Jean Cocteau Analysis Essay

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Formal Analysis
Ryan Herald
ARH 2850
25 November 2014

A brief formal analysis of Jean Cocteau by the Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani… Finished in 1917, this painting was created in Paris, France, and is currently on display at the High Museum of Modern Art here in Atlanta. The medium is oil on canvas, and it is a portrait. It is likely that other key painters influenced Modigliani’s techniques at the time, “The color tonalities, drawing style, and overall composition reflect influence of Cézanne” (The Pearlman Foundation).
Shown in the painting is a well-dressed man. The man pictured was a French writer. Jean Cocteau, has an elongated head, neck, and nose, and simple features. His face almost seems mask-like. The elongated nose and sharp chin emphasize these features, making them seem the most prominent and …show more content…

In this case, people of this nature tend to have eyes that reflect that mindset. However, Modigliani chose to portray him with shallow, mindless eyes. While his eyes do not show much depth, his offset gaze creates a sense of motion within the painting. The depth of the painting seems to be relatively shallow. The shadow that the chair casts on the wall is a very small one, leading me to believe that either a) the chair was close to the wall, or b) the light source was right at eye level, creating a shadow that cast almost directly behind the chair.
While he painted dozens of portraits throughout his career, Modigliani seemed to have a common theme run throughout all of them. While he did work to make his paintings resemble the person modeling, it almost seems as though he had a set of trademark characteristics that appeared in each of them, creating what could have been some sort of brand for himself. While viewers would hopefully be able to recognize each person being painted, it is likely that they would first recognize that the work was one of

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