Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Fantin-Latour's Charcoal Self Portraits



The young Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) experimented with charcoal in a series of painterly and atmospheric self portraits.


He applied directional hatching of short, parallel strokes on top of broadly applied tones to convey a painterly impression of light.

Some of his drawings also combine pencil, chalk, and whitening to the charcoal.


He was one of the fusainistes (charcoal draftsmen), who, in addition to using oil, explored the possibilities of charcoal.


Charcoal was central to the practice of all the artists in the École des Beaux-Arts, but it became especially popular after the development of an improved fixative.
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Read more about fusainistes in Noir: The Romance of Black in 19th-Century French Drawings and Prints
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5 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 6, 2017 at 12:27 PM

    That's really interesting how the use of charcoal became much more popular when an improved fixative was invented. When did the kneaded eraser first get introduced for the use of graphite and charcoal drawing?

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  2. scottTSeptember 6, 2017 at 12:58 PM

    What beautiful work. I wasn't aware of his charcoal drawings. Thanks for this.

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  3. Nora MacPhailSeptember 6, 2017 at 7:10 PM

    Thanks frickin' gorgeous James!!!
    Happy Painting to ya'!
    Nora MacPhail

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nora MacPhailSeptember 6, 2017 at 7:11 PM

    I mean your previous post... of the smoky streetscape... ; )

    ReplyDelete
  5. PyracanthaSeptember 7, 2017 at 2:55 AM

    Third image down: Fantin-Latour works on his laptop computer.

    ReplyDelete

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