Modern Faces
I visited the newly renovated Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University and was spellbound by the collection of Maurice Wertheim '06, founder of the investment bank, Wertheim & Co. Modern faces stared at me from within ornate frames, reflecting the collector's urbane sophistication. Renoir's Self- Portrait was the first face to catch my eye. It has none of the trappings of the typical artist's self-portrait. Renoir is depicted as a fashionable, successful young man. His anonymity is his modernity.
Pierre-August Renoir, Self-Portrait, 1876
This candid snapshot of the artist at the height of his initial success stands in stark contrast to Van Gogh's anguished Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin, executed a decade later. Van Gogh also takes a modern approach to the genre, but everything about the composition suggests anxiety. The ice blue ground is reflected in the whites of Van Gogh's eyes, which seem to evade and simultaneously confront the viewer.
Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin, 1888
Toulouse-Lautrec's The Hangover, a portrait of the artist Suzanne Valadon, also conveys nervous tension through the swirling lines of paint that seem to conjure the figure out of thin air. Originally a circus performer, Valadon modeled for artists and also had a successful painting career. Unlike carefree Renoir or angst-ridden Van Gogh, Valadon is portrayed hungover. She is neither an object of veneration, nor an object of lust. She is Modern because she is believably real.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Gueule de Bois, 1887-1889
Gauguin's Poèmes Barbares, painted a decade later, posits a new idea of Modernity, one linked to a sense of timelessness. His Noble Savage is, to our eyes, a Colonialist’s vision of purity. But in Gaugin's time, this was a radical concept, one that linked Modernity to the idea of the "primitive."
Paul Gauguin, Poèmes Barbares, 1896
Picasso absorbs this lesson in Woman with a Chignon, painted at the dawn of the 20th Century. The ivory skin of the figure and her chiseled features appear set in stone, suggesting a primitive carving. But this figure is utterly of her time. Picasso painted her during his blue period, reflecting the lonely, downtrodden years he first experienced in Paris. The figure is rendered Modern by her confrontational gaze, which seems to both beckon and reject the viewer.
Pablo Picasso, Woman with a Chignon, 1901