Graphic silhouettes. Silhouette as a means of artistic expression

The word silhouette comes from the French "silhouette", named after the 18th century French minister E. de Silhouette, an advocate of economic austerity, who was caricatured in the form of a shadow profile. He himself was also engaged in cutting out silhouettes from black paper.

Silhouette (fr. Silhouette) -- planar image, reception of work, means artistic expressiveness, as well as the type of graphics. The silhouette phenomenon can also occur in the process of perception of three-dimensional forms, depending on the lighting.

The silhouette is like the shadow of an object. The quality of silhouette is used by artists in all forms of art. Profile portraits and simple compositions are usually performed in this technique. In the silhouette, figures or objects are usually drawn with a solid black spot on a light background or white on dark background. In such a drawing, the external outlines of the object should be very expressive, without unnecessary details.

The outline must be very clear. Portraits in the silhouette technique are usually made in profile. Silhouettes can not only be drawn, but also cut with scissors. The silhouettes were known in Ancient China, Japan and other Asian countries. In Europe, as an independent type of graphics, the art of the silhouette was formed in the first half of the 18th century. in France. In Russia, the art of the silhouette was especially fond of famous artists F. Tolstoy, Dobuzhinsky, E. Kruglikova, A. Benois.

There are 4 means of artistic expression: line, stroke, spot, point.

The line is a conditional means of representation, invented by man in remote prehistoric times, at the very beginning of the birth of fine art. It is still used to this day as the main means of drawing. Lines are different. The trace on paper left by the tip of a pencil or drawing pen with ink, the movement of which is directed by some drawing tool (ruler, pattern or compass, etc.), is called "drawing" line. Throughout its length, it is the same in width. This is considered her merit. But in a sketch, such a line is unsuitable - it is dry, lifeless and therefore inexpressive.

A dashed line, or stroke - appears on the surface of the paper as a result of the movement of the hand holding a pencil or pen with a pen, brush or other device with which the coloring matter is applied to the paper. Depending on the various touches of the surface of the paper with the whole or the pressure of the pen with ink, which is varied in strength, carried out by the movement of the hand, the remaining trace changes its qualities, becomes dark or light, soft or hard.

Spot - is created inside the contour by parallel or crossing lines.

In this case, the strength of the spot is affected by the width of the lines or strokes and the light spaces remaining between them, which must correspond to the size of the executed drawing. A tonal spot on paper can also be created by other means, and its strength and sound largely depend on the features and properties graphic material, with which the sketch is performed, as well as from the technique of applying this material to paper. When using so-called “dry” materials for sketching, a spot of the desired strength can be created with a hard brush, shading, or even just a finger. Materials such as ink and ink, ready-made or diluted with water, are applied to paper with a soft or hard brush.

In some cases, the stain can be applied at the beginning of the work, immediately, and then the contour of the depicted form is refined by nature. Often, when working on sketches, all graphic means are used at once: a line, a stroke, a spot, a dot.

The point is another expressive means of graphics. Dot structural element dot technique. Multiplying over the surface, it forms a graphic spot. The shape of the dot depends on the tool with which it is applied to the plane. Point in yet more provides the possibility of expressing space, but with directly environmental properties.

Just like a stroke, a dot allows you to convey the tonal variety of graphics, but it has specific qualities of texture.

However, unlike the line, it is completely devoid of any signs of emotional expression in its expression. This is rather an impersonal and very technological graphic tool.

Thus, the use of a silhouette with various means artistic expressiveness makes the sign original and memorable. It also influences consumer choice.

Any graphic drawing can be attributed either to linear graphics, or to spot. In the first case, it will be a drawing with lines, in the second, a drawing with a spot. It is also possible to combine lines and spots in one composition. Each of these cases has its own peculiarity for perception, its own meaning and beauty.

SILHOUETTE IN GRAPHICS
The simplest version of black and white compositions is the SILHOUETTE, a black image on a white background or white on black. You must have come across these black and white drawings in books.
These drawings are two-dimensional, very conditional and concise.

Silhouette art has ancient history and goes back to the figurative painting on the vessels Ancient Greece. Remember those lovely images on amphoras: mythological scenes, Olympic Games, figures of Greek beauties and athletes?..

The real boom in silhouette art came in the 18th and 19th centuries. We can say that then the manufacture of silhouettes was a craze.

Many artists have paid tribute to this type of graphics and created beautiful examples of silhouette work.

