Figure Drawing

Artists study the figure to learn how to represent it. They draw from life to learn the anatomy or to provide a basis for finished paintings or sculpture.

Since the invention of photography artists have also used photographs to provide visual information, to study movement and to inspire their art.

Michaelangelo used many life drawings to prepare for the monumental task of painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This is one of the few surviving sketches from the project. He used this sketch of a man as the basis for the female Libyan Sibyl.

The Drawings of Michelangelo and his Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

In the 1880's Edgar Degas experimented with the new photographic medium to make reference materials for his drawings, paintings and sculpture. The pastel on the right shows the influence of the forshortening, unusual camera angles and spontaneity of the camera.

Degas : The Man and His Art (Discoveries) Degas' Drawings (Paperback) Carefully reproduced from a rare 1923 limited edition, most of these magnificent drawings are unavailable elsewhere in published form. Dancers, nudes, portraits, travel scenes, and more. 100 drawings, including 8 in full color.

Marthe Bonnard, model for the artist Pierre Bonnard

An out of print book of Pierre Bonnard's photographs.

Renaissance Self-Portraiture: The Visual Construction of Identity and the Social Status of the Artist

Photograph of Female nude sitting on cloth-draped chair, facing left, ca. 1885 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Photograph presumed to be Walt Whitman by Eakins

A Drawing Manual by Thomas Eakins by Thomas Eakins, Amy Werbel (Contributor), Kathleen A. Foster (Editor)
While a teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the celebrated American artist Thomas Eakins (1844Ð1916) prepared a drawing manual for his students. The manuscript developed out of his famous lectures at the Academy on linear perspective, mechanical drawing, reflections, and sculptural relief and included illustrations by the artist.

Thomas Eakins, the foremost proponent of naturalism at the beginning of the twentieth century made the study of anatomy and the nude subjects of his instruction at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His work was so true to life that his portrait of Dr. Gross showing blood on the doctor's hands as he turns from his operation to address gathered students. Contemporary Philadelphians condemned Eakins as a "butcher" for the work.

Eakins experimented with photography also. He was a pioneer in making multiple exposure photographs to study movement. The portrait Eakins made of his wife a portion of which is shown here shows his naturalism, the completely convincing posture and unstudied nature of her pose make her come alive in paint.

Eakins and the Photograph: Works by by Thomas Eakins and His Circle in the Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts by Susan Danly, Cheryl Leibold

Howard Chandler Christy

The Swimming Hole, painted in 1883 a portion of which is shown , shows Eakins' careful observation of anatomy and movement. It demonstrates his naturalist style, completely unmannered and without artifice. Photo shown is by Eakins, Eakins's students at "The Swimming Hole.

Other Photographers interested in motion

Man Made: Thomas Eakins and the Construction of Gilded-Age Manhood (Men and Masculinity)

Seated Male Nude (after treatment), 1880s Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916) Metropolitan Museum

Motion Study: Thomas Eakins Nude USC

Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist by Henry Adams,

Henri Matisse worked with live models. The last photographs here show Matisse with his model in 1939, in his old age working on a sculpture and a painting from 1903.

Although Matisse might seem the antithesis of naturalism in his simplification of form in order to reveal movement, he still insisted on studying the model.

More on Matisse and his models

He told his students, "Note the essential characteristics of the model carefully; they must exist in the complete work, otherwise you have lost your concept on the way."

ACADÉMIE MATISSE HENRI MATISSE AND HIS NORDIC & AMERICAN PUPILS

Henri Matisse, Seated Figure, Tan Room

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