeping with the preoccupation with aestheticism in his time, he refers several times to the “decorative” qualities of a painting, by which he means the abstract design, seen apart from the subject matter. 

He also acknowledges a method of painting commonly practiced at the École, where the figure is rendered to a finished effect from the top of the canvas to the bottom, area by area, a practice today often called “window shading.” For today’s students weighing the benefits of many different ways of painting, each of which shares a claim to be “academic,” his well reasoned insights into the pros and cons of each approach will be especially valuable. 

Tomorrow: Final thoughts on Solomon's book.

Order "The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing" signed from JamesGurney.com

Order "The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing" from Amazon
More about Solomon on the blog Underpaintings

Solomon Solomon on Wikipedia
Previous Post: Solomon's book, Day 1

Reconstructing a Face from a Single Image

A free online tool lets you create a 3D reconstruction of a face from a single image.

Van Dyck's Portrait of Cornelis Van Der Geest in 3D

You can input a single photo or a painting. After it processes and outputs, you can drag the 3D model around with your mouse and see it in a variety of angles.

3D Alfred E. Neuman, thanks MAD Magazine

It's fun to try it out on a familiar face that's usually seen only from one angle, like Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman.

The tool was created by computer vision scientists at the University of Nottingham using machine-learning software called a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). 

"Our CNN works with just a single 2D facial image, does not require accurate alignment nor establishes dense correspondence between images, works for arbitrary facial poses and expressions, and can be used to reconstruct the whole 3D facial geometry (including the non-visible parts of the face) bypassing the construction (during training) and fitting (during testing) of a 3D Morphable Model."
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(Free interactive tool) Face Reconstruction from a Single Image

(Scientific paper) Large Pose 3D Face Reconstruction from a Single Image via Direct Volumetric CNN Regression

Thanks, Geoff Charlewood

Old master drawing exhibit at Vassar College

The Vassar College's Frances Lehman Loeb Art Museum in Poughkeepsie, New York is currently presenting "A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum."

The exhibition shows fifty-seven rarely seen drawings dating from the late 15th through the 19th centuries. Artists include Vittore Carpaccio, Albrecht Dürer, Fra Bartolommeo, Federico Barocci, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck, François Boucher, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

The collection comes from the Crocker Art Museum in California. A scholarly catalog illustrates and explains the works.

Vassar College's art museum is in Poughkeepsie, New York. The exhibit will be up through December 11.

Exhibition checklist 

First-Hand Gleanings from Sargent

In his memoir, painter and sculptor Emil Fuchs said he asked John Singer Sargent for permission to paint in the master's presence in order to learn from him.

John Singer Sargent, portrait of Edwin Booth, detail, 1890

Sargent wasn't particularly verbal about his painting philosophy or his technique, but Fuchs was able to glean some helpful insights anyway.

"He never said much, but what he did say, one might do well to engrave upon the tablets of one's mind. One of the great man's teachings was the dominant importance of values over color. 'Color,' he said, 'is an inborn gift, but appreciation of value is merely a training of the eye which everyone ought to be able to acquire.' "

"Value in art, as everyone knows, simply means the relation of light to shade. Sargent referred to this idea over and over, and it occurred to me that perhaps he meant value not in pictures alone, but fundamentally in all the realms of life. His work demonstrates his ingrained belief in this. I can think of nobody who can see and render values with such delicate distinction as does Sargent."  

"His palette was to me a marvel. His enormous wealth of color he produces with a few simple hues, mostly earth colors — white, yellow ocher, light red or vermilion, burnt sienna, cobalt blue, emerald green and black. His is a rare skill in using and combining them." 

"Some mornings he would come in and, without saying much, would help me in painting a difficult passage from the model. While the direct way of painting appealed to him, he fully appreciated the more subtle methods, especially that of grisailles and glazing, by which many masters obtain their effects of brilliancy. This method, perhaps I should add, consists in painting first in black and white, and then laying on a thin film of transparent color."   

"Sargent's veneration for the work of the old masters was profound. But Velasquez and Franz Hals were the gods of his Pantheon. He copied both freely. Of Velasquez he had in his studio a facsimile of the dwarf Don Antonio el Ingles, and of Franz Hals several groups from his large pictures at Haarlem copied by himself. If my recollections of our discussions about artists are correct, Van Dyck seemed to appeal to him the least."

"About technique it was always difficult to make him express himself in words. Rather than explain a serious problem, he would take a brush and paint that piece and the difficulties would vanish under his touch. When I worked at his studio he offered me the free use of his colors and even his palette and brushes which lay about in profusion. Few artists can bring themselves to lend these objects without feeling it to be sacrilege."

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With Pencil, Brush, and Chisel by Emil Fuchs
Emil Fuchs on Wikipedia
John Singer Sargent on Wikipedia

Upcoming (and Ongoing) Exhibitions

There are several art museum exhibitions coming up in the next few months:

State of the Art: Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle at the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, February 9, 2013 – June 1, 2013.

This exhibition, curated by David Apatoff of the Illustration Art blog, surveys the state of American illustration in the century following Howard Pyle’s death in 1911. The show includes the work of Peter De Sève (above), Bernie Fuchs, Milton Glaser, Mort Drucker, Phil Hale, Sterling Hundley, John Cuneo, and Ralph Eggleston, representing the diverse fields of animated movies, digital art, caricature, magazine illustration and graphic design. 

