Learning from the Masters
Painting copies of the old masters helps the artists of today to learn new techniques
Painting copies of the old masters helps the artists of today to learn new techniques
Did you know? Learning from the masters is an important step in an artist’s career, both early on in their studies and later as a master themselves to learn or review new techniques in painting. Master copies play an important role in artists’ lives and are seldom seen outside the studio. The idea is to do a fairly exact copy of a master work that you admire in hopes of learning the way they achieved and completed it. Master copies can teach the artist a lot about techniques that an Old Master discovered and used during their work, and they often become a showcase for the skill of the contemporary artist. If you see a well done master copy by
a living artist, you are looking at the skills they have acquired to be able to copy a master work. Master copies are an important tool for all artists and they help us learn and often help take our work to the next level. Both early in our careers, or later as midcareer, or for some living master artists, completing a master copy from a deceased or living artist you admire, helps one to learn new skills or new additions to our set of tools and techniques. Perhaps the work was copied to learn how the master achieved the perfect lighting. Perhaps it was done to learn how to warm up or cool down the skin tones in their own work. Perhaps the artist admired the general thick or thin paint application style and wanted to learn how to achieve it. After a master copy is completed and the work has been studied up close by the artist, the masters strokes, techniques are analyzed, and then the contemporary artist may be able to add one or two of the elements that they learned into their own future work themselves. Just as a businessman does an internship, and lawyers study past cases, an artist learns by copying the masters. In art school figure painting 101, we work many, many hours learning each technique, such as grisaille, layering, edge work. Then the final assignment is to copy a master work of an older artist using the techniques and skills you have obtained during the semester. They are done most often after a master who has passed, but sometimes even living masters are copied. The works are new painted works, and the artists are trying to emulate the master they admire and are copying. The work I completed, a 24-by18-inch master copy of Mr. Pulitzer by John Singer Sargent as my final at Laguna College of Art and Design, took me 25 hours to complete. I used many layers and glazing techniques. For example, to warm up the portrait’s cheeks and nose, I used walnut oil mixed with only a little pigment of cadmium red, therefore the pigment could be added little by little into the oil then applied to the face, with small amounts at a time to achieve the redness without overpowering the subtle face tones. I learned that some parts of the painting could be achieved with alla prima strokes and others best with subtle layers. Sculptors even do copies of some of the most famous statues or busts to learn how the master had solved problems in the completion. This has been done since the early days, the Greek or Roman statues were copied and even painters copy the statues to learn form, simplified beauty of line, etc. It is quite common to copy statues by Rodin, or Camille Claudel or by living sculptors. Master copies are often very dear to each artist as they often represent a favorite work by an artist they admire. Yet, these works are seldom seen outside the artist’s studio, and they are almost never on display or included with a show. Oftentimes
when visiting an artist’s studio collectors recognize a painting on the wall that seems familiar to them, perhaps from visiting a museum or from books they have seen. In many studios, the artist keeps their master copy on display and usually keeps it around to remember what they learned from it. They can also be an important insight to what inspired the artist in their own work, be it style or subject matter. It is also common to copy another living artist that you admire to try to emulate them. Bryan Mark Taylor has done a copy of living artist Ruo Li. He explains, “Ruo Li is a master at understanding light and form especially when it comes to seascapes. His subtle value and temperature shifts as well as his invention of various forms were interesting things to study in this little 8-by-16-inch exercise.” Artist Michelle Dunaway has been able to paint directly in the museums in front of some of her admired works. She notes some of the important things she learned here doing the copies. “I wish I had known earlier the benefit of painting master copies. I did my first copy in 2013 from a John Singer Sargent painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,” says Dunaway. “Later I was a able to do another from a painting in particular that I always found captivating, Portrait of Mrs. Edward Darley Boit. As hands are so difficult to paint, any artist knows the struggle, and Sargent hands are some of the most beautifully painted I have ever seen. I learned that Sargent used much more color than I had realized. He’s known for his subtle warm and cool gray in the skin tones, but in the lights, I found myself constantly having to add cadmium yellow to match the warmth of the flesh tones.” Dunaway feels lucky to have been able to copy direct from the paintings in the museums and hopes to be able to do another session one day soon. Artist Josh Clare recently set out to do a copy of a famous landscape by Levitan from the Tretyakov museum in Moscow. He had admired it in person on a rare trip to see it and comments now on the work he completed in our exhibition. “I learned that glazing is something I want desperately to make a part of my own work...it adds a depth, a variety and a quality of light that can be achieved in no other way and with no other medium,” says Clare. “It’s not something I was taught in school and I’ve spent my career to this
point painting directly though I’ve experimented from time to time with more indirect methods. Doing this copy reminded me of how magical and truthful a very subtle glaze can be. The exercise also reminded me of the beauty and charm that can be achieved when an artist will take any pains to ‘get a thing right.’ Levitan wasn’t preoccupied with his technique or his materials like I so often am... he just wanted to be as honest as he could about the beauty he was seeing—you can feel it in his work— and that was an important reminder for me.” Sam Robinson, a mature and successful artist, recently took to his easel and did a series of master copies. He chats about two of the works he copied and what he learned from each of them. “Raeburn’s Miss Urquhart hangs nearby in the National Gallery and has been a constant favorite. Raeburn’s marvelously direct brushwork still looks incredibly fresh today. The simplification of the forms is the key to his approach,” he says. Of John Singer Sargent’s Boit girl, he explains, “Sargent’s method relied on painting edges over each other. This little head copy became a puzzle of figuring out what went on top of the other. It also required several textural effects, some broad smooth strokes, some tiny pointed brush touches and some stiff paint applied with the side of an old flat bristle.” I then asked him to chat about why he did the copies and what in general he hoped to achieve. He explains that they help him achieve a fresh painterly brushstroke and that he admires their alla prima style. “The broad brush or painterly style I have always sought to achieve is based on the idea of rehearsal in preparation for a performance,” Robinson explains. “Some methods require stages, careful drawing followed by grisaille, then added color. The painterly, alla prima approach aims to build the final result by combining all three into one continuous process. This requires warm ups, and often, wiping out and repeating the approach many times. There are hints as to how this was done in the recorded statements of Sargent, De Laszlo, Raeburn and others. Of course, the finished works themselves provide evidence. Copies of these paintings help to reveal the story of how to prepare, to start, and to apply the final accents.” Artist Karen Offutt, who did a master copy of Anders Zorn’s After the Bath, says, “I have made master copies over the years and what I love about Anders Zorn’s work is how he could capture light and mood in a painting with sensitive and expressive brushstrokes as well as bringing a
painting to life. Making a master copy is an essential tool for learning how to draw and paint.” At my gallery, Vanessa Rothe Fine Art, we will have a new exhibition on view where we are calling attention to the importance of master copies and to educate our collectors on the role they play for us as artists. Viewing them at the gallery may help collectors understand what inspires us as an artist that you are learning about and buying work from. As some collectors had seen some of our copies, they asked if they were for sale for their own collection. Some of the works are offered for sale, as a master copy—an original oil painting by a contemporary artist but not an original idea. They are sold as a copy but one that was chosen by the artist to do on their own for their general knowledge and admiration of the work. The gallery is noting that these works, although copies, are perhaps an artist painting an artist that you admire and would like to look at in your home or office and enjoy. The exhibition is open to all and can be found now online for everyone to enjoy and with a small selection of works for purchase as well.