Philip de Laszlo: Face and Hands

Philip de Laszlo continues to explain his process and thinking about painting a portrait in The Studio Publications of London article in their "How to Do It" series:

14. The Study of Psychology

Q: How can you manage that; is it all a matter of facial expression?

"To a certain extent it is, but by no means entirely. If you study people observantly and with understanding, you will soon see that they have, each one of them, individualities of movement and gesture, tricks and mannerisms even, which are personal and characteristic, and in these individualities you can often find a very helpful clue to your sitter's temperament. They will guide you in choosing for the portrait the movement that is most natural and appropriate, and which agrees best with the expression of the face. To make a portrait convincing the right pose of the body is very important. "

Q: Even so, I suppose the expression you get in the face is the chief consideration.

"Well, that is what people are interested in mostly, though it would be really amusing to paint a portrait in which the face did not show at all. It might be quite a good likeness if the general characteristics of the sitter had been skillfully realized. But the more shrewd the insight one can obtain into the sitter's personality, the more revealing will be the expression of the face and especially of the eyes. Who was it that called them the' windows of the soul'? That just describes how they appear to the portrait painter who is exploring the sitter's mind. I concentrate on them from the first and I study them with the closest possible attention through every stage of the painting of the head so as to make them as expressive as I possibly can.

The Portrait after Six Hours' Work

The portrait after the second sitting of three hours,
that is after six hours' work.

15. The Treatment of Hands and Body

Work on
hands and
arms.

Q: And when the head is finished what do you do next?

"By the time the head is finished I have the body and hands firmly sketched in and the background definitely suggested because, as you have seen, my method is to develop the general effect of the picture continuously. So I proceed with the hands—and the feet when the opportunity is given me to paint them—which I consider quite as important for the revelation of character and personality as the face itself and quite as enjoyable to paint."

Q: Is it not supposed to he very difficult to paint a hand properly?

"A hand is in some ways more difficult than a head, for while the face has features which do not change their relative positions and which remain immobile until the whole head is moved, the whole appearance of the hand can he altered by even a slight movement of one of the fingers. I insist that the painter should take a hand every hit as seriously as a face and recognize how eloquent it is in its power to tell us what are the intellectual and physical qualities, and even the age, of the person to whom it belongs."

Next in importance to the face are the sitter's hands. The painter is here bringing the hands up to the necessary degree of finish.

 To be continued

(Excerpts from “The Palette of P.A. de László: Philip A. de László with Miss Gwen Ffrangcon Davies and his portrait of her,” in The Studio, vol. CVII, London, 1934, pp. 38-9, ill.