The Figure
Following the usual studies from life in classes (at the Art Students League in New York, the Noank Summer School at Robert Brackman’s home in Connecticut, and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris), Eugene Witten took portrait commissions. He emulated Rembrandt’s lighting. Later he used figures as a component in broader compositions. In the 1970s he used photographs for sources, as had Degas. He focused particularly on the photographs of Edouard Boubat and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Witten’s viewpoint also appears to be influenced by the post-impressionist painter Edouard Vuillard.