Wherever they found application: illustrations, portraits, drawings on screens, dishes and in the interior ... The ability to create silhouette compositions was taught even at the Institute of Noble Maidens!

Traditionally, silhouette portraits were cut out of black paper and pasted onto White background. The contrast of black and white made it possible to accurately and quickly convey the features of the appearance, because the profile of a person in silhouette is very easily recognizable.

Ease of execution and, accordingly, low cost made this type of graphics very popular. However, in order for the picture to be expressive, it is important to very accurately notice the features of the outlines of the shape of a particular character, to give its characteristic details.

Although, of course, silhouette compositions can be much more complex and attractive to look at than just portraits.

BLACK AND WHITE PICTURES WITH SHADES OF GRAY
However, in addition to a locally black spot, all shades of gray can be used in the graphics. We see these gradations in charcoal, sauce, pastel, and ink drawings.

In this case, the image can already be three-dimensional, realistic, very reliably conveying reality.

But be that as it may, here, too, the plasticity and expressiveness of the spot are of no small importance. The artists of China and Japan are especially virtuoso in their use of the expressiveness of the spot.

Despite the simplicity of the motive, their graphic sheets are unusually attractive. The game of blurry and clear spots, beautiful flow gray flowers, perfection and harmony of forms.

And now, with all our guts, we feel the tender, refined, so fragile leaves of an orchid, the soft fur of a cat, the speed of a horse’s swift run, the joy of a bird’s flight ...

On the example of these works, we can understand that the stain pattern is something more than a recognizable silhouette.

This is very important point which I would like to convey to you.

The expressiveness of the image can be laid

NOT ONLY in the recognizability of the silhouette (which is depicted),

but also IN THE MOST FORM of stains (as pictured).

WHAT CAN THE SPOT TELL ABOUT?
Let's take different spots as an example.

Even if our eye does not find familiar outlines in any of these spots (and it tries very hard), we can associate the shape of the spot with certain sensations.

For example, we can say whether this spot is calm or moving, aggressive or friendly, delicately refined or monumentally massive.

What associations do certain spots evoke in you? Can you feel them?

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SHAPE OF THE SPOT
From the main forms of the spot, we can distinguish four, each of which affects the viewer in a different way:

Square and rectangle.
A finished, stable form, ready to express affirming images. The square is the most static and heavy, not prone to movement.
Circle.
Closed compact form focused on itself. Having no expressed basis, the circle is always unstable. For a person, the circle is associated with the concepts of “good”, “happiness”, “life”.
Triangle.
The most mobile, dynamic form, stable only if one of the sides is horizontal. The triangle is a symbol of movement, energy, sometimes even aggression.
Amoeba form.
Its fluidity expresses unstable images in a wide range from romanticism, melancholy to pessimism.

Modern artists actively use the spot precisely as a “spot”.

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Slides captions:

Silhouette Grade 6 I quarter Presentation of the teacher of fine arts Golub E.B. MBOU "Secondary School No. 225", Zarechny, Penza Region

All objects against the light have the shape of a silhouette

Silhouette - an image of an object that imitates the shadow it produces on a flat surface in sunlight or fiery lighting, that is, one in which only the outline of the object is indicated, and it itself appears as a monotonous black spot.

The silhouette is a flat image, a type of graphic

The birthplace of silhouette art is China, where monochrome black images, the so-called Chinese shadows, have existed for a long time. From there they entered Western Europe, especially in France, where mid-eighteenth century, the fashion for silhouette portraits has spread widely.

The term "silhouette" comes from the name of Étienne Silhouettet (1709-1767), who was Minister of State in 1759. Silhouettet was known for his frugality and narrow-mindedness, which made him a target for witticisms. Parisian society. Everything cheap and trifling began to be called his name, including portraits in black paint or black paper, “portraits a la Silhouette”.

The fascination with the silhouette was reflected in applied arts: there were snuff boxes with silhouettes, porcelain cups, embroideries, inlays, etc.

Compared to real picturesque portraits, the silhouettes seemed boring and miserable to many. However, this art found its masters and admirers, and not only in France, but also in other countries. In Germany, for example, in early XIX centuries were famous for their silhouettes Duttenhofer (who depicted a number of German writers and artists), K. Schmidt, Mühlbach and others

In Russia, interest in the silhouette arose in the era of Catherine II, when the Parisian silhouette artist Sido appeared in St. Petersburg. Sido portrayed Catherine II, members of her family and many representatives of the St. Petersburg nobility. He drew his silhouettes in ink, sometimes engraved on copper, but most often he cut them out of black paper and pasted them into engraved frames. A whole collection of these silhouettes, consisting of 183 sheets, belonged to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and was published in 1899 in phototype photographs (“Courtyard of Empress Catherine II, her employees and associates”).

