After Ensor
silverpoint on prepared paper
8 x 15 cm
Framed: 25 x 30 cm
I became really interested in the medium of metalpoint after the British Museum’s 2015 exhibition ‘Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns’. For my work as an old master drawings researcher I have come across many metalpoint drawings, or drawings with areas of metalpoint, and experimenting with the medium myself has been a very useful exercise in better understanding these drawings. Metalpoint creates an unusual mark, it is often thin, matt and can be quite faint, in contrast to graphite which creates a metallic mark that can vary in weight and tone. A metalpoint drawing is made using a stick of metal, in this case silver, on prepared paper. The texture of the paper forces minuscule particles of metal to be deposited, creating a mark. This mark is irreversible, for this reason the medium was only adopted by certain artists and for certain types of drawings, making unattributed drawings sometimes easier to identify.
I have long been obsessed with the art of James Ensor. This drawing came about from a desire to better understand how he built up his complex and often manic multi-figure scenes. Here I was specifically looking at his painting ‘The Intrigue’ (1890) found in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp. I thought metalpoint would be a useful medium to use in this case because its mark is so monotone, meaning I could concentrate on the composition and structure of the painting without getting too distracted by the strong palette and use of tone.
Frame made and hand-painted by me in my Norfolk workshop
silverpoint on prepared paper
8 x 15 cm
Framed: 25 x 30 cm
I became really interested in the medium of metalpoint after the British Museum’s 2015 exhibition ‘Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns’. For my work as an old master drawings researcher I have come across many metalpoint drawings, or drawings with areas of metalpoint, and experimenting with the medium myself has been a very useful exercise in better understanding these drawings. Metalpoint creates an unusual mark, it is often thin, matt and can be quite faint, in contrast to graphite which creates a metallic mark that can vary in weight and tone. A metalpoint drawing is made using a stick of metal, in this case silver, on prepared paper. The texture of the paper forces minuscule particles of metal to be deposited, creating a mark. This mark is irreversible, for this reason the medium was only adopted by certain artists and for certain types of drawings, making unattributed drawings sometimes easier to identify.
I have long been obsessed with the art of James Ensor. This drawing came about from a desire to better understand how he built up his complex and often manic multi-figure scenes. Here I was specifically looking at his painting ‘The Intrigue’ (1890) found in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp. I thought metalpoint would be a useful medium to use in this case because its mark is so monotone, meaning I could concentrate on the composition and structure of the painting without getting too distracted by the strong palette and use of tone.
Frame made and hand-painted by me in my Norfolk workshop
silverpoint on prepared paper
8 x 15 cm
Framed: 25 x 30 cm
I became really interested in the medium of metalpoint after the British Museum’s 2015 exhibition ‘Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns’. For my work as an old master drawings researcher I have come across many metalpoint drawings, or drawings with areas of metalpoint, and experimenting with the medium myself has been a very useful exercise in better understanding these drawings. Metalpoint creates an unusual mark, it is often thin, matt and can be quite faint, in contrast to graphite which creates a metallic mark that can vary in weight and tone. A metalpoint drawing is made using a stick of metal, in this case silver, on prepared paper. The texture of the paper forces minuscule particles of metal to be deposited, creating a mark. This mark is irreversible, for this reason the medium was only adopted by certain artists and for certain types of drawings, making unattributed drawings sometimes easier to identify.
I have long been obsessed with the art of James Ensor. This drawing came about from a desire to better understand how he built up his complex and often manic multi-figure scenes. Here I was specifically looking at his painting ‘The Intrigue’ (1890) found in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp. I thought metalpoint would be a useful medium to use in this case because its mark is so monotone, meaning I could concentrate on the composition and structure of the painting without getting too distracted by the strong palette and use of tone.
Frame made and hand-painted by me in my Norfolk workshop