Phrasing of line: Lowe, Legros, Boisseau, Dore & Kollwitz

What are some of the principles guiding an artist’s hand when making lines?

When discussing any principle, especially in the arts, there is an understanding that the principles guiding an artist’s hand are interconnected. I mention this because the following explanation of the principles behind the phrasing of line (i.e. variations to the attributes of line arising from changes in a stroke’s thickness, opacity and flow) share a role in how lines are phrased with a plethora of other closely related principles, such as those discussed in the last post regarding the representation of corners. In short, the following explanation may seem like there is a set of clearly defined principles underpinning the phrasing of line, but in truth each of the four principles addressed below (viz. the Ingres principle; weighting a line; projecting a line; squishing and stretching a line) does not function in a distinctly different way and independent of other principles.

The first principle that I wish to discuss, the Ingres principle, concerns the phrasing of a subject’s silhouette edge to replicate variations in the subject’s surface contours. For example, if an artist were to apply this principle to portraying a figure’s arm then the sharply angled contours of an elbow may lead the artist to treat the silhouette edge of the elbow with a strong line by comparison with a much softer line where the contours of the arm change to the rounded muscles of the upper arm. In the illustration of an arm shown below, for instance, I have marked the transitional changes to the outer edge of the arm’s underside with most angular contour area marked as point A and the softest contour marked as point D.

James Brown

Illustration showing phrased variations, according to the Ingres principle, in the treatment of the outer edge of an arm.

Point A marks the area at the elbow where most angular contours of the arm are shown by a bold red line delineating the silhouette edge.

Point B is the area of the elbow where there is less of an angular contour than at point A and is shown by a less opaque, cool blue line floating slightly away from the silhouette edge.

Point C is the muscled area of the triceps and as this area has more rounded contours than at point B it is shown with a softly applied line.

Point D marks the area approaching the armpit where the contours are more rounded than any of the previous areas and is shown with a faltering and faintly laid line. 

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(detail) Illustration of the Ingres principle

Another example would be if an artist were to portray the top edge of a gently curved leaf in a line followed by another line describing the top edge of a tightly curved leaf (see illustrations below). In this scenario, an artist representing the gently curved leaf would almost dissolve the line so that it appeared to be very soft (see upper digitally modified illustration) followed by an emphatically strong line when drawing the tightly curved leaf (see lower digitally modified illustration). The rationale for this difference in the two attributes of line is that the eye can see further around the gently curved leaf and so the line representing this view is accordingly soft whereas the eye is unable to see around a tightly curved leaf and so the line representing it is accordingly  strong and crisp.

Edward Joseph Lowe (1825–1900)

Cordyline (Dracaena) Indivisa, LII, 1891

From Edward Joseph Lowe’s Beautiful Leaved Plants, Being a Description of the Most Beautiful Leaved Plants in Cultivation in the Country

Originally purchased as a woodblock printed in colours and finished by hand (and it may be) but I believe that it is a chromolithograph.

25.4 x 17 cm (sheet)

Condition: Crisp impression in pristine condition with blank verso. There is a pencil inscription on the lower left “New Zealand Native.” I am selling this print for $60 AUD including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested.

Digitally altered details of Lowe’s Cordyline (Dracaena) Indivisa, LII, 1891

(upper) use of a soft and pictorially dissolved upper silhouette edge to portray a gently curve

(lower) use of an strong and crisp line to portray a tightly curved leaf

From a personal standpoint, the titling of this principle is a little problematic as the artist I have associated it with, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867), is not the finest exemplar of its use as there are many of his artworks in which it is not evident at all. Nevertheless, as shown in the details below taken from a selection of Ingres’ artworks the phrasing of the silhouette edge is clearly evident. Moreover, until I determine a more appropriate artist with whom to credit the principle as its “father”/progenitor, I will persevere. Later artists have certainly applied the principle in a very clear way, such as Picasso, and I can still remember my pleasure as an art student in examining the skilful play of the silhouette edge in his ravishingly beautiful gouache, La Belle Hollandaise [The Beautiful Hollander] (see detail further below).

