Word: portraitists
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Forty years ago, when crusty Augustus John first saw the works of young Pablo Picasso, he was "at once struck by his unusual gifts." Since then, John, 73, has become Britain's leading academic portraitist; Picasso, 70, the most brilliant and controversial figure in modern art. This week, writing in London's Sunday Times, Augustus John brought his original impression up to date...
...years of peace in such overwhelming and sometimes indiscriminate detail that Vol. Ill often makes sluggish reading. But when he plunges into the war in Vol. IV, and takes Washington through the winter at Valley Forge, he writes with steam and fire. A bit pedestrian as a portraitist of character, Freeman handles military matters with rousing zest and precision...
Like a Cricketer. Steer's life was almost as untroubled as his landscapes. The son of a portraitist, he early decided on art for his own career. After working with his father, he attended art school in Gloucester, set out for Paris at 22. Wilson Steer was not impressed. He found Paris full of fleas and smelly streets, afterward dismissed the French countryside as "damn silly." He did not bother to master the language or look into the brouhaha of impressionism that was turning French art topsy-turvy...
...lady in the picture had good looks and a title: Lady Georgiana Gordon. Moreover, she was by the respected hand of 18th Century British Portraitist John Hoppner. But she was in poor condition, her complexion sallowed by a thick coat of yellow varnish. When the Brooklyn Museum got her as a gift in 1934, officials dismissed Lady Georgiana as an inferior Hoppner, sent her to the basement. Recently, Brooklyn assigned Restorer Sheldon Keck to give her a thorough face lifting...
Useful Yolk. Wyeth's sister Henriette (herself a portraitist) had married Painter Peter Hurd-a fast friend of Andy's. Together Peter and Andy explored the meticulous egg-tempera technique, painting with small brushes on panels, which suits them both perfectly. The technique was standard during the Renaissance, and Wyeth says that "so much hokum has been written about it you feel you have to be a chemist to start on a picture." Wyeth's method is simple: for each day's work he mixes the yolk of one egg with a little distilled water, makes...