Approximately at the same time as Sido, the German draftsman Anting (1753-1803) worked in St. Petersburg, who released the album “Collection de cent silhouettes” in 1791. IN mid-nineteenth century interest in silhouette art almost disappeared and the carving of silhouettes turned into a profession of itinerant artists, who, by this occupation, earned a meager piece of bread at public festivities and fairs. People of the secular circle have cooled to this art.

The gradually forgotten drawing of silhouettes was revived at the end of the last century by a talented by German artist A. Konevka, who painted in the form of silhouettes not only profile portraits, but also figures in different poses, genre scenes. In Russia, the art of the silhouette was done by a painter of scenes for children and folk life Elizabeth Bem. But great skill is revealed by the numerous silhouettes of E.S. Kruglikova, cutting them out of paper.

In 1917, the Moscow artist N.Ya. Simonovich-Efimova, who worked before (like Kruglikova) in the field of engraving. Simonovich also has large portrait canvases, in which the sharp, strong characterization of the figures is remarkable.

"Mir Iskusstva", which marked the beginning of the renewal of Russian graphics, revived the art of the silhouette. The incomparable "restorers" of antiquity - K. Somov, Alexander Benois and M. Dobuzhinsky - resurrected the former spirit of the silhouette. We often meet silhouettes in the works of Georgy Ivanovich Narbut.

Portraits in the silhouette technique are cut, as a rule, in profile from plain paper. Usually silhouettes (profiles) are cut out on black paper and then glued onto a white sheet. But other color variations are also possible.

In the silhouette technique, one can find a portrait, a figure, a genre sketch, a battle scene, a landscape, an architectural motif, a decorative composition, an illustration. The favorite genre of the silhouette at all times is the portrait.

Silhouette art is full of peculiar charm and innumerable possibilities. The work speaks eloquently about this. contemporary artists paying attention to the silhouette.

Silhouette art is built on the contrast of two colors - a black spot of a carved silhouette and white field background. In itself, the combination of white and black carries a great charge of decorativeness, expressiveness, even grandeur.

Sources of information: www.silverage.ru/stat/siluet.htm http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/brokgauz_efron/93772/ Silhouette http:// mode-elegance.ru/ poshiv /silhouette/ 100art.ru /usluga6_17.htm http:// mages.yandex.ru/ yandsearch http://pozitiv-news.ru/krasota-prirodnyh-javlenij/silujet-ljudej-na-zakate.html http://ru.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Narbut,_Georgy_Ivanovich http://www.nasledie-rus.ru/podshivka/7305.phphttp://www.liveinternet.ru/journalshowcomments.php?jpostid=135640095&journalid=2281209&go=next&categ=0

The silhouette of a person walking or standing is seen by everyone every day. This green man at the traffic light shows when you can cross the road. Where did this word come from?

Origin of the word

Silhouette - translated from French "outline, contour" (silhouette). This word has interesting story. The concept of a contour has existed for a long time, but it was the “silhouette” that a painted contour began to be called in France under Louis XV.

Count Étienne de Silhouette, who was then Minister of Finance, became known for his economy and extreme frugality. The fashion for costumes reacted immediately: pockets, snuffbox decorations disappeared, the style as a whole became much simpler. They called it the silhouette. Then one of the Seychelles also gets the name Silhouette.

At this time, the art of the Chinese shadow comes to France. Fashion quirks elevate him to the pinnacle of popularity. The portrait was executed within a few minutes, since there was no need to draw facial features. A contour was drawn, usually in profile, then filled with ink. Sometimes two or three lines were drawn in thin lines with white paint.

Created by Etienne de Silhouette Joint-Stock Company Panic quickly set in over the delay in paying dividends. General discontent spread throughout all sections of society, and the minister resigned from his post.

Apparently, it coincided that the caricature that appeared on the minister was made in the genre of new Chinese technology. A minimum of funds for its creation and determined its name. She was dubbed the "silhouette", just like a new style clothes.

Cloth

Maybe this will make you smile, but clothes also have their own silhouette - these are its contours that the fashion designer sketches on a piece of paper. Conventionally, it is customary to divide four types of modern silhouettes: straight (rectangular), oval, adjacent (fitted) and trapezoidal (or A-silhouette).

