The wide line of the meadows, the narrower line of the hills and the broad expanse of sky are perfectly balanced by three vertical elements — the tall trees in the foreground, the little tree and the distant row of trees.
#HenryRankinPoore
#PictorialComposition
#FieldsInSpring
#ClaudeMonet
A picture should be able to hang from its exact middle. A perfect composition will not cause the viewer to turn his head to a false angle in the picture. Pictures that stand the test of time demand this.
#PictorialComposition
#HenryRankinPoore
The #steelyard in depth as well as breadth. Balance in more than one dimension is vital to good composition.
#TheHuntersInTheSnow by #PieterBruegelTheElder
#EarlyRenaissance
#HenryRankinPoore
In one of the greatest of Rembrandt’s portrait groups, “The Syndics,” he was faced with the problem of placing six figures. Four are seated at the far side of a table looking towards us ; the fifth, on the near side, rises and looks at us. His head, higher than those of the row of four, breaks this line of formality; but the depth and perspective of the picture is not achieved until a figure standing in the background is added. This produces—from the foreground figure, through one of the seated figures—the transitional line which pulls the composition forwards and backwards and makes a circular composition of what was originally a line sweeping across the entire canvas. H.R. Poore
Pictorial Composition An Introduction Henry Rankin Poore
A successful #LinearGrouping. The eye might easily be led across and out; however, the line of transition pauses first at the standing figure and then at the less-defined man in the rear. Thus, we are led across and back in an elliptical line of movement.
#Rembrandt
#TheSyndics
#HenryRankinPoore
Although the eye travels across the line of figures and then to the opening background where it could easily get lost, the line is saved by the figure in the door whose gaze turns us back to the subject.
#HenryRankinPoore
#DiegoVelázquez
#LasMeninas
Line can draw you out of the picture with scarcely a glance at the subject. The long curving perspective of the detailed landscape is distracting and unnecessary. This is not transition, but #escape.
#HenryRankinPoore
#AnOldManAndHisGrandson
#Renaissance
#DomenicoGhirlandaio
Pictorial Composition An Introduction Henry Rankin Poore
Alfred Sisley (1839–1899) Tugboat on the Loing, Saint-Mammès Le remorqueur, le Loing à Saint-Mammès
A subtle #transition from the line of the shore through the trees and up. The added touch of the tugboat stacks and column of smoke strengthens the transitional upward forces. The mass on the left is well balanced by the various linear elements on the right.
#HenryRankinPoore
#PictorialComposition