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Edwardian Opulence: British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut USA February 28, 2013–Sunday, June 2, 2013.

The exhibition is a survey of the visual arts in Britain during the reign of King Edward VII (1901–10). It includes portraits by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, as well as diamond tiaras, ostrich-feather fans, an embroidered gown, Autochrome color photography, and period sound recordings from Yale's collection.

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Anders Zorn: A European Artist Seduces America, February 28-May 13, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts.

Twenty-four paintings are featured together with twenty-two drawings, photographs, letters, and gifts that Anders Zorn gave Isabella Gardner in 1894. The exhibition will be organized in five different segments, including “Zorn and Gardner,” “Society Portraits,” “In the City,” “Country Life,” and “Artist’s Studios.” Highlights include Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice (1894), Night Effect (1895), and The Ice Skater (1898).

John Singer Sargent Watercolors,

at the Brooklyn Museum (April 5 to July 28, 2013), then at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, (October 13, 2013- January 20, 2014). It will then travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The exhibit draws 93 watercolors from the holdings of both the Brooklyn Museum and the Boston collection. The exhibition will also present nine oil paintings, including Brooklyn’s “An Out-of-Doors Study, Paul Helleu and His Wife” (1889), and Boston’s “The Master and His Pupils” (1914). 

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Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848-1900, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 17–May 19, 2013

"The first major survey of the art of the Pre-Raphaelites to be shown in the United States features some 130 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and decorative art objects." Concurrently at the NGA there's an exhibition called "Pre-Raphaelites and the Book," an installation that includes "books of poetry by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris, wood-engraved illustrations by several Pre-Raphaelite artists, and material related to the Kelmscott Press (established by Morris in 1891)."

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Dinotopia: The Fantastical Art of James Gurney at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, February 20 - March 13. Note the short run of the exhibition.

This new exhibit of 22 original paintings from the Dinotopia books, including Garden of Hope (above), Dinosaur Parade, and Dinosaur Boulevard. This is a completely different set of original oil paintings than those that appeared at the Lyman Allyn exhibition. I'll be there on February 20 for the show's opening, which is free, and I'll give a talk that evening, which has an admission price.

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Ongoing: Illustrating Modern Life: The Golden Age of American Illustration from the Kelly Collection is on view at the Pepperdine's Weisman Museum in Malibu, California. Ongoing, through March 31.

Ongoing: Heroes and Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, ongoing through February 24.


Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis, at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, California, ongoing through June 2, 2013

The de Young will be the first venue in the American tour of paintings from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague. One of the world's most prestigious collections of Dutch Golden Age paintings, this is the first major loan of its holding in 30 years. The exhibition features 35 paintings representing the range of subject matter and technique characteristic of 17th-century painting in the Dutch Republic.

Michelangelo Drawings, William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, through April 14.


Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, February 14 - May 19 at the Seattle Art Museum.-----

Thanks, Bil, Jean, Timothy and Armand. 

The Most Unappealing Color

Recently the Australian government announced its new rules for making cigarette packaging as unattractive as possible. 

Instead of allowing distinctive corporate logos, the packages must use a generic type font called Lucida Sans. They must show photos of the diseases caused by smoking. And every package must be printed in Pantone 448C.

The government hired a research firm to come up with the most unappealing color possible. The company conducted studies with nearly 1000 people to find out what color suggests low quality and lack of appeal. The research firm then recommended a drab greenish-brown hue that is far away from the bold reds and blues that have been used traditionally in cigarette packaging.

Is Pantone 448C truly the most unappealing color? This brings us to a question artists continually face: Is there such a thing as a disgusting color, or is it all a matter of context? Are greenish-brown colors the kiss of death in painting? 

I wondered if any great artists used this color successfully. 

I don't know if this reproduction is accurate, but Velázquez uses something close to 448C. It contrasts with the pinks of the face and the red of the hair piece.


Thomas Dewing often used a greenish palette. In "Lady in White," there is no red. The background is slightly gradated. The dress is painted with pale blues and yellows, and the seat cushion tends toward yellow green.


Van Dyck's portrait of Horace Walpole uses large areas resembling Pantone 448C for the background and the book, with adjacent red-browns at close to the same value.

What do you think? Were any of them successful? What is your personal reaction to 448C? Please share your reaction in the poll at left and thoughts in the comments.

Addendum--Here are the poll results to the question: "What is your reaction to Pantone 448C?":
4% Disgusting,
20% Mild dislike,
7% No reaction,
18% I like it,
27% I love it,
39% It all depends.

Bloomberg report on new packaging and how it was decided upon.
Previously on GurneyJourney: The Mud Debate

Seybold's Old Woman

Super-detailed realism is not just a recent idea--it has been around for a while. This oil painting of an old woman is by Christian Seybold (1695-1768). He was a German artist active in Vienna in the Baroque period.


Even when you zoom way into the eye, the detail keeps on going. He has carefully rendered the delicate  overlapping wrinkles around the eye, and he has captured the redness inside the folds.


Compare to this detail of an eye from a Sargent self portrait.
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High-rez file of this image on Wikipedia Commons
The painting is in Dresden at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister 
Thanks, Keita
Previously on GurneyJourney:

Color Zones of the Face

Softness in Eyes (Van Dyck, Loomis, and Sargent)

Eye Highlights

Simplicity in Painting the Eye