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Chalk
2 001 artworks, 262 artists
Chalk is a soft and malleable material for drawing; it has become a friend of professional painters and an assistant to aspiring artists. The image appears on paper after a light touch of the material, the saturation and colour transitions depend on hand pressure, and most importantly, the eraser instantly deletes an unsuccessful stroke. In the chalk technique, the artists have developed a number of techniques: drawing lines of different thickness and intensity, strokes, spots, rubbing. The “carrier” plays an important role in the creation of the picture. The density and brightness of the colour directly depend on the texture, looseness of the drawing basis — parchment, paper or cardboard.
Thousands of years ago, our primitive ancestor took a piece of loose rock in his hand and created an image on the cave wall. An artist appeared in the tribe, and humanity began the countdown of the history of fine arts and new graphic technique, chalk drawing. Calcium carbonate with an admixture of metal oxides has become a cheap, affordable and convenient material for creating drafts and finished works. Chalk was always present at the master’s hand and allowed to save a creative idea on paper, cardboard or an empty wooden table, create a sketch of a future masterpiece in a matter of seconds.
Leonardo da Vinci was among the first to show what a piece of mineral is capable of in the hands of a genius: the artist was an unsurpassed draftsman. His favourite materials were red (sanguine, kaolin with iron oxide) and black (limestone with an admixture of carbonaceous shale) chalk. The Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk 1513 has fascinated viewers for five centuries. The artist painted with sharpened red chalk and sketched a portrait, which cannot be overshadowed by the masters of oil painting: a domineering and wise look, noble grey hair, skin with deep wrinkles. Leonardo created dozens of striking, characteristic chalk portraits. A Grotesque Head 1502, Study of a Warrior’s Head for the Battle of Anghiari, Portrait of an Old Man and a Young Man demonstrate how much the artist was interested in the beauty and ugliness of human faces.
The founder of Russian romanticism, Orest Kiprensky, suffered from the “unattainability” of Raphael’s fame, but his chalk paintings, Mother and Child and Portrait of Alexei Vladimirovich Davydov in 1809 were included in the list of masterpieces of 19th century drawing. Temperamental and extravagant Pre-Raphaelite, Dante Gabriel Rossetti demonstrated what chalk can create in the hands of a talented colourist: Pandora 1869, Three Roses 1867, Music 1872, Proserpine 1889 fascinate with their velvet shades and soft colour transitions. 21st century artist Julian Beaver and Renaissance titan Leonardo “teamed up” in the chalk drawing of street art, Still There in the Morning, 2010s.
Famous chalk drawings and sketches:
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist 1499, Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk 1513 by Leonardo da Vinci; A Woman with a Child on Her Lap 1660s, A Cow and Three Sheep 1671 by Adriaen van de Velde; A Kneeling Male Nude 1795; Self-Portrait by Joseph Mallord William Turner; Behold the Man 1840s by Karl Bryullov; Portrait of the Poet Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov by Mikhail Vrubel; Proserpine 1880 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Famous artists:
Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt van Rijn, Edgar Degas, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Thousands of years ago, our primitive ancestor took a piece of loose rock in his hand and created an image on the cave wall. An artist appeared in the tribe, and humanity began the countdown of the history of fine arts and new graphic technique, chalk drawing. Calcium carbonate with an admixture of metal oxides has become a cheap, affordable and convenient material for creating drafts and finished works. Chalk was always present at the master’s hand and allowed to save a creative idea on paper, cardboard or an empty wooden table, create a sketch of a future masterpiece in a matter of seconds.
Leonardo da Vinci was among the first to show what a piece of mineral is capable of in the hands of a genius: the artist was an unsurpassed draftsman. His favourite materials were red (sanguine, kaolin with iron oxide) and black (limestone with an admixture of carbonaceous shale) chalk. The Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk 1513 has fascinated viewers for five centuries. The artist painted with sharpened red chalk and sketched a portrait, which cannot be overshadowed by the masters of oil painting: a domineering and wise look, noble grey hair, skin with deep wrinkles. Leonardo created dozens of striking, characteristic chalk portraits. A Grotesque Head 1502, Study of a Warrior’s Head for the Battle of Anghiari, Portrait of an Old Man and a Young Man demonstrate how much the artist was interested in the beauty and ugliness of human faces.
The founder of Russian romanticism, Orest Kiprensky, suffered from the “unattainability” of Raphael’s fame, but his chalk paintings, Mother and Child and Portrait of Alexei Vladimirovich Davydov in 1809 were included in the list of masterpieces of 19th century drawing. Temperamental and extravagant Pre-Raphaelite, Dante Gabriel Rossetti demonstrated what chalk can create in the hands of a talented colourist: Pandora 1869, Three Roses 1867, Music 1872, Proserpine 1889 fascinate with their velvet shades and soft colour transitions. 21st century artist Julian Beaver and Renaissance titan Leonardo “teamed up” in the chalk drawing of street art, Still There in the Morning, 2010s.
Famous chalk drawings and sketches:
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist 1499, Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk 1513 by Leonardo da Vinci; A Woman with a Child on Her Lap 1660s, A Cow and Three Sheep 1671 by Adriaen van de Velde; A Kneeling Male Nude 1795; Self-Portrait by Joseph Mallord William Turner; Behold the Man 1840s by Karl Bryullov; Portrait of the Poet Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov by Mikhail Vrubel; Proserpine 1880 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Famous artists:
Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt van Rijn, Edgar Degas, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
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