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867)

(details) Costume study for the portrait of Madame de Rothschild, 1847

Pencil on paper with touches of white

Musee Ingres, Montauban

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867)

(details) La Grande Odalisque, 1814

Oil on canvas

91 x 162 cm

Louvre

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867)

(details) La Source, 1856

Oil on canvas

163 x 80 cm

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)

La Belle Hollandaise, 1905

Gouache on cardboard mounted on wood

77.1 x 65.8cm

Queensland Art Gallery

The second principle, weighting a line, involves a transition in a line from a pale tone where the line is further away from the ground to a dark tone where the line is closest to the ground. In short, the principle is all about the artist varying the degree of light and shade in a line—usually the outcome of changing the pressure on the drawing instrument—to connote the sensation of gravity. A practical example of this type of line phrasing may be seen in Jean Jacques de Boissieu’s (1736–1810) L’Hiver, d’apres un dessin fait a Saint-Chamond [Winter, after a drawing by Saint-Chamond], 1795 shown below. Here a gnarly tree spans the composition with its upper branches touching the top of the image border and its trunk rooted close to the bottom border. The rendering of the tree itself is where the phrasing of line may be seen. In representing the uppermost tips of the branches de Boisseau employs very lightly inscribed lines to suggest an equivalent lightness in the branches’ physical weight but as the line work rendering the silhouette edges and surface contours of the tree’s trunk progresses towards the ground the marks become increasingly darker and stronger connoting the tree’s solid mass and weight (compare the details further below).

Jean Jacques de Boissieu (1736–1810)

L’Hiver, d’apres un dessin fait a Saint-Chamond

[Winter, after a drawing by Saint-Chamond], 1795

Etching on wove paper with chine appliqué

26.5 x 19.5 cm (chine appliqué); 26.7 x 20 cm (plate); 29.2 x 22.2 cm (sheet)

Perez: 98

Condition: Strong impression with small margins and light pencil inscriptions of a dealer’s stock inventory details on verso otherwise pristine condition. I am selling this print for [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested.

Details of L’Hiver showing changes in the attributes of the strokes

In Alphonse Legros’ (1837–1911) masterly, Viel Espagnol [Old Spaniard] (shown below), the phrasing of each line reveals the artist’s active engagement in “feeling” out the figure’s form in terms of its contours and where the form is weighted. For instance, the swelling (i.e. bulging outwards) of each line from a faint beginning and back to an equally faint ending like a lanceolate leaf shape (i.e. a shape that is pointed at each end) gives form to the Spaniard’ gown as it lightly wraps around his front arm. This swelling, however, is not a perfunctory exercise. The point of maximum swelling in the lines is assigned to where the weight of the arm places tension on the fabric of the gown (see details of the lines further below). In essence, this subtle phrasing is the “secret” to using the principle of weight in a line meaningfully. 

Alphonse Legros (1837–1911)

Viel Espagnol [Old Spaniard], 1872

Published in Portfolio, no.27, March 1872

Etching on cream laid paper

27.7 x 18.6 cm (plate); 34.7 x 24.5 cm (sheet)

Condition: Marvellous impression in superb condition with generous margins and minimal handling marks. I am selling this print for [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested.

Details of Viel Espagnol showing phrasing of line to connote weight

The third principle, projecting a line, is closely linked to the phrased swelling of line that Legros employs in Viel Espangnol. What I mean by this is that his use of the swelling creates the illusion that the centres of the lines advance towards the viewer. Or to explain this in a different way, the principle of projecting a line as used by Legros is as simple as applying the rules of perspective: the larger the swelling and the darker and more opaque it is, the more it advances. An example of this phenomenon may be seen in the companion print to de Boisseau’s L’Hiver [Winter], Le Printemps, d’apres un dessin fait a Saint-Chamond [Spring, after a drawing by Saint-Chamond]. Here, the eye is directed into the distance by limbs of a weathered tree similar, but in a mirrored position, to the one featured in L’Hiver. In terms of de Boisseau’s phrasing of his lines to express spatial projection, I wish to draw attention to the tonal transition from fine marks at the distant ends of the far right branch to the dark tones and much stronger marks where this limb connects with the trunk of the tree (see details of this change further below).

Jean Jacques de Boissieu (1736–1810)

Le Printemps, d’apres un dessin fait a Saint-Chamond

[Spring, after a drawing by Saint-Chamond], 1795

Etching on wove paper

26.4 x 19.6 cm (plate); 42.2 x 35 cm (sheet)

Perez: 97

Condition: Strong impression with wide margins and handling marks. I am selling this print for $210 AUD including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested or click the “Buy Now”

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Detail of Le Printemps showing a transition in line attributes from distance to foreground

The final principle, squishing and stretching a line, has a long pedigree extending back to classical Greece with their sinuous S-shaped (contrapposto) pose for sculpture. The idea of compressing one side of the figure (usually by shifting the weight of the figure to one foot) and countering this compression further up the figure gives vitality to the figure by opposition of tensions. Importantly, however the spectacle of this opposition is inherent in how the artist portrays the complementary effects. In terms of phrasing a line, the physical state of compression is represented by a swelling line. Conversely, the notion of stretching is represented by a thinning line. Usually the use of these complementary effects is not a conscious decision but happens at an intuitive level.

