Thursday, July 26, 2018

Evolution of a Picture, Part 3 of 4: Maquettes and Animals

Ernest Meissonier, study for Friedland
This is Part 3 of a 1901 article called Evolution of a Picture: A Chapter on Studies by academy-trained Edgar Spier CameronYesterday's installment discussed studies, facial expression, and drapery. Today we look at maquettes and animals.

Maquette by Meissonier
Part 3: Maquettes and Manikins
"Meissonier was so scrupulous in his drawing that he sometimes modeled his horses and sometimes his figures in wax from which to make his drawings.

"In a subject in which there are numerous figures, animals, or objects of similar size, the element of correct perspective is of great importance, and the grouping together of maquettes, or small models in wax or clay, makes it possible to avoid those errors which creep into the work of some of the greatest artists.

Lord Frederic Leighton in his studio
"Sir Frederic Leighton frequently made use of the plan, and it is said that Detaille, in composing his battle scenes, arranges whole companies of pewter soldiers on a table on which the inequalities of the surface of the ground have been represented in various ways.

"Maquettes and manikins are of great service in composing decorative subjects when it is desired to show figures in unusual positions requiring violent foreshortening, as in flying, or in a perspective system such as is sometimes used in ceiling decoration, with a vanishing point in the air.

Aimé Morot with the skin of a lion
Animals in Motion
"When animals are introduced into a picture many studies of them are necessary because of the great difficulty in securing a suitable pose or action, owing to their almost constant movement.

"In making studies of animal motion, many painters resort to the use of instantaneous photographs with the result that they frequently show movement too rapid to be observed by the human eye. In their efforts to avoid such solecism, artists have resorted to various devices to study the motions of the animals they paint.

Aimé Morot
"Aimé Morot, who has painted some of the most spirited cavalry charges ever reproduced on canvas, was attached to the General Staff of the French army, and had all the horses and men he desired at his disposition. His favorite mode of study was to have horses ridden past him, and at a certain point he would give one quick glance at his models, close his eyes, and open them only when he had diverted his gaze to the white surface of the paper held in his lap on which he quickly jotted down the impression received. (See previous post: Morot's motion device)

Horse study by Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier
"Meissonier had a track built, along which he had himself propelled as horses were ridden along a parallel course. Another excellent way for an artist to gain an appreciation of a horse's movement is to see and feel it at the same time by riding the animal along a wall in sunlight and observing its shadow."

Editor's note: The author is muralist and critic Edgar Spier Cameron (1862-1944) from Chicago. He studied at the Art Students League in New York and the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His teachers were Dewing, Inness, Cabanel, Lefebvre, Boulanger, Laurens, and Benjamin-Constant.

Previously:
Evolution of the Picture, Part 2: Studies and Drapery
Morot's motion device

Books:
You can find more about these methods in my book Imaginative Realism.
Ernest Meissonier exhibition catalog.
Frederic Leighton Abrams book.

Sources and More Info:
Evolution of a Picture: A Chapter on Studies by Edgar Cameron in Brush and Pencil Magazine
Vol. 8, No. 3 (June, 1901), pp. 121-133



5 comments:

  1. Another fascinating section...

    Question: In this segment, why would the vanishing point being in the air make a difference? I'm not following what the problem is: "Maquettes and manikins are of great service in composing decorative subjects when it is desired to show figures in unusual positions requiring violent foreshortening, as in flying, or in a perspective system such as is sometimes used in ceiling decoration, with a vanishing point in the air." Is a vanishing point in the air above us different somehow from a vanishing point towards the horizon?

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  2. Susan, you're right to question the way he worded that. Whether something is flying or rooted to the ground, the vanishing points can theoretically either be on the eye level (horizon), or above or below it, depending on whether the line that goes back to the VP is horizontal or not.

    When something is flying—such as Dorothy's house spinning up above Kansas, for example—we may presume that it's not parallel to the ground, and therefore the VPs can be all over the place. For any such drawing problem, a maquette is a big help. I used a maquette on location when I painted that flying VW bug a while back.

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  3. I think that the difficulty with aerial vanishing points that he is referring to is not with the perspective system itself, but with viewing your model. Imagine one of the Renaissance chapel ceilings with saints or cherubs viewed from below; to get the correct foreshortening you would need to suspend your model in the air and stare upward while drawing. But with a maquette you could simply tip it on its side without affecting the pose and draw it in the ordinary way.

    I'm enjoying this series very much. Thanks for sharing it with us, James!

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  4. A couple of other artist that come to mind who used maquettes are the Italian baroque artist Tintoretto (he even set multiple figures within miniature stages), and the French Neoclassicist, Poussin. I have a book of his studies in pen and wash where it is sometimes evident that he used the same maquette only turned 180 or what have you,

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