This week’s task was to make a structuralist analysis of images; exploring shared representational conventions that appear in cultural artefacts. For example, Gainsborough’s portraits of society ladies often show them in the guise of mythological characters, photographic portraits from Victorian times to high streets of today usually have the farther as protector, the pater familias and the mother as his support and the nurturer.
- Find two examples of naturalistic paintings of a particular genre, landscape, portraiture or whatever, and annotate them to discover the similar conventions of representation; medium, format, allusion, purpose, etc.
Example One:
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Mr and Mrs Andrews, c.1748-9 (oil on canvas); Thomas Gainsborough (1727 – 1788).
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Mr. and Mrs. Andrews combines the genres the landscape and portrait. As this is a ‘naturalistic’ painting it follows the conventions of 18th century oil painting. As Gainsborough was commissioned to produce this work, it is clear that through pictorial representation he secures and reproduces the Andrews’ social position.
Although foreground, the Andrews’ are situated within their estate; the landowners are isolated within the expanse of their property, focusing our attention on their power. Wealth is apparent in their ownership of land but also it is also connoted in its pastoral representation of the summer landscape: the green of the fields, the yellow of the wheat and the sheep in the background. We do not see the labour of others, in which they have made their money from, taking place on the land; only their dominance of it. Ultimately their status is unchallenged and presented as effortless, almost “natural”.
The solidity of the oak tree, sheltering and almost supporting the Andrews’, suggests both the stability and continuity of the landed gentry – both descendants and ascendants - and their role in the cohesiveness of a stable British society. This is further reinforced by the orderly fencing in of the sheep and trees being used to divide land boundaries.
Mr and Mrs Andrews state their authority by their direct gaze towards the spectator. Although both possessing passive stances, the sitting Mrs Andrews suggest submissiveness. Her husband states his ownership and masculinity – of the land, his dog and his wife – by his possession of the shotgun. He is the master and they are his property. This only reinforces the status of the male, especially that of the landed gentry in the 18th Century, in a patriarchal society.
Example Two:
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The Artist with his Wife and Daughter, c.1751-2 (oil on canvas); Thomas Gainsborough (1727 – 1788). |
The Artist with his Wife and Daughter is in contrast with the previous Gainsborough. Though it does follow similar conventions of 18th Century oil painting differences may in fact be due to the lack of patronage; allowing Gainsborough the freedom to divulge from the conventional.
Though the medium is the same, oil on canvas, this Gainsborough is a portrait rather than a landscape. A lack of commission allows for this self-portrait to be less of a confirmation of social status and more of an artistic endeavor.
Similar conventions of representation are in The Artist with his Wife and Daughter as with the previous Gainsborough. Both have a male and female – a husband and a wife – but only in the latter does the wife take on the role of the mother. Instead of a shotgun, Gainsborough holds a piece of a paper – an allusion to his work as an artist – and is positioned at the same level as his wife. The husband and wife are more union, clear with the representation of this, their child. Interestingly, the obedient dog – gazing up at his master – of Mr and Mrs Andrews is replaced by one that is more content with its own needs.
The styles of fashion worn by the subjects of both paintings are very similar due to the closeness in their production. Though it should be noted that Gainsborough’s scarlet waistcoat has one button undone suggesting imperfection, while the previous painting aim was to give a sense of perfection; an illusion maintaining their self-importance and social status.
While in both paintings the subjects are surrounded in nature, the idyll of the Andrew’s estate is replaced with the bleakness, connoted through the shades used, of woodland at dusk. Instead of pictorially re-representing his social status, Gainsborough is more concerned with presenting an image of himself that is indifferent to the subjects who commission his work.
- Find two examples of portrait photography, one formal and one informal and annotate to see what conventions from the formal are observed in the informal and give your thoughts on why this might be so.
Example One:
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Mrs. Benson and her three sons, 1884 (b/w photo); Elliott & Fry Photography Studio (1863-early 20th century) |
Like the Gainsborough oil paintings the subjects within this early photograph adopt frontal representation of the subjects (i.e. frontality). This raises the question whether frontality is essential to formality in photography and painting?
The composition of the subjects is different to the paintings, via the photography studio, they are abstracted. The posture of the subjects is staged. The deliberate nature of the pose is similar to the immobility of the subjects in the Gainsborough painting; it is not natural. Like Mr and Mrs Andrews they are constructing a visual representation of their social status.
While Mrs Benson is surrounded by her sons, we are left to question the absence of the father; the symbol of patriarchal authority within this middle-class family. Obviously, this brings forth the question of whether Mrs. Benson is in mourning but it poses a more serious idea: How photography supports dominant ideologies of the West through the formal representation of families?
Example Two:
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Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) at Gorky, 1922 (b/w photo); French Photographer, (20th century). | |
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For an example of an informal photograph, why have I chosen photography of Lenin?
Well, I’ve choose an informal photograph of Lenin as it different to the image of him represented in Soviet propaganda.
In this informal photograph, Lenin is in natural surroundings. Unlike the previous photography he is not further abstracted from reality through an artificial setting. Frontality is adhered to; Lenin stares directly into the camera, inevitably at us. His stance is natural, reinforced by his cradling of the cat.
Unlike Mrs Benson and her three sons, Lenin is solitary. Apart from the cat he is alone so no comparison can be made to the representation of other subjects within the image. This makes it easier to compare Lenin to the image of him used in later Soviet propaganda. In Lenin Lived, Lenin Lives, Lenin Will Live Forever!
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"Lenin Lived, Lenin Lives, Lenin Will Live Forever!" text by Mayakovsky, Russian, 1967 (propaganda poster). |
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This formal pictorial representation of Lenin is abstracted from the perceived objective nature of the photographic image. The drawing of him is mediated; it allows for him to be represented as something other than human. Dominating the poster, his stance and the red flag as the transforms Lenin into the heroic, distilled from humanity, godlike. In retrospect it seems that the photograph is stripped of the Lenin persona, constructed through such propaganda after his death.
The cult of the personality allows political leaders, through the repetition of a specific representation of themselves, to project a positive image s via the mass media. From the informal photograph of Lenin to the later formal representation of his image, he is transformed into something that is set apart from reality.
Example 3:
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Greta Garbo (1905-90) (b/w photo); French Photographer, (20th century). |
Technically this isn’t an example in which I am going to analyse. I thought about it but I feel that you cannot compete with Roland Barthes ‘The Face of Garbo’. All I can say is sit back, reflect on the image and then read Barthes essay!
Bibliography
Anonymous. (1922). Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) at Gorky [Photograph].Private Collection.
Anonymous. Greta Garbo (1905-1990). [Photograph]. Private Collection.
Barthes, Roland. 1957. ‘The Face of Garbo’ In Mythologies. 1972. London: Jonathan Cape.
Berger, John. 1972. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Publishing.
Cartwright, Lisa., Sturken, Marita. 2001. Practices of Looking: an introduction to visual culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Elliott & Fry Photography Studio (1844). Mrs. Benson and her three sons. [Photography]. Private Collection.
Gainsborough, T. (1748-9). Mr and Mrs Andrews. [Painting]. National Gallery, London, UK.
Gainsborough, T. (1751-2). The Artist with his Wife and Daughter. [Painting].Private Collection.
Semenovich, I.V. (1967). "Lenin Lived, Lenin Lives, Lenin Will Live Forever!" [Poster]. Private Collection.
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