CHONG Lai Wa talks on vanRijn " A Girl Sleeping " 1655

Rembrandt van Rijn " A Girl Sleeping " 1655

  

1) INTRODUCE THE DRAWING IN GENERAL TERMS

The title of the drawing called "A Girl Sleeping ", it was done by Rembrandt van Rijn in the year of 1655. It was a figure painting about the dream. The painting is about external, focused on the sitter in front of us, but there is an internal other that fascinates us: the unconscious self we see in dreams, which rebel against measurement, cities and grids. As we can see from the painting, which depict a girl was lying prone on the couch, fast asleep in a dark environment. The painting expresses the artist’s unconscious and conscious mind. On the unconsciousness aspect, the painting reveals the artist’s irrational mind and instinctive about the blurred image which he would have viewed. On the consciousness aspect, Rembrandt shows his rational mind and intellectual to represent the girl through those skillful line and proportion.   

2) DESCRIBE THE DRAWING IN DETAIL

As we know the painting called “A Sleeping Girl” in terms of Dream. This reveals the artist’s status of unconscious and conscious mind. Here are the analyses of the painting.

The drawing expressed itself in a frugality of line and fluid simplicity. As we can see with the tip of the brush and only a few broad strokes Rembrandt rapidly and skillfully outlined the girl’s sleeping body. The lines are various in quality, there are smooth and rough, continuous and broken lines in the drawing. Such as we can see the drapery of the clothes was presented in a loose way with broken lines and rough strokes. The hand and the leg were also presented in a blurred way, as to express the feeling of an abstract imagination. But there are also some smooth and continuous line of the couch and the body of the girl. The lines were much concrete and real. This helps to shows the entirety and clarity of the figure. The lines are all in different directions and shapes, such as vertical, horizontal, diagonal and curved strokes as to show a fluid rhythm.   

I n term of the shape and form, the artist also used the white of the paper to create not just the form but also the atmosphere surrounding the girl. Above her head, a thin wash sets off her figure by suggesting the darkness of a corner of the room. Drawing with brown ink together with rapid, wildly calligraphic strokes, and adding quick expressive shadow that helps to create volume and light of the figure. The figure is mainly a two-dimensional object, since the skin was presented with powdered ink in a dustiness way. But we can somehow interpret the figure as a three-dimensional object, since the light and dark contrast, the shadow such as the shadow between the hand and the couch, the leg, helps to create a depth and height of the object. The overall tone of the painting was calm and serene. It helps to create a peaceful atmosphere.

In term of the texture and composition of the painting, the dry brush strokes and the powdered graphite show that the roughness of the paper. This special texture helps to show the status of the dream, which was vague and indistinct. Also the drawing was constructed by few rapid, wildly calligraphic strokes, and quick expressive ink washes that create a fast rhythm of the object. That was very important, since the movement helps remind us about the unconscious situation of mind of the artist.

The drawing was not presented in a balanced way as we can see it through the use of light and dark contrast. The composition on the right top corner was much lighter with nearly white paper color, but the composition on the bottom left corner was quite dark, such as the shadow from the girl’s hand and the couch as well as the shading from above the head. Those compositions not only create weight and volume to the object, but also to the overall composition. The painting tend to be weight heavier on the left hand side as together with the inclination of the girl, Thus we can say that the composition appear bottom heavy with weight to one side, it is not visually balanced.

The drawing was constructed in a harmonious way. We can see the artist creates the unity through the use of balanced proportion, the color and tone, those match the theme of the painting “Dream”. The body proportion was presented in a balance way, the girl was lying on the couch, which gives us a sense of weakness and soft. The simple color used in the painting was mainly black and white, white colors construct brightness of the girl’s clothing, and the dark brown color creates dullness of the environment. The colors help to form an imaginative space which related to dream. Thus we can see the drawing was about simple, free and harmony as whole.

The drawing was an ink painting; it was compose by black and white color. So there are strong contrasts between black and white. Such as there is the lightness part on the right top corner, only appear the color of the white paper, and the darkness part was located on the shading of the hand, the foot, above the head and the black hair.

As we can see the contrast make the dark strokes stand out from the white paper with clarity and brevity.   

3) INTERPRETATION AND EVALUATION

In my opinion, “A Sleeping Girl” was full of poetic grace. The painting was a combination of the style of Chinese caligraphy and the Japanese ink painting. These elements should be seen in the traditional chinese art rather that in the western art history. So I think the painting was very elegant. I think it is very difficult to capture a poetry distill page of emotion and meaning into a few lines, but the artist was very successful in compressing his fascination with the visual world into a few intensely meaningful ink lines. Its quick, broad wash and intimate scale tell us more about the artist that he wants to touch the girl’s skin and hair and also showing his fear of waking her. Although there is no smile on her face, we can see silent and peaceful. The mood of the painting was about warm and calm. As we can see the aritst try to shoe the status of dreaming, we are hug by the warm color and the comfortable environment. I think it is quiet depent on the viewer's feeling, if a person who was upset or not on the mood, then he or she may feel lonely and cold toward the picture. However if a person who are more sensitive or positive, she may feel warm and comfortable !