In the cut of clothes there is the concept of "silhouette lines". These are the parts of the pattern that form the outline. Skillfully using modeling and design, you can favorably emphasize the dignity of the figure and carefully hide the flaws.

The silhouette in clothes has to be taken into account when depicting a person. The drawings of fashion designers are called " fashion sketch”, there are other proportions of the body.

Drawings by Christian Dior from Figaro magazine - bright to that confirmation. If in academic drawing the head relates to the body as 1:8, then in the sketches of fashion designers - 1:12. This provides an advantageous representation of the model.

Man silhouette

Meanwhile, the art of the silhouette spread beyond France and into late XVIII century in St. Petersburg it became fashionable to order a portrait from famous master from Paris Sido (Sideau). He created the silhouettes of members of the royal house and many courtiers.

Sido worked with pen and Chinese ink, engraved on copper, cut out black paper. His competitor was Fr. Anting. But soon the nobility got tired of the fun, and carving portraits became the craft of itinerant artists. They were constantly met at fairs and the works of home-grown "artists" did not differ in quality and good taste.

It seemed that with the departure of the French school, art died. But Paul Konewka, the German maestro of this style, appears. In his performance, the silhouette is no longer a profile portrait. Entire compositions united by one theme, complex and cute, delight the audience.

The Russian artist Elizaveta Merkuryevna Bem was also famous for her silhouette work. Her illustrations for children's magazines were highly appreciated by I. Repin.

Paintings with hidden silhouettes

There are paintings where the silhouette of a human figure is hidden - a tree branch in the foreground passes into bushes and mountains in the distance. It turns out a girl. For the first time, paintings with "disguised silhouettes" depicted flowers, usually lilies, and the profiles of royal persons were recognizable in the interweaving of lines.

Now there is such a direction in painting, surrealism, in which some kind of subtext is hidden in an ordinary, it would seem, landscape. The master of such an embodiment is the Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo. His painting "Kiss of the Sea" depicts seascape, which hides 6 portraits.

A silhouette is an outline, and anything outside of it can be anything. This is the principle of O. Ocampo. A seagull that soars above the water, as it were, unites lovers.

Shadow play

Perhaps the most striking embodiment of the contour is used in shadow theater. Actors play behind the scenes, a screen is stretched in front of them. There is a strong searchlight in the depths, casting shadows. The advantage is that the shadows can portray something that no makeup can achieve.

A homemade mini-theater of homemade figurines can be arranged using a table lamp. Any fabric will act as a screen, the main thing is to pull it tighter on the stretcher. Wires are attached to the black figures to move them. This can not be done with your hands, as they will create extra shadows.

Try to make such a theater with the guys and get unforgettable moments of magic when a ray of light brings the characters of fairy tales to life. Or maybe it will become your hobby.

Erich Hollerbach

silhouette art

Dry and strict, at first glance monotonous and lifeless, art captivates us with its intimacy, mysterious reticence and subtle grace. The closer you look at him, the more you disbelieve in his "poverty" and "naivety". Mastering the art of silhouette is not as easy as it seems. The firmness of the drawing, the observance of perspective and proportionality are necessary here no less than in any picture. Despite the fact that the silhouette lies in two dimensions, and not in three, oddly enough, the laws of three dimensions apply to it: a talented silhouette artist is able to convey movement, relief, and even facial expression in monotonous black spots. The plane and the line that closes it acquire exceptional significance in the art of the silhouette. The outline, contour, outline of the subject enslave the attention of the silhouetter, limit him in means, but at the same time force him to special ingenuity. There are silhouettes in which "sculpture", the finest "modelling", even "colorfulness" are positively felt. Mathematical laconicism, noble abstractness of the silhouette teach to refine observation and vigilance. Silhouette - like formula and-- simultaneously -- hint of the invisible, a barely perceptible story about something, a phrase started and unfinished. But even outside its completeness, this phrase sometimes becomes a revelation, an aphorism, a symbol.

