Monday, February 28, 2011

Studies for "Love's Baubles"

Byam Shaw,  (full name: John Byam Liston Shaw, 1872 – 1919) was a British painter known for his scenes of history and mythology. Like many of his Royal Academy contemporaries, he went to great lengths to make studies before he began the final painting.


For example, on one of his masterpieces, "Love's Baubles,"  he went to the trouble to make charcoal drawings of the nude figures beneath the costumes.
 
This makes a big difference for getting the action of the pose right, especially with voluminous costumes.
 


And the hair is not an accident either. Shaw did careful studies to work out the braids and the locks. It all shows in the final painting.
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Painting repro from "Preraphaelite Paintings"
More paintings by Byam Shaw on the same blog collection
Wikipedia on Byam Shaw
Black and white studies from "The Magazine of Art," vol. 22, page 633
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3 comments:

  1. SCIBOTICFebruary 28, 2011 at 3:11 PM

    What I'm curious about is by what measure do you decide what in your artwork requires studies like this?

    ReplyDelete
  2. SteveMarch 1, 2011 at 7:40 AM

    The lead figure in the top image puzzles me. The arms and torso seem male, the head and feet female. I'm probably revealing my ignorance of the mythological event this painting depicts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RobertoMarch 5, 2011 at 1:07 AM

    @ Steve...
    That's the story of Lola, you know... L, O, L, A... 'Lola'. -RQ ;p

    ReplyDelete

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