1918-1989: Elaine de Kooning, American

Elaine de Kooning, 1960

Elaine de Kooning was both a gifted figurative painter and a committed Abstract Expressionist. She started her career in the 1950s and continued to paint through the 1980s. She is best known for her portraits, especially a series of drawings and paintings depicting John F. Kennedy.

In addition, she was an important figure in the art world because of her work as a critic and educator; and she was also known as the wife of one of stars of Abstract Expressionism, Willem de Kooning.

Background: 

Elaine Fried was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of 4 children. Her father was protestant of Jewish descent who was the plant manager for a bread company. Her mother was an Irish Catholic was was accused of neglecting her children.

Training: 

Despite her unconventional approach to child rearing, Elaine's mother started taking her to museums at the age of 5, as well as teaching her to draw.

Elaine didn't have a lot of formal training in art. She studied art for a couple of years in two different art schools.

When she was 20, in 1938, she began having private drawing lessons with Willem de Kooning, a Dutch painter, age 34, who had lived in New York since 1926. She later credited his training as the foundation of her work.

Private life: 

Apparently it was love at first sight for Elaine and Willem, according to later reports by their friends. For several years they painted and socialized together in Manhattan, and they got married in 1943.

Despite their attachment, Elaine and Willem had an open marriage; they both were casual about sex and about each other’s affairs. Elaine had affairs with men who could help further Willem’s career, and Willem fathered a child with another woman. Both of them were also heavy drinkers, and this sometimes caused problems in their lives.

In 1957 their affairs and alcoholism drove Elaine and Willem to part. They reconciled in 1976, after Elaine had sobered up, and she got him off the booze as well.

She died of lung cancer at the age of 68. Willem, though stricken with dementia, continued to paint and outlived her another eight years.

Career:

All through her painting career, Elaine alternated between representational images—rendered in a highly abstract manner—and pure abstractions, with only a hint of subject matter, if any.

Here's an example of the way she painted in the first phase of her career, in the 1940s.

Self-portrait, 1946
Internet

She began to show Abstract Expressionist paintings in the 1950s. One of her subjects was a series of studies of bulls. The energy of the subject seems suitable to the use of vigorous gestural brushwork in which each stroke has its own separateness.

Charging Bull No. 7, 1959
Wikiart

Here's an example in which the subject is even more obscure.

Juarez, 1958
Internet

Juarez, 1958
Santa Fe
Photo by Dan L. Smith

The idea of applying this loose, formless style to portraiture—which is normally associated with literal accuracy of portrayal—was totally contradictory, and rather abhorrent to the men in the Abstract Expressionist group. By figuring out how to relate expressive abstraction to portraiture, Elaine invented something new and unique.

Her early portraits depicted her friends. Here's a portrait of painter Fairfield Porter. Notice that she left the face vague while using her bold brushwork to capture the subject's posture and attitude exactly. Elaine realized early on that we recognize people by other signs before we even see their faces, and that while their faces might hide their personalities, their body positions given them away.

Fairfield Porter #1, 1954
Wikiart

Here's a portrait of a friend who was a poet, Frank O'Hara. Elaine first painted his face, then painted it out, perhaps because the features were too detailed to fit with the broad, slashing brushstrokes; perhaps because it was the moment of recognition before the face comes into focus that most interested her. She has an uncanny ability to capture the gesture, pose, and spirit of her subjects.

Frank O'Hara, 1962
National Portrait Gallery / Internet

Here's a more detailed portrait of the art critic who strongly championed Willem de Kooning's version of Abstract Expressionism, Harold Rosenberg:

Harold Rosenberg, 1962
Internet

In 1962, Elaine received a career-making commission from the Truman Library to paint President John F. Kennedy. She and her assistant were granted a two-week residency at the "Winter White House" in West Palm Beach. She was fascinated by the President and sketched and painted him in countless poses as he studied documents or conferred with aides.

Elaine in her studio, 1963

Elaine reached her final synthesis in September of 1963; Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22 of that year.  Elaine's portrait expresses youth, movement, and intensity. The President is sitting in a tense, temporary position, ready to bolt into action. He looks as though he might be listening to you speak at that moment.

The final version is 10 feet tall, because Elaine saw Kennedy as larger than life, both in his personality and in his importance as a world leader.

