Solomon's "Equipped"--A study or a fragment?

In the studio sale after his death, a painting by Solomon Solomon (1860-1927) called "A Page Buckling on Armour" came up for sale. It sold again at auction in 2003 with the new title, "Study for Equipped." 

The painting shows a young man attaching armor to the leg of a knight. Solomon was a French-trained Royal Academician known for his portraits and his mythological scenes, and this painting shows his characteristic attention to classical craftsmanship, with fine foreshortening of the face, and sensitive drawing in the hands.

Christies noted that the 36 x 24 inch painting was a study for the large (84 x 48 in.) painting called "Equipped" that Solomon exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1900.

At the same auction in 2003, a small watercolor study was also sold, evidently a preliminary sketch showing the whole composition. The page can be seen in context preparing the knight for battle, with his white horse in the shadows behind him. 

I was curious what the finished picture looked like, and found it in the book of the Royal Academy Pictures, 1900, plate 93 (left, below).

When you see the picture of the page next to the finished painting, it becomes clear that it's not a study at all, but a fragment, hacked out of the larger painting, which must now be lost. Presumably the surgery could have been conducted by the artist himself, or else it could have been done by someone else immediately following his death, but before the studio auction in 1928.

EDIT: I have added a file (below) with the page image overlaid semitransparently so you can see how the two images fit together. Note that the measurements (36 x 24 out of 84 x 48) line up too. I would guess Solomon or someone had a 36 x 24 frame to fill. A few people noticed some very slight differences, such as the position of the cape and the edge of the page's cap (light against the armor in one, and dark against the armor in another). I would suspect that this was the work of the artist touching up the fragment. But I suppose we'll never know for sure.

Book: "The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing," by Solomon Solomon, Introduction by James Gurney
Order Solomon's book "The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing" signed by James Gurney 
Book: Victorian Painting by Christopher Wood
Download the Royal Academy catalog of 1900

Christies 2003 sale of the oil fragment and the watercolor study

Solomon Solomon on Wikipedia

Norman Rockwell talks about Maxfield Parrish

What did Norman Rockwell (right) think of Maxfield Parrish (left)?

(Video link) Here's the man himself.

Famous artists paint Samson and Delilah

In 1949, ten members of the faculty of the Famous Artists School correspondence course were commissioned to paint their interpretation of Samson and Delilah, based on the 1949 Cecil B. DeMille production at Paramount.

The artists pictured include: (back row, from left to right) Harold von Schmidt, Norman Rockwell, Ben Stahl, Peter Helck, and Austin Briggs. (Front row): John Atherton, Al Parker, Al Dorne (on the ground, who apparently didn't contribute a painting), Steven Dohanos, Jon Whitcomb, and Robert Fawcett. 

Rockwell did a big painting of Samson pushing down the columns of the temple.

He shot reference of actor Victor Mature, and did the color study at right.

Austin Briggs showed Samson slaying a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.

Al Parker portrayed Delilah cutting the lock of Samson's hair, thus robbing him of power.

Austin Briggs (Edit: Jon Whitcomb) also showed a romantic scene, with Delilah looking the part of a regal but dangerous female.

Harold von Schmidt, known for his dramatic action illustrations, showed Samson wrestling with a lion.

Peter Helck illustrated Samson doing the ignoble work of grinding at the mill. To my knowledge this is the only one of the ten finished paintings that has surfaced. I wonder if anyone knows what became of the others.

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Read more

Famous Artists Course available on Amazon

Watch a YouTube clip of Victor Mature (and his stunt double) wrestling the lion.

Famous Artists School on Wikipedia

Samson on Wikipedia

1949 Samson and Delilah film

Previously on GurneyJourney:

Samson and Delilah by the old masters, with a blog reader poll for the favorite (hint: the winner was Solomon Solomon)

Images courtesy the Famous Artists' and Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collection. All Rights Reserved.

