examples of The Human Figure in Art(Western Art: paint, pencil, pastel)

When viewing artwork, or

creating your own...

...consider how form, line, colour and medium can evoke emotion and/or tell a story.

Look at the following works

of art that depict the human figure.

How was form, line, colour, medium and pose used to convey emotion?

Select artists or works of art that

inspire you. What is it about

the piece that draws you in?

Critically analyse the work and attempt to use it as inspiration in your own work.

Remember, don’t simply

mimic. Transform it

with your own ideas.

“Female Figure”Filippo Lippi1430

“Study of Three Male Figures (after Raphael)”Michelangelo

“Dead Christ, mourned by the virgin, a pious woman and Saint John Apostle”Andrea Mantegna

1480

“The Birth of Venus”Sandro Botticelli c.

1486

“Venus of Urbino”Titian1538

“The Painter and the Art Lover”Pieter Bruegel the Elder1565(engraving)

“David with the Head of Goliath”Caravaggio1609-1610

“Four Figures at Table”Le Nain brothers

c.1635

“Study for the Adulteress: half figure with folded arms, from Guercino”

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

“Seated Nude Figure”Pierre-Paul Prud'honBorn: April 4, 1758, ClunyDied: February 16, 1823

“Half-figure of a Bather”Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

1807

“Grande Odalisque” Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

1814

“Portrait of Juliette Courbet as a Child”Gustave Courbet

1841

“The Birth of Venus”Alexandre Cabanel

1863

“En un café o La Absenta”Edgar Degas

1873

“Little Girl ina Blue Armchair”Mary Cassatt

1878

“Two Ballet Dancers”Edgar Degas

c.1879

“A Female Figure Resting (Dolce far Niente)”Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

1882

“Sien, Sewing, Half-Figure”Vincent van Gogh1883

“La Toilette (Woman Combing Her Hair)”

Edgar Degasc. 1884-1886

“Back of a Male Figure”William Merritt Chase1885

“Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin”Vincent Van Gogh

1888

“Seated Dancer in Pink Tights”Henri Toulouse-Lautrec1890

“What’s New?”Paul Gauguin

1892

“The Scream”Edvard Munch

1893

“Two Figures”Pablo Picasso1904

“Self-Portrait”Marie Laurencin

1906

“Portrait of Fritza Riedler”Gustav Klimt1906

“Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer 1”

Gustav Klimt1907

Egon SchieleBorn: June 12, 1890, TullnDied: October 31, 1918

“Les Demoiselles d'Avignon”Pablo Picasso

1907

“Eve”Henri Rousseau1907

“Portrait of Alexander Sakharoff”

Jawlensky Sakharoff1909

“Back”Andre Derain

“The Dancer”Andre Derainc.1910

“Crouching Figure (Valerie Neuzil)”Egon Schiele1913

“Border woman figure in blue Gwand”Ferdinand Hodler

1915

“Portrait of Enric Cristòfol Ricart”Joan Miró1917

"Nudo coricato di spalle" Amedeo Modigliani

1917

“Figure in Scutari Carpet”Henri Matisse1922

“Female Figures”Aleksandr Deyneka

1923

“Figure at a Window”Salvador Dali1925

“Study of a figure for Hell”John Singer Sargent

Born: January 12, 1856, FlorenceDied: April 14, 1925

“The Waiting Room”Norman Rockwell

c. 1937

“Seated figure (male classical)”Willem de Kooning1939

“The Two Fridas”Frida Kahlo

1939

“Figure”Yiannis Moralis1951

“Figure”Yiannis Moralis

1951

“Reclining Nude”Raoul Dufy

Born: June 3, 1877, Le HavreDied: March 23, 1953

“Morning Sun”Edward Hopper

1952

“Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X”Francis Bacon1953

“Excursion Into Philosophy”Edward Hopper

1959

“Figure with Bare Arms”Lucian Freud

1961

“Portrait of the Artist's Mother, Mrs Laura Hockney, Bradford”David Hockney1972

“Two Figures with a Cat”Leland Bell

c. 1980

“St. Joe Louis Surrounded Snake” Jean-Michel Basquiat1982

“Existers”Gilbert & George

1984

“Drawing for Monica with Matisse”Tom Wesselman

1986

“Paraja Ballando”Fernando Botero1987

“Give the People What They Want”Marlene Dumas

1992

“Bride” (Pastel)Paula Rego1994

“Pauline”Gary Hume1996

“Mist II”Paula Rego

1996

“Water Painting”Gary Hume1999

Remember: form, line, colour, medium & pose can evoke emotion.

(for educational purposes)