Figure Drawing: February 2009

Saturday, February 28, 2009

John Bell - Engravings, Explaining the Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints

This book was published in 1794 and included 191 pages and 24 etched plates.

John Bell (1763-1820), born in Edinburgh Scotland, was a surgeon and anatomist. John Bell is considered the father of modern vascular surgery. His other works include “Principles of Surgery”, and “Anatomy of the Human Body”.

He illustrated his own work.

Wikipedia page.

A more complete biography at Electric Scotland.com.

Another image at Scotland Medicine in Print.

A post about why John Bell chose to do his own art work at Street Anatomy.

An image from the University of Nottingham.

An image from Engravings of the bones, muscles, and joints, illustrating the first volume of the Anatomy of the Human Body by John Bell from the National Institute of Health's exhibition Dream Anatomy.

At Amazon.com

The anatomy and physiology of the human body. Containing the anatomy of the bones, muscles, and joints, and the heart and arteries, by John Bell; and the anatomy and physiology of the brain and nerves, the organs of the senses, and the viscera, by Charles Bell.

The anatomy and physiology of the human body. By John and Charles Bell. The whole more perfectly systematized and corrected by Charles Bell.... The fifth American edition; (reprinted from the sixth London edition of 1826.) The text revised, with various important additions, from the writings of Soemmering, Bichat, Beclard, Meckel, Spurzheim, Wistar, &c. by John D. Godman.

Anatomy of the Human Body 4 Volumes bound as 2

The anatomy and physiology of the human body

The Anatomy of the human body

Friday, February 27, 2009

John Lizars - Anatomical Plates

A SYSTEM OF ANATOMICAL PLATES OF THE HUMAN BODY

Drawn by John Lizars F.R.S.E., the 19th century anatomist and surgeon who studied at the University of Edinburgh and who was to later become Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons. Engraved by his Brother William Lizars and published between 1822 and 1826 for John Lizars, hand colored version at right.

See a copy at Google Books.

Article on John Lizars by Arnold Levene. Another article titled Centenary of a Forgotten Pioneer of the Surgery of Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Figure and Animal Drawing

Figure and Animal Drawing by Cecil G. Trew.

From the first chapter:

THE study of the human figure and the study of animals have so much in common from the artist's point of view that they may well be considered together. In fact the artist will gain much in both branches of his art if he recognizes their similarities and allows his knowledge of the one to aid him in the other. Even portraiture is only to a very limited extent an exception to this tenet.

Character and individuality should be aimed at in animal drawing as much as in portraying a human being, though in the case of the former we have a narrower range of possibility. Civilization has, so far, reached its peak in the evolution of what we call Modern Man. Man has developed a greater complexity of emotion than any other creature, and his desire to express his feelings and thoughts to his fellows has brought about a most intricate code of emphasis and gesture. An animal is capable of all the elemental emotions that sway a human being, such as fear, hatred, love, despondency and joy, but as a general rule these passions are more transitory in an animal and, being born of natural circumstances rather than complicated reasoning, leave less lasting effect on the physiognomy.

So far as the general anatomy of man and beast goes one cannot do better than to study them together, and when one remembers that, in bygone ages, man used to go on all fours, had a "hide that was covered with hair" and "talked" as do the beasts of the field, the likeness that his general structure still shows to that of all other warm-blooded animals is not to be wondered at.

The Artist's Guide to Animal Anatomy

The Artist's Guide to Human Anatomy

These images are from a different book, Horse Anatomy
by Lewis S. Brown.

Horse anatomy: A handbook for artists, comprising the study of the proportion, structure and action of the horse as compared to man

Horse Anatomy (Dover Pictorial Archive)

A plate from the original edition and the cover of a new edition of The Anatomy of the Horse by George Stubbs.

An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists

Here is a similar book from 1860, A Comparative View of the Human and Animal Frame by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. And a post with lots of reproductions at BibliOdyssey.

The whole book is on view at the University of Wisconsin History of Science site.

Other books by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins at Amazon.com:

The Artistic Anatomy of the Dog and Deer: With Illustrations Drawn on Wood by the Author

The Artistic Anatomy of the Horse: With 24 Illustrations on Wood by the Author

The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins: An Illuminating History of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, Artist and Lecturer

Friday, February 13, 2009

Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova - Female Figure Painter

Self Portrait by Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova and female figure paintings, many of her daughter.

Link to Gandalf's Gallery page about the artist.

A Romanian page about the artist: Cinabru.
Partial translation of the page:

Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova was born in Ukraine, in 1884, in a family of artists. A ramas in istoria artei mai ales pentru portretele sale, dar si pentru scenele de gen si peisaje. She remained in the history of art especially for portraits, but for genre scenes and landscapes. Remarkable are the works - including nudes - dedicated to female beauty in all its aspects.