Leonardo v.s. Jacob Lawrence
Leonardo showed genius in many things. Eventually, his father was worn down by the boy's undeniable talent, and took him to Florence to study painting, sculpting and engineering under the great Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo quickly outstripped his master and was admitted to the Florence painters' guild in 1472. He lived long enough to be appreciated and well-paid, a rarity among artists. Throughout it all, he kept notebooks, in "mirror" writing, to keep track of his ideas, designs, and numerous sketches. Only about a dozen paintings can be definitely attributed to him, there is however hundreds of drawings, weather he was working on his engineering or designs of military weapons he was always drawing or sketching. In a notebook that was published after his death that we call Treatise on Painting you see an array of drawings he had done for numerous jobs or ideas he had. Drawing may not have been the career Leonardo wanted but its what he became more known for. In my opinion Da Vinci was a fine painter but had extraordinary talent when it came to drawing and sketching. When I look at his drawings I feel like I know what he was feeling and thinking, I feel as if i'm getting an insight into who he really was. But with his paintings they seem dull and done for the wrong purpose. To be excellent at anything you have to let your heart do the talking and that is what Da Vinci did when he would draw. Much like Leonardo Da Vinci, Jacob Lawrence was able to put his heart on the page, but not with a drawing, Lawrence excelled in painting. Both artists produced work because they loved doing it, so in that sense they are very much alike, but when it comes to their styles they are almost polar opposites. Leonardo is very structured in his drawings, making every muscle and vein placed in the correct anatomical position. Whereas Lawrence is much more abstract, and since he works in paint he utilizes color. Leonardo worked during the Italian renaissance, and Jacob Lawrence produced his work during the Harlem Renaissance, a period in which African American were having an artistic and cultural awakening. As a young boy Jacob Lawrence attended an after-school program at Utopia Children's Center where he would paint on cardboard boxes, and whatever else he could find to paint on. He kept up painting when he could, but was forced to drop out of school to help support the family after his mother lost her job during the Great Depression. Luck, and the persistent help of sculptor Augusta Savage, got Lawrence an "easel job" as a part of the Works Progress Administration. His love of art, reading and history, combined with his quiet determination to show that African Americans, too, were a major factor in the history of the Western art, led him to embark on his first important series, The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture. In the year 1941 Jacob Lawrence broke the "color barrier" when his seminal, 60-panel The Migration of the Negro was exhibited at the well known Downtown Gallery. Lawrence spent the rest of his life painting, teaching and writing. He is best known for his representational compositions, full of simplified shapes, and bold colors and his use of watercolor and gouache. Unlike nearly any other modern or contemporary artist, he always worked in series of paintings, each with a distinct theme. He will forever be known as the visual artist who "told" stories of the dignity, hopes, and struggles of African Americans in American history. Both These amazing artist have made huge impacts in the art world and to this day they affect the way artists go about making a piece that people respond to.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Anatomy drawings
:Study of arms and shoulders
(1452-1519 Italian)
Leonardo Da Vinci
Study of a human skull
1489
Leonardo Da Vinci
circa 1474
Study of hands
Silverpoint and white highlights on pink prepared paper
Jacob Lawrence
Forward
1967
Tempera on Masonite panel
Jacob Lawrence
“Play”
(1999)
silk Screen
Citations:
1. Esaak, Shelley. "Art History." Ask.com. N.p.. Web. 30 Sep 2013. <http://arthistory.about.com/cs/namesll/p/lawrence_j.htm >.
2. Getlein, Mark . Living with Art. 9th edition. new York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. 141,162. Print.
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