Glenn Hirsch, Instructor www.glennhirsch.com

1. Portrait
Masters
Sandro Botticelli
Mikhail Vrubel
Jules Bastien-Lepage
Valentin Serov
Paula Rego
Gerhard Richter
Glenn Hirsch, Instructor

2. Sandro Botticelli
(Italian, 1445-1510)
Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until
the late 19th century because he emphasized
flat color and pattern instead of deep shadow
and modeled realism (e.g., late Michelangelo
or Leonardo).
But since1900 his work has been recognized
for its breathtaking linear grace and voluptuous
pattern.

3. Leonardo
Botticelli

4. Birth of Venus 1475

5. Primevera, 1482

7. Detail from The Trials of Moses, Sistine Chapel

8. Vrubel was a member of the Symbolist movement of French, Russian and
Belgian poets and painters.
Symbolism was a reaction to naturalism and realism, anti-idealistic styles which
attempted to represent reality in its gritty manifestations -- to elevate the
humble and the ordinary over the ideal.
As a reaction, Symbolism favored spirituality, the imagination, and dreams.
Mikhail Vrubel
(Russian 1856 – 1910)

9. Vrubel

10. Vrubel

11. Vrubel

12. Vrubel

13. Vrubel

14. Vrubel

15. Vrubel

16. Jules Bastien-Lepage
French, 1848-1884
Bastien-Lepage was a "Naturalist“ in his love of Nature and the abundance
of organic patterns and shapes.
He was an “Impressionist” in that his work covered a similar range of
subject matter as that of Impressionism, but using tighter, more traditional
brushwork.
He was a “Romantic” in his love of strong epiphanies of intense feeling
bordering on religious ecstasy or deep melancholy ennui.)

17. Bastien-Lepage

18. Bastien-
Lepage
detail

19. Bastien-Lepage,
Detail

20. Bastien-Lepage “At
Harvest Time”

21. Bastien-Lepage

22. Bastien-Lepage

23. Bastien-Lepage

24. Bastien-Lepage

25. Bastien-Lepage

26. Valentin Serov
(Russian, 1865 – 1911)
Serov’s portraits were notable for their psychological
intensity. His favorite models were actors, artists, and
writers.
He tried to capture a sense of movement by combining
linear drawing with decorative color and spontaneous
brush.

27. Serov

28. Serov

29. Serov

30. Serov

31. Serov

32. Gerhard Richter
1932-
Richter has simultaneously produced
abstract and photorealistic painted works,
as well as photographs and glass pieces,
following the examples of Picasso and
Jean Arp in undermining the concept of the
artist’s obligation to maintain a single
cohesive style.

37. Paula Rego
(English, 1935- )
Rego’s work often reflects an assertive feminism, colored by
folk-themes.
Her style is often compared to cartoon illustration. As in
cartoons, animals are often depicted in human roles and
situations. Her later work adopts a more realistic style, but
sometimes keeps the animal references — the Dog Woman
series of the 1990s, for example, is a set of pastel pictures
depicting women in a variety of dog-like poses (on all fours,
baying at the moon, etc.).
Clothes play an important role in Rego's work, as pieces of
her visual story-telling. Many of the clothes worn by models
and mannequins in her work are representative of the frocks
she wore as a child in Portugal. She has favored pastels over
oils for much of her career.