The history of Sight-Size began the first time an artist decided to place their artwork visually next to their subject. That placement allowed them to work one-to-one. This collection of articles relate to the history of Sight-Size.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries numerous artists and instructors wrote instructional manuals attempting to show the general populace how to draw. Many of those authors incorporated aspects of Sight-Size into their teaching. Edwin George Lutz, author of Practical Drawing, was one such popular arts teacher.
Although Sight-Size is most often discussed as an approach to portrait painting, Sight-Size is not just for portraiture. In fact, the first written use of the term relates to figure drawing.
I would imagine that all teachers have a list of recommended books which they consider to be essential reading for their students. Mr. Gammell was no exception. This article passes that list onto you. My sources are a half-dozen of Mr. Gammell’s former students.
In 1905 John Singer Sargent was commissioned to paint the portrait of Joseph Pulitzer. The sittings would take place in Sargent’s Tite Street studio in London. By this time in his career, Sargent had tired of portraiture. To make matters worse, Pulitzer was irascible. He was also blind.
It is likely that you have never heard of Archibald Standish Hartrick. That is not surprising, and I suspect that he was not as well-known in his lifetime as were many of his friends and contemporaries – Sargent and Whistler among them. Nonetheless, He made an outstanding contribution to the written record of Sight-Size.
Plaster cast reproductions are ubiquitous in today’s art schools, ateliers and academies. Did you ever wonder how the molds were made and who makes them? This article, by my friend Andrea Felice, will help answer those questions.
In the late Summer of 1885 John Singer Sargent travelled to Broadway, a village in the Cotswolds of south-central England. He was not alone and at his destination was a gathering of artists and writers, later known as the Broadway Group of Artists.
Charles Hopkinson was born in 1869, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After graduating from Harvard he began his formal artistic training at the Art Students’ League in New York. While at the ASL he studied cast drawing under Twachtman and the figure under Mowbray.
Back in 2007, Mr. Hunter (and American Artist) gave me permission to reproduce an interview he did with Richard Goetz of American Artist Magazine. The copyright remains with American Artist, 1970. Other than the diagram, none of the following images were in the original article.
John Collier (1850-1934) studied at The Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany and at the Slade school under Edward Poynter. He was a respected portrait painter and painted many of the famous people of his time.
Leopold Seyffert studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Anschutz, William Merritt Chase and Cecilia Beaux. In early to mid-twentieth-century America he was very much in demand as a portrait painter.
Jules Garibaldi (Gari) Melchers, like John Singer Sargent, was one of those late nineteenth-century American painters who spent years abroad perfecting their craft and establishing their career.
Your privacy is as important to me as is my own. I'll never give out your information and you can unsubscribe anytime through the link at the bottom of all my emails to you. Still not sure? See the site's privacy policy.