Theme: Figurative paintings, Paintings of Women without clothes, Clothless Females and Males. Understanding the Paintings of natural beauty.
Painting speaks through the colours. And when these colours tell us about the natural beauty of women, they speak more artistically. The hidden tone of that telling mostly remains sensual pleasure. And that has remained one of the favourite subjects for the artists.
The New Perfume -by John William Godward
Here this is a painting of a woman coming out of her bath, the artist is John Godward. I have selected this to put here because it reminds me the Goddess of Love, Venus. Venus is inspiration of almost all the painters while they do figurative art, especially painting natural beauty of females.
THE FIGURATIVE ART: In the following articles, the journey would be in the beautiful field of figurative paintings. The artists shown in sidebar would be companions to the viewers who had interest in understanding the art of painting in general and the figurative art in particular. The artists here have tried injecting beauty into their paintings; and the lifeless canvases have become lively by the magical touches of bright and subdued colours of the master painters. They have used all the colours of rainbow to make male and female figures alive; they have left no hue untouched; they have left no tonal value unused.
Figurative Paintings Vs Photography: Looking to a fine art painting of natural beauty of human body is a respectable activity; whereas viewing similar photographs depicting merely skin-stock is not. We can say it like this: when the element of sex is removed from an artwork, it is fine art, enjoyable as an art piece.
A visit to a gallery showing such paintings could be an opportunity for assessing the artworks in their purely artistic terms. An artist or an art-lover who is educated into the art of painting would see figurative paintings in different perspectives, differently than those who look at such artworks out of curiosity or voyeurism only. In these paintings, the male or female would be in different positions, depicting beauties of human bodies as painted by the artists.
Art and Flesh : For a true art-lover the figurative art depicting in body of a male of female is a matter of delicate flesh tones. Here the body parts coloured by an artist is not for alluring the viewers' eyes, but it is depiction of the sophisticated composition that a painter has composed. Like a poet composes a poem; an artist also composes a painting of natural beauty of a male or female body. Words are the tools for a poet and a writer; the colours, canvas and brushes are the tools of a painter. The common source for all of such artists and poets and writers is the element of imagination.
Viewers' Response: When we look at any painting, we would certainly tend to compare it with other similar paintings we had seen in past. Thus the viewing of paintings of beautiful females would give us an opportunity for comparing it with other masterpieces. It would be a good reference to the other paintings.
Since the ages, the human body has remained a favourite model for the artists. While choosing a model for the art, an artist does it for a purpose. The painters choosing human bodies as their models have certain theories in their minds. Take the case of the paintings of Venus. The paintings of Venus, the Goddess of love, personify love and harmony. In many a paintings she is shown with Mars, the God of war. The idea behind such depiction is to show the efforts of love and the sense of harmony to restraint the impulse leading us to war. It is to pacify the warmonger living within us. (Image courtesy By John William Godward (1861–1922) Description British painter Date of birth/death 9 August 1861(1861-08-09) 13 December 1922(1922-12-13) Location of birth/death Wimbledon, London, England (Art Renewal Center Museum, image 10992) [public domain], from Wikimedia Commons)