Like all good illustrators—especially cartoonists—the principle of squishing and stretching underpins their work. For example, in Paul Gustave Doré (1832–83) illustration There Minos Stands (Canto V., line 4) (shown below), note how the Mino’s biceps are drawn with a thick and very dark line whereas his triceps are drawn with a much finer line. This phrasing of line may also be seen in Minos’ forearm and hand (see details further below).

designer) Paul Gustave Doré (1832–83);

(engraver) Gaston Raymond Ernest Monvoisin

There Minos Stands (Canto V., line 4) illustration for Dante’s Inferno

Wood engraving

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(detail) There Minos Stands 

(detail) There Minos Stands 

(detail) There Minos Stands 

Beyond employing this principle as a “natural” practice when drawing, the principle can, of course, be exaggerated to show feelings that go beyond the everyday world. In Käthe Kollwitz’s (1867–1945) powerful and very large etching, Die Pflüger [The Ploughmen] (shown below), the phrasing of line is a fundamental visual device in expressing the extreme physical stresses involved in ploughing. Of course this image is much more than an illustration of farmer labouring. This is an image of desperation and the phrasing of line signifies the almost superhuman tensions of pulling the plough underpinning the image. Note in particular the difference in treatment between the fine and straight lines representing the strain on the harness around the closer figures’ legs and the thicker contoured lines portraying the creases in his clothes (see details further below). 

Käthe Kollwitz’s (1867–1945)

Die Pflüger [The Ploughmen], 1906

Plate #1 of the Bauernkrieg [Peasants’ War] series

Etching, engraving, softground and commercial tonal grids

With von der Becke blindstamp lower right

31.5 x 45.4 cm (plate); 53.4 x 70 cm (sheet)

Knesebeck: 99 Xlll b; Klipstein: 94

Condition: superb impression in pristine condition. I am selling this print for $970 AUD including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. This is a large print and will be shipped in a tube. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested or click the “Buy Now.”

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Detail of Kollwitz’s Die Pflüger showing the squishing and stretching principle in the treatment of line

Haptic & Visual: Rodin & Julien

What are the key approaches to drawing?

Without too many apologies for speaking broadly, I wish to propose that there are only two fundamental approaches to drawing: the haptic and the visual. The haptic approach involves an artist drawing the chosen subject as if “feeling” its contours and spatial volume in a sensory way. For instance, if the subject were a chair, the artist would seemingly—perhaps literally—stroke the drawing support with the pen or pencil as if stroking the chair’s contours until an image of the chair became apparent. This attitude of discovering form by sensory exploration is expressed well by Michelangelo’s often quoted assertion:” I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free” (arguably from a letter from Michelangelo to Benedetto Varchi). By contrast, the visual approach is a much more analytical and calculated process of representing a subject using pictorial conventions, sight-size measuring and applying the most appropriate marks to mimic the subject’s pictorial attributes. For instance, in using this approach the artist would draw the chair by using the rules of perspective and employ marks to replicate the textures and patterns of light and shade on the chair.  To illustrate the difference of these two approaches and the advantages of each, the following discussion will focus on the way that Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) employs the haptic approach in portraiture by comparison to the visual approach of Bernard-Romain Julien (1802–71).

Like most sculptors engaged with working in a three-dimensional medium such as clay, plaster and bronze, Rodin’s practice as a draughtsman is to use each line as if it were floating in space. Moreover, the placement of each line in this illusion of space is so clear its position with regard to the other lines in a drawing can be determined with a fair degree of certainty. In his portrait of Victor Hugo (shown below) for example the lines portraying the great writer’s beard (see the detail further below) are arranged so that the hairs closest to us are minimally longer and have more graphic energy (i.e. expressive “life”) than the lines describing the further away aspects of his beard. From a personal standpoint, these lines are more than descriptive marks representing the beard. They embody the material substance of the beard as a three-dimensional mass leading back to his face in a flurry of rhythms like water making its way through rapids. 

