Getty Museum part 2 of 3

This was done by Theodore Gericault and is called Portrait Study. I found the description online and it said this person was from another painting involving a medusa. I saw this painting and was instantly moved by it because the hopeless and agony of the man is so clear and simple. There is absolutely no hope in his eyes, only weariness and defeat. He knows it and doesn’t even bother to think of something pleasant. He is accepting his fate and just sort of waiting for the end to come. There is no terror for him, he is beyond that point. The eyes are the clearest way to see the agony and hopelessness. The slight turn of the neck is next and the expressionless lips all express acceptance of hopelessness. In terms of generalist criteria, the eyes are so empty and full at the same time. The shading and lighting on the face is well defined enough to reflect the full and empty look in the eyes.

This portrait is title Severed Heads also done by the same artist. I tried to find the description to this painting, but I was unable to. So, I did the next best thing I Goggled the artist. It turns out he was always trying to capture the most real image possible. Sometimes he would use real body parts for his portraits. I wouldn’t be surprised if these heads belonged to ex-living individuals. Knowing that, it gives the painting a sort of eerie feeling. However, the eerie feeling is already there, but knowing that the heads could be real is a huge bonus to the creepiness of it. Of course, I wonder why he selected these two. Maybe, the heads were the only ones available at the time.

I also wonder if the women had her head removed while she was sleeping. She is so peaceful in the portrait. If she wasn’t dead, she might even fall into an eternally at rest. The man seems to be drunk when he was beheaded. Almost, like e didn’t even care. The expression has a certain drunken elegance to it. His expression is so well defined that it is slightly difficult to consider what else he could have been doing. Everything in the portrait seems so real. The folds in the cloth are all well defined. Even the blood stained cloth seems to be an accurate color. The stains and have set in and changed color. Gericault even has the missing teeth from the man, along with the remaining teeth. Similar to the first portrait, the eyes seem to be the most expressive feature on the man. They give off a drowsy, tired feeling, like he doesn’t know what is happening. I didn’t expect to find generalist criteria here, in either of these portraits, but I did. However, it is difficult to describe these things. To part 3