That is why silhouette art is full of peculiar charm and innumerable possibilities. This is eloquently evidenced by the works of contemporary artists who pay attention to the silhouette. Before turning to their works, I will touch briefly on the history of the silhouette. The birthplace of silhouette art is China, where monochrome black images, the so-called Chinese shadows, have existed for a long time. From there they penetrated into Western Europe, primarily into France, where in the middle of the 18th century the fashion for silhouette portraits became widespread. The very term "silhouette" comes from the name of Etienne Silhouettet (1709-1767), who in 1759 was Minister of State. Silhouettet was known for his frugality and narrow-mindedness, which made him a target for the witticisms of Parisian society. Everything cheap and trifling began to be named after him, including portraits in black paint or black paper, "portraits a la Silhouette". Compared to real pictorial portraits, the silhouettes seemed boring and miserable to many. However, this art found its masters and admirers, and not only in France, but also in other countries. In Germany, for example, at the beginning of the 19th century, Duttenhofer (who depicted a number of German writers and artists), K. Schmidt, Mühlbach, and others were famous for their silhouettes. In Russia, interest in the silhouette arose in the era of Catherine II, when the Parisian silhouette painter Sido appeared in St. Petersburg , whose works are still preserved in some houses. Sido portrayed Catherine II, members of her family and many representatives of the St. Petersburg nobility. He drew his silhouettes in ink, sometimes engraved on copper, but most often he cut them out of black paper and pasted them into engraved frames. A whole collection of these silhouettes, consisting of 183 sheets, belonged to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and was published in 1899 in phototype photographs ("Courtyard of Empress Catherine II, her employees and associates"). The fascination with the silhouette was also reflected in applied art - porcelain snuff boxes with silhouettes, cups, embroideries, inlays, etc. appeared. Approximately at the same time as Sido, the German draftsman Anting (1753-1803) worked in St. Petersburg, who released the album "Collection de cent silhouettes" in 1791. In the middle of the 19th century, interest in silhouette art almost disappeared and carving of silhouettes turned into a profession of itinerant artists who, by doing this, earned a meager piece of bread at public festivities and fairs. People of the secular circle have cooled to this art. The gradually forgotten drawing of silhouettes was revived at the end of the last century by the talented German artist A. Konevka, who painted in the form of silhouettes not only profile portraits, but also figures in various poses, genre scenes, etc. Konevka's success caused imitation. In Russia, the art of the silhouette was done by the painter of scenes from children's and folk life, Elizaveta Bem. But great skill is revealed by the numerous silhouettes of E.S. Kruglikova, cutting them out of paper. The artist usually sketches the outline of the silhouette on the white side of a black sheet of paper and then works with scissors, achieving amazing virtuosity in complex compositions that require careful consideration of perspective cuts. Kruglikova created a whole gallery of silhouettes of writers, artists, actors and musicians.

Remarkable among the works of E.S. Kruglikova silhouettes of Alexander N. Benois, V.E. Meyerhold, Emil Cooper at the conductor's stand, Grechaninov at the piano, and a number of "home scenes" (concert, etc.). In the same manner as the silhouettes, ie. from black paper, the artist performs portraits en face (modeled on the drawings and engravings of Vallotton), as well as landscapes, architectural motifs, sometimes capturing various moments of city life, with its street hustle and bustle. In 1917, the Moscow artist N.Ya. Simonovich-Efimova, who worked before (like Kruglikova) in the field of engraving. Simonovich also has large portrait canvases, in which a sharp, strong characterization of the figures is remarkable. This ability to accurately capture poses, mannerisms, and movements was reflected in Simonovich's silhouettes, which are distinguished by classical simplicity and technical consistency. Kruglikova and Simonovich are, so to speak, professional silhouetters. But even in the work of our graphs, the silhouette plays an important role. The "World of Art", which marked the beginning of the renewal of Russian graphics, revived, among other things, the art of the silhouette. The incomparable "restorers" of antiquity - K. Somov, Alexander Benois and M. Dobuzhinsky - resurrected the former spirit of the silhouette. We often meet silhouettes in the works of G. Narbut. The family silhouette of the artist, the auto-silhouette, the silhouettes of V. Zamirailo, Charleman, M. Zenkevich, Chambers, D. Mitrokhin and a number of small silhouettes in various decorative compositions testify to Narbut's great predilection for this kind of art. The elegance of the silhouette portrait also captivated S. Chekhonin, the best portrait miniaturist of our time. He executed several extremely successful silhouettes (including the profiles of V. Lenin and G. Zinoviev) for the publishing house of the Comintern. Perhaps there is not a single major graphic artist who would not pay tribute to this intimate, graceful art: V.N. Levitsky, D.I. Mitrokhina, V.D. Zamirailo. We don't give here detailed characteristics of these works, because in the work of these artists the silhouette plays a subordinate, auxiliary role, it is one of the side elements of the graphic composition, which does not have a prevailing value. But the silhouettes reproduced here convincingly speak of how much expression can be invested in "stingy" black spots. October 1922 The original is here-