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917)

Victor Hugo, de Trois Quarts (Victor Hugo, Three-Quarters View), 1885

Drypoint on creme wove paper

state vi (of viii)

22.2 x 14.9 cm (plate); 29.8 x 21.8 cm (sheet)

Thorson: VIII

Condition: pristine condition.

I am selling this print for the total amount of $970 AUD including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested or click the “Buy Now” button below.

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View of whole sheet

Rodin, (detail) Victor Hugo, Three-Quarters View, 1885

Rodin’s treatment of the silhouette outline of Hugo’s forehead reveals a key element of the haptic approach: a subject’s form is constructed out of the contours of the subject’s features rather than through observed effects of light and shade on the features. For example, the bump on Hugo’s noble brow (see detail below) is not delineated as a simple convexity in an unbroken silhouette outline. Instead the bump is portrayed as a conceptually “felt” excrescency and, as a consequence, the line work contouring the bump is then fitted into the matrix of other “felt” contours that ultimately shape the silhouette outline of Hugo’s head. In short, the outline is constructed from the head’s internal features rather than an observed line of demarcation between the subject and the immediate background.

Rodin, (detail) Victor Hugo, Three-Quarters View, 1885

One outcome of working with the haptic approach is that a drawing of a subject executed this way must ultimately be a personal and subjective portrayal. Of course, this is not usually a problem as part of the mantra of most artists is to showcase a personal vision. When a personal perception is not required, as for example in presenting an objective viewpoint for technical illustration, the visual approach of presenting a subject from the standpoint of what can be observed becomes important. The teaching of drawing and illustration is built around this approach as it gives opportunity for all the drawing techniques and principles gathered through the centuries to be channelled into a best practice model for portraying a subject. One of the instrumental artists engaged in this academic pursuit during the nineteenth century is Bernard-Romain Julien.

Julien’s approach to drawing is easily seen in his exercise templates for students to copy. In the selection of lithographs shown below the fine art academy student is invited to use the initial outline of the figure on the left of each plate and to follow the tonal distribution of the figure fully rendered in tone on the right. During the nineteenth century, instructional plates like these were widely available and they helped to train the student’s eye to see clearly and to instil care in the modelling of a subject’s form using very controlled shading techniques.

 Bernard-Romain Julien (1802–71)

Cours Elementaire, Plate Number 42

Lithograph on wove paper

27.5 x 36 cm

Cours Elementaire, Plate Number 44

Lithograph on wove paper

27.5 x 35.5 cm

Cours Elementaire, Plate Number 74

Lithograph on wove paper

27 x 36 cm

Cours Elementaire, Plate Number 79

Lithograph on wove paper

27.5 x 35.5 cm

Condition: minor handling marks and age toning to edges.

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In the two prints below Julien’s deep admiration of a classical past is very evident. Not only is the choice of a subject designed to appeal to a taste at that time for notions of beauty aligned to the antique but the style of rendering is also designed to impart cool objectivity despite the use of dramatic lighting and the vignette format.

Bernard-Romain Julien (1802–71)

Cours Elementaire, Plate Number 138

Lithograph on wove paper

36 x 27.5 cm

Cours Elementaire, Plate Number 56

Lithograph on wove paper

35.9 x 27.4 cm

Condition: minor handling marks and age toning to edges.

I am selling the above two lithographs (#138, 56) for the total amount of $130 AUD including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested or click the “Buy Now” button below.

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Julien’s infinite care in rendering the transitions of tone on a subject also extends to how he models the contours of each form with line. In Etude d’apres E. Deveria (shown below), for instance, the cross-hatching of lines is so consciously controlled that the precision of alignment within each set of lines makes the form of the subject a clear representation of concrete reality.

Bernard-Romain Julien (1802–71)

Etude d’apres E. Deveria, Cours Elementaire, Plate Number 104

Lithograph on wove paper

37 x 27.4 cm

Condition: minor handling marks and age toning to edges.

I am selling the above lithograph (#104) for the total amount of $95 AUD including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested or click the “Buy Now” button below.

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On close comparison with the line work of Rodin, however, there is a difference in the handling of contours. In Julien’s print the line work can be described as an approximation of a broad flow of the subject’s contours but this flow is one based on observation rather than sensory exploration. Herein is the essential difference in the two approaches.

