Examples of the human figure in art. Examples focus on western painting and drawing and how form, line, colour, medium & pose can evoke emotion.

1. examples of The
Human Figure
in Art
(Western Art: paint, pencil, pastel)

2. When viewing
artwork, or
creating your
own...

3. ...consider how
form, line, colour
and medium can
evoke emotion
and/or tell a
story.

4. Look at the
following works
of art that depict
the human figure.

5. How was form,
line, colour,
medium and
pose used to
convey emotion?

6. Select artists or
works of art that
inspire you.
What is it about
the piece that
draws you in?

7. Critically analyse
the work and
attempt to use it
as inspiration in
your own work.

8. Remember,
don’t simply
mimic.
Transform it
with your own
ideas.

9. “Female Figure”
Filippo Lippi
1430

10. “Study of Three Male Figures (after Raphael)”
Michelangelo

11. “Dead Christ, mourned by the virgin, a pious woman and Saint John Apostle”
Andrea Mantegna
1480

12. “The Birth of Venus”
Sandro Botticelli c.
1486

13. “Venus of Urbino”
Titian
1538

14. “The Painter and the Art Lover”
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
1565
(engraving)

15. “David with the Head of Goliath”
Caravaggio
1609-1610

16. “Four Figures at Table”
Le Nain brothers
c.1635

17. “Study for the Adulteress: half figure with
folded arms, from Guercino”
Giovanni Battista Piranesi

18. “Seated Nude Figure”
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Born: April 4, 1758, Cluny
Died: February 16, 1823

19. “Half-figure of a Bather”
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
1807

20. “Grande Odalisque”
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
1814

21. “Portrait of Juliette Courbet as a Child”
Gustave Courbet
1841

22. “The Birth of Venus”
Alexandre Cabanel
1863

23. “En un café o La Absenta”
Edgar Degas
1873

24. “Little Girl ina Blue Armchair”
Mary Cassatt
1878

25. “Two Ballet Dancers”
Edgar Degas
c.1879

26. “A Female Figure Resting (Dolce far Niente)”
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
1882

27. “Sien, Sewing, Half-Figure”
Vincent van Gogh
1883

28. “La Toilette (Woman
Combing Her Hair)”
Edgar Degas
c. 1884-1886

29. “Back of a Male Figure”
William Merritt Chase
1885

30. “Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin”
Vincent Van Gogh
1888

31. “Seated Dancer in Pink Tights”
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
1890

32. “What’s New?”
Paul Gauguin
1892

33. “The Scream”
Edvard Munch
1893

34. “Two Figures”
Pablo Picasso
1904

35. “Self-Portrait”
Marie Laurencin
1906

36. “Portrait of Fritza Riedler”
Gustav Klimt
1906

37. “Portrait of Adele Bloch-
Bauer 1”
Gustav Klimt
1907

38. Egon Schiele
Born: June 12, 1890, Tulln
Died: October 31, 1918

39. “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon”
Pablo Picasso
1907

40. “Eve”
Henri Rousseau
1907

41. “Portrait of Alexander
Sakharoff”
Jawlensky Sakharoff
1909

42. “The Dancer” “Back”
Andre Derain Andre Derain
c.1910

43. “Crouching Figure (Valerie Neuzil)”
Egon Schiele
1913

44. “Border woman figure in blue Gwand”
Ferdinand Hodler
1915

45. “Portrait of Enric Cristòfol Ricart”
Joan Miró
1917

46. "Nudo coricato di spalle"
Amedeo Modigliani
1917

47. “Figure in Scutari Carpet”
Henri Matisse
1922

48. “Female Figures”
Aleksandr Deyneka
1923

49. “Figure at a Window”
Salvador Dali
1925

50. “Study of a figure for Hell”
John Singer Sargent
Born: January 12, 1856, Florence
Died: April 14, 1925

51. “The Waiting Room”
Norman Rockwell
c. 1937

52. “Seated figure (male classical)”
Willem de Kooning
1939

53. “The Two Fridas”
Frida Kahlo
1939

54. “Figure”
Yiannis Moralis
1951

55. “Figure”
Yiannis Moralis
1951

56. “Reclining Nude”
Raoul Dufy
Born: June 3, 1877, Le Havre
Died: March 23, 1953

57. “Morning Sun”
Edward Hopper
1952

58. “Study after Velazquez's Portrait of
Pope Innocent X”
Francis Bacon
1953

59. “Excursion Into Philosophy”
Edward Hopper
1959

60. “Figure with Bare Arms”
Lucian Freud
1961

61. “Portrait of the Artist's Mother,
Mrs Laura Hockney, Bradford”
David Hockney
1972

62. “Two Figures with a Cat”
Leland Bell
c. 1980

63. “St. Joe Louis Surrounded
Snake”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1982

64. “Existers”
Gilbert & George
1984

65. “Drawing for Monica with Matisse”
Tom Wesselman
1986

66. “Paraja Ballando”
Fernando Botero
1987

67. “Give the People What They Want”
Marlene Dumas
1992

68. “Bride” (Pastel)
Paula Rego
1994

69. “Pauline”
Gary Hume
1996

70. “Mist II”
Paula Rego
1996

71. “Water Painting”
Gary Hume
1999

72. Remember: form,
line, colour,
medium & pose
can evoke
emotion.

73. (for educational purposes)