Something Beautiful

Drawings: Portraits (modern)

One of my recurring interests is "drawing," in the sense of drawings that might interest a collector or a museum.   Recently I came across a page on Eye Contact: Modern American Portrait Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, a touring exhibition. 

My particular interest is, I suppose, drawings made with as few materials as possible.   Below are some portraits done in graphite, charcoal, ink or ink wash. 

Graphite --
Milton Avery
Truman Capote
Ornette Coleman
Hart Crane
Stuart Davis
W. C. Fields
Jamie Wyeth

Charcoal --
Paul Haviland
Edward Hopper
Henry James
John Steinbeck
Igor Stravinsky
John Twachtman

Ink --
Rico Lebrun,
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Bill Robinson (Bojangles)

Ink wash --
Harold Rosenberg

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Drawings done in gouache, pastel, or watercolor seem to me almost a different genre, because the image receives so much assistance from the color media.   

Gouache --
Alice B. Toklas

Pastel --
James Baldwin
Countee Cullen
B. Delaney
Frances Perkins
Everitt Shinn

Watercolor --
Mark Strand

Dutch Dollhouse (interactive)

I've been looking around at the National Gallery of Art site to see what might be new.  There's a lovely interactive Dutch dollhouse on the NGA Kids page. 

Old American Photographs

I don't really understand what this Digital Library collection is all about. But I do know that I want to be able to find this page again, and so am placing a link here.

Welshlady's photos

Amazing flower and nature photos from welshlady. (If you don't look, you are only depriving yourself. ;-) )

Public domain essays

A collection of fine essays - at Quotidiana.

St. Peter (tempera and gold)

For today, a beautiful St Peter by Simone Martini, tempera and gold on panel (info here).    At the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain.   

Claude Monet (portrait in charcoal)

This won't be to everyone's taste, but I think it very fine -- Claude Monet, 1890, charcoal on paper, by American artist Theodore Robinson.  At the Seattle Art Museum.