ImagineFX's Top 100 Artists Poll

ImagineFX magazine will publish its 100th issue this August. In seven years it has become the #1 magazine for the art of science fiction and fantasy.

To celebrate the occasion, the magazine is conducting a poll to pick a favorite from a list that it compiled of 100 top fantasy artists.

Anyone can vote by following this link.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of great artists that IFX inadvertently overlooked when they made up their list, such as Rebecca Guay, Robh Ruppel, Omar Rayyan, John Berkey, Alan Lee, Nathan Fowkes, Jeff Jones, James Bama, Paul Tobin, Petar Meseldzija, John Jude Palencar,  Peter de Seve, Jaime Jones, P. J. Lynch, Paul Lasaine, Scott Robertson, Michael Kaluta, William Stout, Al Williamson, Richard Corben, Leo and Diane Dillon, Travis Louie, Kirk Reinert, Francois Schuiten, Kinuko Kraft, Steve Hickman, Jordu Schell, Rick Berry, and Greg Broadmore to name just a few that come immediately to mind. No matter how large you make these lists, and how many people you have doing it, important names accidentally get left off.

New book on memory drawing

Much of the training in contemporary academic ateliers focuses on understanding and interpreting what you see in front of you. At the moment, there's a growing interest in supplementing those skills with the training of memory and imagination.

To fill that gap, academic painting instructor and painter Darren Rousar has written a much-needed new book called Memory Drawing: Perceptual Training and Recall.

On his website MemoryDrawing.com, Rousar says: "All drawing and painting from life is at some point done from memory, even if that memory is only seconds old. An artist’s ability to recall something previously seen is all the more important when their subject is no longer in view. Da Vinci, Corot, Degas, Whistler, and Inness wrote about it. In fact, Inness claimed that many of his best landscape paintings were done from memory."

Mr. Rousar's book approaches the subject from a variety of angles, starting with the history of how it has been taught in the past, including the notable contributions of Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran. The focus then turns to the science of memory and perception. Then the book analyzes the process involved in seeing and remembering.

The slim and inexpensive 140-page softcover book includes many black and white illustrations with specific exercises involving line, shape, and value. The book ends with valuable appendices by Père Lecoq and Harold Speed, and a glossary. The book is thoughtfully and clearly written, and will benefit both teachers and students interested in improving their powers of memory.
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Resources
Book: Memory Drawing: Perceptual Training and Recall by Darren Rousar
Free digital book of the French classic "The Training of Memory in Art and the Education of the Artist" by Père Lecoq
Website: Memory Drawing
Previously on GurneyJourney:
Memory Game with Maps
Drawing from Memory
Remembering a Face

Formation of reptilian head scales

Designers of dragons and other mythological creatures might wonder how to draw the scale patterns on the head and body. How would the scales form on such an animal?

Above: Briton Riviere (1840-1920), "Saint George and the Dragon."

Dr. Michel Milinkovitch from the University of Geneva studied Nile crocodiles to understand the origin of their head scales. His study was published this year in Science magazine.

It turns out that reptilian scale patterns form in two different ways: genetic patterning and stress fractures. In the first system, the scales are developmental units that begin to form in embryonic stages and are usually symmetrical from one side of the head to another. 

This is typical of snakes. The symmetrical pattern can be seen by overlaying the pattern from the right and left sides (the yellow and red line patterns at lower right).

By contrast, crocodile head scales form by randomized stress fracturing, like cracks in auto safety glass. The scales are non-overlapping polygonal shapes that are smaller in areas where there is more flexing. There's no symmetrical alignment from one side to another of a single individual, nor is there a consistent pattern from one individual to another. 

(Video link) Here's a video that explains the idea.

Scales on the rest of the body of the croc, unlike the head scales, follow the snake-like genetic patterning model. 

Science Magazine Crocodile Head Scales Are Not Developmental Units But Emerge from Physical Cracking

Previously: Briton Riviere's Studio