Julien, (detail) Etude d’apres E. Deveria

Julien, (detail) Etude d’apres E. Deveria

Advancing & receding forms (Part 1): van Sichem II

How does an artist make a tree lean towards you?

One of the simplest and most effective ways that an artist can employ to make a tree lean towards you is to use curved contour lines (sometimes described as “bracelet marks”) to suggest that you are under the tree. This means that the contour lines are “U”-shaped like a smile resulting from the artist depicting the underside of the tree limbs. As an example of this device see the detail below from van Sichem II’s 17^th century woodcut, John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness.

  Detail of John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness, 1648 

Conversely, an artist may make a tree lean away from you by using contour marks suggesting that you are above the tree; that is, marks that are shaped like an inverted "U"—a sad mouth (see detail from the same woodcut below).

  Detail of John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness, 1648

Christoffel van Sichem II (1581–1658)

(recto) John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness, published 1648 (but most likely executed in 1620)

Woodcut, 10 x 7.3 cm (plate image); 14.3 x 9 cm (sheet)

Condition: the print is cut from the 17^th century biblical text, t'Scat der Zielen, dat is: Het geheete leven ons Heeren Jesu Christi..., published in Amsterdam in 1648 by Pieter I. Paets. Printed in Old Dutch Gothic script with the artist’s CVS monogram bottom left corner on laid paper with chainlines at one inch. The sheet is in good condition with a small stain on the left edge away from the image. Another woodcut by van Sichem II is other side of the sheet (see below).



 verso of the same sheet

I am selling this print for $45 AUD including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested or click the “Buy Now” button

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To demonstrate the effectiveness of this principle for portraying advancing and receding forms I recommend the following exercise. First, draw a fundamental tree trunk (see figure 1 below). Next, draw in a very schematic way two limbs on the trunk without showing how they are attached to the trunk (figure 2 below). Finally, experiment with applying the two types of contour lines discussed above to see which makes the limb advance and which makes it recede (i.e. inscribe marks on the underside of one of the limbs and on topside of the other limb) (figure 3 below).

Of course, an artist can make any feature appear to advance or to recede using this principle. For instance, van Sichem has depicted the right arm of the figure on the bottom right of John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness gesturing away from us. This representation of a receding arm is achieved by showing contour lines on the top of his arm. By contrast, the same figure’s left arm is shown advancing towards us by contour lines placed under his arm (see details below).

Advancing and receding contour lines in detail of van Sichem II’s woodcut, John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness, 1648

Artists do not always have the flexibility to arrange subject features so that they may be depicted from either above or below. Despite this challenge, artists usually have the inherent gift to visualise form in their mind’s eye so that the appropriate orientation of contour lines can be applied. For example the drawing below features the same cylinder but the orientation of the marks rendering its form changes with the direction the cylinder faces.

Unfortunately the conceptualisation process of marrying the direction that a form faces with the appropriate alignment of contour lines sometimes goes astray. This can be seen in the detail of the foreground figure’s left hand (see the bottom-right detail above). Here van Sichem II leaves the viewer in a conundrum with his use of contour line to establish the location of the bend in the arm at the elbow.



In van Sichem II’s major prints however the true genius of his craft in portraying form is clear as can be seen in the title page print for the Epistle of Saint Paul (see below). Here, van Sichem II's subtle shifts of contour shading are amazing. For example, note how the contouring of the St Paul’s foot projects the foot forwards compared to the contouring of lines on the hilt (handle) of the sword on which St Paul rest his foot. More subtle than these is his contouring of marks around the saint’s head so that his body is shown gently arching forward. Such fine tuning of forms so that they move forward and back in space has earned him the enviable title of “The Dutch Durer.”

Christoffel van Sichem II (1581–1658)

(recto) St Paul, published 1648 (but most likely executed in 1620)

Woodcut, 34.2 x 21.7 cm (sheet)

Condition: a magnificent full-size folio leaf from the 17^th century biblical text, t'Scat der Zielen, dat is: Het geheete leven ons Heeren Jesu Christi..., published in Amsterdam in 1648 by Pieter I. Paets. Printed in Old Dutch Gothic script with the artist’s CVS monogram bottom left corner on laid paper with chainlines at one inch. The sheet has minor tears and a nibbled corner. Otherwise it is in excellent condition. Another woodcut by van Sichem II is other side of the sheet (see below).

  Verso of the same sheet

I am selling this print for [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Please contact me using the email link at the top of the page if you are interested or click the “Buy Now” button. 

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