Expressionist Portraits
German Expressionism Portraiture, Fauvist Portrait Art in the 20th Century.

Portrait of Gerda (1914)
Van der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal.
By Ernst Kirchner, one of the
great expressionist painters.
Member of Die Brucke.

Expressionist & Fauvist Portraiture

In general, 20th century artists were less interested in the classical hierarchy of genres, and more concerned with how to represent reality in an age of world war and moral uncertainty. Also, advances in photography and video made formal portrait art appear somewhat anachronistic. Even so, painters from a number of modern art movements included portraits in their repertoire.

The two most important art movements at the turn of the century, were Fauvism, and Expressionism. These two styles of painting were not that dissimilar, in that each downgraded the traditional emphasis placed on drawing - especially figure drawing - in favour of colour and overall impact. In general, expressionist portrait painters did not seek to imitate or replicate nature. Instead, they sought to express their emotional response to what they saw, using garish colours, distorted/elongated forms and caricature-like imagery. See also: History of Expressionist Painting (c.1880-1930).

Woman With a Hat (1905), by
Henri Matisse, leader of the
Fauvist colourist movement.

Portrait of Herwarth Walden (1910)
State Art Gallery, Stuttgart. One of
the great expressionist paintings
by Oskar Kokoschka.

Fauvism - A Post-Impressionist Style of Portraiture

Pure Impressionism required artists to paint their momentary impression of a scene. This restricted them to respond truthfully to what they saw. Fauvism took this a step further by allowing painters to paint what they felt when confronted by such a scene. This subjective method utilized simplified daughtsmanship, vivid colours, and increasing abstraction as a means of expressing artistic feeling. The leaders of the Fauvist (wild beast) movement were Henri Matisse and Andre Derain, and important influences were Van Gogh, the Pointillist Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, and Paul Gauguin. Fauvist portraiture is exemplified by works like: Woman with a Hat (1905), Portrait of Madame Matisse [The green line] (1905), The Young Sailor II (1906), Portrait of Mme Matisse (1912) by Henri Matisse; and Woman in a Black Hat (1908) by Kees van Dongen. In due course, Fauvism led to Expressionism. Other Fauvist painters include: Maurice de Vlaminck, Georges Rouault, Albert Marquet, Raoul Dufy, and Othon Friesz.

Portrait of the celebrated art dealer
Paul Guillaume, By Modigliani.
For a list of the best portraits, see:
Greatest Portrait Paintings.

WORLD'S TOP PORTRAITURE
For the greatest portraitists
see: Best Portrait Artists.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE ARTS
For a guide to the different forms
of fine and decorative arts,
please see: TYPES OF ART.

Expressionist Portraiture

Expressionism is a rather vague term which denotes any art style which distorts reality in order to convey a heightened awareness or sensibility of the subject. It is commonly used to refer to a group of early twentieth century German and other European painters, who moved beyond Fauvism in their bold (sometimes dramatic, even haunting) and garish portrayals of scenes and people. It embraces the three principal German Expressionist groups: the Dresden-based Die Brucke (the Bridge); the Munich-based Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider); and the post-war Die Neue Sachlichkeit.

Expressionist portraiture - which really began with Vincent Van Gogh - is exemplified in works by other famous painters, like: the sensual Madonna (1894) by the Norwegian Edvard Munch; the bizarre series of silhouette style portraits and self-portraits by the self-destructive Austrian Egon Schiele, including: Self-Portrait Nude (1910), Portrait of Eduard Kosmack (c.1912), Sitzender Weiblicher Akt (1914), Portrait of Albert Paris von Gütersloh (1918); the richly coloured masterpiece Head of a Woman (1910) by Alexei von Jawlensky; Portrait of Oscar Miestschaninoff (1923) and Portrait of Madeleine Castaing (1929) by the Jewish-Russian painter Chaim Soutine; the decadent Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden (1926) by Otto Dix; Portrait of a Degenerate Artist (1937) by Oskar Kokoschka; the strong, dark, expressive portraits of Max Beckmann like Self-Portrait in Olive and Brown (1945).

The Expressionist Amedeo Modigliani

Belonging to no art movement other than the Ecole de Paris, the tubercular poverty stricken drug-addict Amedeo Modigliani had a unique painting style which exhibited Expressionist, Cubist and Matisse-like tendencies. Renowned for his portraits and nudes, recognizable by their olive skins, elongated noses and necks, flat faces and almond-shaped eyes, Modigliani's early death at the age of 36 deprived the art world of a monumental talent.

Among his finest portraiture are the works: Head (c.1911), Nude (1912), Seated Nude (1916), Chaim Soutine (1917), and Jeanne Hebuterne in a Yellow Sweater (1919). He also painted the portrait of his art dealer Paul Guillaume (1891-1934).

Abstract Expressionist Portraiture

The term Abstract Expressionism denotes the modern American art movement which emerged out of the Great Depression and the Second World War (c.1940-1970). Abstract and highly personal, its portraits were few and far between - the most famous being Marilyn Monroe (1954) by Willem De Kooning.

The next article covers Portraits by Picasso.

• For more about the different types of painting (portraits, landscapes, still-lifes etc) see: Painting Genres.
• For more about expressionist portraiture, see: Art Encyclopedia.