John F. Kennedy, 1963
National Portrait Gallery
Photo by Dan L. Smith

In that same year, Elaine completed a multi-figure image which seems like her best work to me. It depicts nine inmates of a special public school for narcotics offenders. Elaine had gone there to give art lessons to recovering addicts. The men appear self-aware and mature; their wary gazes reflect their institutionalization. Their individual personalities are indicated by poses and gestures; they may be candid, savvy, suspicious, bored or skeptical. The canvas is about 7 feet tall and fourteen feet wide; the monumental size accords these men a level of respect they seldom received in real life, thus making it a subtle, but moving political statement.

The Burghers of Amsterdam Avenue, 1963
Private collection / Internet

In the 1970s, Elaine continued to focus on portraiture, developing her abstract style. The painting below is sometimes considered her greatest masterpiece. It depicts Robert de Niro Sr., father of the actor, who was also an artist.

Robert de Niro Sr., 1973
Internet

Donald Barthelme
National Portrait Gallery / Internet

Later, Elaine did some portraits in a more popular style with more detailed attention to facial features. From the art critic's point of view, these works were less exciting, but they more accessible and more effective as illustration.

Pele #3, 1982
artnet

In the 1980s, when she was in her 60s, Elaine had a chance to travel in France. She painted a series inspired by the Bacchus fountain in the Luxembourg Garden in Paris that represent a return to a very high level of abstraction, with only the hint of subject matter.

Bacchus #3, 1978
NMWA
Photo by Dan L. Smith

Bacchus #69 (Purple and Green), 1982
Internet

Later, she did a series on the cave-paintings of Lascaux that are remarkably evocative.

Torchlight Cave Drawing, 1985
Internet

1741-1807: Angelica Kauffman, Swiss-Austrian

Self-portrait, 1770-1775
National Portrait Gallery, London

Angelica Kauffman was a Swiss-born Austrian Neoclassical painter who made her career in London and Rome. Beautiful, refined, and multi-lingual, Angelica was a citizen of the world.

Background: Angelica was born in Switzerland to an Austrian family, and mostly raised in Austria. She was the only child of J. J. Kauffman, a skillful muralist, but not highly successful. Her mother died in 1757 when Angelica was 16.

Training: Angelica was a child prodigy who showed talent in both music and art. Her mother taught her several languages as well.

She was trained in art by her father, Joseph Johann Kauffmann. Her father paved the way for her career.

Career: After Angelica's mother died, Joseph took Angelica with him to Italy in search of work. She assisted him by painting in the backgrounds of his works, but she also received her own commissions. Her training was enhanced by meeting distinguished Neoclassical artists on her travels; she also had the opportunity to see and copy many masterpieces.

During her 3-year stay in Italy, Angelica made her reputation as a painter of portraits. She also excelled at history paintings, which were considered the most prestigious artistic category, and she was elected to Rome's art academy.

At the age of 24, Angelica went to London, as the invitation of the wife of the British ambassador to Florence. She soon made friends with Joshua Reynolds, a major portrait artist in the English art world, who helped to promote her career. Angelica's father joined her in England, and she quickly became a fashionable portrait artist.

In 1768, when she was 27, Angelica became a founding member of the Royal Academy of Art, one of two women in the group. This was not a perfunctory honor. Angelica was familiar with the art scene on the continent and brought the group both knowledge and prestige. She exhibited regularly at the Academy for the next 16 years.

In 1781, when Angelica was 40, she moved to Rome, where she continued her success as a portrait artist and international celebrity. She continued to contribute to the Royal Academy shows until 1797.

Examples:

Papirius Pratextatus Entreated by His Mother, 1760s
Denver / Jan's photo, 2010

Portrait of John Simpson, 1777
Internet

Cordelia Crying Out for Help, 1783
San Diego, Jan's Photo

This is group composition is in the typical Neoclassical style.

Cornelia Africana, 1785
Internet

Portrait of Countess A S Protasova with Her Nieces, 1788
Internet 

Self-portrait, 1797
Internet

Private life:

In London in 1767, Angelica married a man named Frederick de Horn. He claimed to be the illegitimate son of a count. The couple lived apart and it is speculated that the marriage was unconsummated because he was impotent. When Angelica tried to get out of the marriage, she found out he was already married and a long-term scam artist. It was necessary for her and her father to pay him off to get ride of him. The marriage was dissolved in 1768.

After her first husband died in 1781, Angelica married a Venetian artist named Antonio Zucchi. Angelica and Antonio settled in Rome, where she continued her career.

She died in 1807 and was honored by a well-attended funeral.