One of the next photos that I looked at was a picture of a young boy in Seaford in 1958. There were visual similarities between it and Caspar David Friedrich’s 1818 painting ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ a loan figure stands at the centre of the scene with misty depths below him. Visually the composition has similar. Both feature a lone figure, the figure is centre of attention in both. However the Seaford boy faces the camera whilst Friedrich’s figure faces away.
Paintings were attempted for the two images and but gained little success and abandoned this route of the project, the wooden construction in the Seaford image made the background complex and difficult to comprehend. Whilst Friedrich’s exquisite Oil painting was difficult to mirror in a far more contemporary style using acrylic paint.
The “sea of fog” or the English Chanel would not feature in my work for this project. But the exploration reminded me that compositional styles and setups can repeat themselves throughout History of Art.
Above Images, (from left to right)
Chris Corish Art 