What Can We Learn from These Works of Art?

Captivating works of art created by famous artist have held us in rapture such as those created by Van Gogh, Cassatt, Klimt, and many others. Viewing the human face and figure in art may be the best catalyst for beginning an inner dialogue about the human condition and dealing with our own life purpose and mortality. 

Viewing works of art with faces and figures may inspire us or raise unresolved questions and concerns. We may be reminded of those areas we need to explore more deeply. The value that these artists bring to our personal growth is priceless.

In this presentation we share several artists in the Manhattan Arts International online art gallery that focus on some aspect of the human form. Their subjects, styles and mediums vary and they are all highly engaging. Through their art with faces and figures we may be jolted into reality or transported into otherworldly realms of existence, past civilizations, different cultures, or total fantasy.

As you focus on each work of art presented on this page you may ask yourself:

* Do I relate to this image and why?
* How does this image make me feel?
* What story or message am I receiving here?
* What can I learn about myself or humanity through this work of art?

Visit the artists’ pages to view more of their art and learn more about them.
Please visit their websites and contact them directly to purchase their work.

Bren Sibilsky
Woman of Prophecy, clay, 35” x 26” x 18”

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Yvonne Welman
Since Leucippos People are Damaged Everywhere by Lust of Power, acrylic, fineliner, embroidery on canvas; 55″ x 55″

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Joe Stavec
A Familiar Sight, watercolor and sumi ink on wood panel, 12″ x 12″

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Denisa Prochazka
Tina Fontaine, Dancing Wings, clay, 60” x 65” x 8”

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Barbara Rachko
Maestro, soft pastel on sandpaper, 26″ x 20″

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Nanette Fluhr
A Lotus Grows in the Mud, oil on linen, 30″ x 24″

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Tommy B. McDonell
Cosmic Woman, mixed media

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Charlotte Shroyer
A Motley Crew, oil on canvas, 36″ x 36″

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Frantisek Strouhal
Mystique, oil printing/mixed media, 20″ x 24″

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Nancy Calef
Fruit to Nuts, oil on canvas, 35″ x 35″

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Faces & Figures from Art History

Mary Cassatt ~ Mother and Baby

A Kiss for Baby Anne, pastel painting by Mary Cassatt (born Mary Stevenson Cassatt). Mary Cassatt was among only three women to exhibit with the Impressionists, from the year 1879 to the year 1886, and at the time, and was the only American woman Impressionist. Photo: Public Domain.

Gustav Klimt ~ Portrait

Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907, oil silver and gold on canvas, 55.1″ × 55.1″. Reportedly this painting was purchased by Ronald Lauder for a record $135 million in 2006, Neue Galerie, New York. Photo: Public Domain. 

Auguste Rodin ~ “The Kiss”

Auguste Rodin, The Kiss, marble, 44.3″ × 46″ x 70″. Musée Rodin, Paris. Photo: Public domain. His sculpture “The Kiss” is known as one of the most romantic sculptures in the Western world. It portrays burning desire and passion. Rodin remarked, “The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.”

Vincent van Gogh ~ Self Portrait

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, oil on canvas, 16″ x 12-1/2″. Created in 1887. Metropolitan Museum. Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot. His style of self-portraits that implemented intense brushwork and facial expression to depict subjective emotions greatly impacted the portraits created by Expressionist painters. Photo: Public Domain.

Alfred Stieglitz ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Photograph of Georgia O’Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz. O’Keeffe first posed for Stieglitz in the spring of 1917. As their relationship deepened, he continued to photograph her “with a kind of heat and excitement.”  Her presence revitalized Stieglitz’s photography, which he had previously neglected in favor of  his New York gallery. Photo: Public Domain.

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A Few Famous Quotes About Portraits

“Faces are the most interesting things we see; other people fascinate me, and the most interesting aspect of other people – the point where we go inside them – is the face. It tells all.” ~ David Hockney

“I leave you my portrait so that you will have my presence all the days and nights that I am away from you.” ~ Frida Kahlo

“Ah! Portraiture, portraiture with the thought, the soul of the model in it, that is what I think must come.” ~ Vincent van Gogh

“When one starts from a portrait and seeks by successive eliminations to find pure form… one inevitably ends up with an egg.” ~ Pablo Picasso

“The painter must always seek the essence of things, always represent the essential characteristics and emotions of the person he is painting.” ~ Titian

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