Tamara de Lempicka : Painting Glamour and Grace

Woman artist Painting the Female Figures with Sensuality. Woman Painter depicting Natural Beauty and Grace of Woman Body

Tamara de Lempicka (1898 – 1980), was born in Warsaw Poland. She is perhaps the first woman artist who had depicted the glamour in her paintings. Her paintings are full of sensual element. She had beautifully depicted the grace of female body without compromising her desire to show the glamour side of the female models she chose to paint.

Musician -By Tamara de Lempicka

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1. This image is only being used here for merely the informational purposes.Its inclusion in this article adds significantly to the article as it demonstrates the works of the great woman artist Tamara de Lempicka as discussed in article. (Image Courtesy Wikipedia)

The Artist: The woman artist who paint female figures always try depicting the beauty of body. But their real motive to paint such subjects are to show a figure that does some activity. Their female figure seems performing some important assignment. They would paint the female figure more active than showing as passive, as here in this painting we can see a woman playing music.

The Art: Most of the women artists have tried infusing a phenomenon of new sensibilities to the art of painting in general and the figurative art of painting in particular. The man artists would show female figures generally with their visible passivity; they would prefer to paint the softer side of female models, the glamour and beauty. Here Tamara de Lempicka has tried a story that is different from regular stream of depicting a female body.

There are many artistic styles practiced during the last 100 years. Last century was the period of strange experiments in the field of art. The thematic and qualitative difference was made by woman artists like Tamara de Lempicka along with her other sister painters like Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassate.

WOMAN ARTISTS PAINTING FEMALE FIGURES

Women Artists Painting Natural Beauty of Female Body

Berthe Morisot (1841 – 1895) was a French Painter. She had executed several beautiful paintings in impressionist style. Though Berthe was among the first lot of impressionists, her paintings are undervalued. It is because of 'marginalization of women artists in the field of visual art', perhaps. She was model and sister in law of Eduardo Manet who painted several portraits depicting her beauty.

Berthe Morisot -by Eduardo Manet

The Period : Berthe Morisot was among two painters who had succeeded in displaying their paintings as the original impressionist artist; other artist was Camillle Pissaro. Like her another contemporary, Marry Cassatt, Berth had preferred painting children, woman and the domestic scenes of life. If we look at her diary Growingup with the Impressionists we can have insight in the life of great painters of her time. She had narrated her experience with the artists like Degas, Sisley, and Monet. However the of Renoir and Manet was very valuable for her life and her art.

The Art: Berth had painted several canvases depicting women in various postures. When a woman is painted in a reclining position, the state of her figure indicates rest and comforts. Along with this it also reflect the defencelessness of a person so reclined. Thus the paintings of males are very rare in reclining position. It is because traditionally the male figure is attached with power and activity, these are painted in upright positions. Whenever a male figure is in horizontal state, it shows the weakness or sickness of the person so painted.

Thus the poses of male and female figures differ characteristically. Woman symbolises beauty in reclined position, whereas man would display his defeat or sickness; if painted as reclined.

Girl with Greyhound -by Berthe Morisot

To narrate the beauty of a woman through visualizing the same, here Berth has painted a woman leaning on a bed. The bold brush strokes are the symbol of strength and a sense of immediacy that all the paintings of impressionist style would possess. In the above panting, if the bold brush strokes are any evidence, then Berth was highly influenced by her supporter and brother-in-law artist Eduardo Manet. But the style of sitting of the woman is perfectly feminine. Her feel is womanly, as she seems feeling at home while sitting on the bed. Even the pat dog looks a part of the home and not an outsider.

By using a light palate, Berth had painted enchanting scenes of daily life. About her art, Berth had very humble views: she would say that, " I always say that I'm an artist who works with pictures and words, so I think that the different aspects of my activity, whether it's writing criticism, or doing visual work that incorporates writing, or teaching, or curating, is all of a single cloth, and I don't make any separation in terms of those practices". (Images courtesy By Édouard Manet (1832–1883) Description French painter Date of birth/death 23 January 1832(1832-01-23) 30 April 1883(1883-04-30) Location of birth/death Paris Paris Work location Paris [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons, Girl with Greyhound Wikimedia Commons)

OTHER WOMEN ARTISTS

Most of the women artists have tried infusing a phenomenon of new sensibilities to the art of painting in general and the figurative art of painting in particular. The man artists would show female figures generally with their visible passivity; they would prefer to paint the softer side of female models, the glamour and beauty. In her paintings Tamara de Lempicka has tried the story that is different from the regular stream of depicting a female body. We can see the paintings of Mary Cassatt for a new perspective.

EUROPEAN ARTISTS: Experimenting with Alla Prima Painting Technique

The intuition is Mother Mary of all the arts and the artistic presentations. It is the womb of ‘Sixth Sense’ where from all the ideas about artistic statements take births.

Gypsy Girl -by by Frans Hals

The relationship between art and the artist is similar to the relationship of a worshipper with the almighty God. For an artist the painting or music or dancing is not less than an act of worship. To walk on the land of art is like to walk on a virgin land, the land full of potentials and fertility. Artist Frans Hals, (1580 - 1666) a Dutch painter, used to dip his paint brush in his soul and proceeds on the journey. From the observation of his paintings, we can see that he painter his canvases beautifully and celebrates the joy she would have felt within.

The Artist: Frans Hals's technique of spreading the colours on canvas is like that of the impressionist artists. He would catch the feel of here and now of a scene or the emotions of the persons portrayed and would honestly translate that feeling onto the canvas through the sensual and subtle brush strokes. May it be still life or a landscape painting or making of a portrait; Hans would try exploring the potentials of colours and their shades. The subtlety of his smooth brush strokes is like trade mark of his painting, giving the whole artwork a delicate look.

The Art: In the above painting, Hals has used the well known technique of alla prima. Instead of relying on the traditional style of putting layer of colours one by one, he seems using the technique of completing the painting in single sitting. Here the painting of the Gypsy Girl is very much sensual. It looks eye-catching on one hand; and on another it symbolizes the freedom of youthful status of the girl, which is dexterously depicted on her face. Using of the subdued shades of yellow and red, Hans has make out a statement of beauty and sensual features embedded in the face. Here the artist's skilful use of light yellow painting the youthful breasts of the Gypsy Girl has made the focal point of the painting much attractive one.

While painting this artwork, the artist Hans might have in his mind to write a sensual statement about the beauty of the young woman. The Alla Prima techniques used here has sent the message of immediacy, too. [Images courtesy Frans Hals [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons ]