David Battcock Analysis
Alice Neel’s painting titled David Bourdon and Gregory Battcock displays a relationship that appears to have gone dreadfully wrong. Alice Neel painted this painting in 1970 with the characters David Bourdon and Gregory Battcock as the titles suggests. With the different colors being used and Neel’s placement of these two men in the painting makes them seem to be at a cross road. This relatively large, naturalistic portrait being at 59 ¾ inches x 56 inches done on oil on canvas shows a failing relationship of some sort. The contrasting colors have a major effect in this painting. The light blue wall in the back looks like a dazzling blue sky on a sunny day, but directly behind the men two darkened shadows lurk like massive storm clouds. The
…show more content…
When looking at the painting in person one would think that this painting would be about something joyful and lighthearted. Even though this painting has bright lighting and use intense and various colors such as yellow, green, and red. The subject matter depicts something dark and gloomy. An inadequate, possibly abusive relationship wouldn’t normally be done with such lighting. Neel may have been trying to lighten the mood somewhat with her selection of color and overall brightness of the work. There are a few spots in the painting where the paint thickens and condenses, which gives it some sort of texture if one were to run their hand across the canvas. Implied texture makes up most of this painting, however. The wrinkles on the mans tank top being caused by his slouch look authentic and as if one could run their fingers over them and feel them. The guy on the left’s hair looks greasy, thin, and all over the place as if he just woke up and Neel does a marvelous job of showing this with implied texture. Neel’s use of colors and value give us a look into a relationship that is going downhill fast. We see that if one person isn’t carrying their weight in a relationship and being a bum can really put a damper on a relationship. Her placement of the David Bourdon and Gregory Battcock in each chair and how they are sitting symbolizes how people can be so close physically, but emotionally they couldn’t be more distant from each
When looking at the painting in person one would think that this painting would be about something joyful and lighthearted. Even though this painting has bright lighting and use intense and various colors such as yellow, green, and red. The subject matter depicts something dark and gloomy. An inadequate, possibly abusive relationship wouldn’t normally be done with such lighting. Neel may have been trying to lighten the mood somewhat with her selection of color and overall brightness of the work. There are a few spots in the painting where the paint thickens and condenses, which gives it some sort of texture if one were to run their hand across the canvas. Implied texture makes up most of this painting, however. The wrinkles on the mans tank top being caused by his slouch look authentic and as if one could run their fingers over them and feel them. The guy on the left’s hair looks greasy, thin, and all over the place as if he just woke up and Neel does a marvelous job of showing this with implied texture. Neel’s use of colors and value give us a look into a relationship that is going downhill fast. We see that if one person isn’t carrying their weight in a relationship and being a bum can really put a damper on a relationship. Her placement of the David Bourdon and Gregory Battcock in each chair and how they are sitting symbolizes how people can be so close physically, but emotionally they couldn’t be more distant from each