Art Analysis: Ivan Le Lorraine Albright’s Among Those Left

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Ivan Le Lorraine Albright was born in Chicago in 1897; he was the son of a painter that had previously studied under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Albright’s father trained him form an early age to draw in the academic tradition, studying models and plaster casts. This along with his later enrollment in art schools provided Albright with the foundation for his finely crafted paintings.
In 1929, after completing some painting classes at both the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and The Art Institute of Chicago, Albright achieved an Honorable Mention at the Annual American Art Exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago. The success inspired him to continue pursuing his art career, and in 1927 he and his twin brother Malvin, who specialized in sculpture under the name Zsissly, began coexisting in a studio in an abandoned church in Illinois, where they worked together for twenty years. (www.cmoa.org)

Albright started his career as a realistic painter. However, his painting gradually evolved to incorporate realism with a dark unearthly mood. The progression is evident in his painting Among Those Left done in oil on canvas, measuring 73 by 36 inches, Painted in the summers of 1928 and 1929 in his studio in Warrenville. Working with oil paints allows the artist to build up the colors in layers; this allows the artist to make colors and texture more intense than other mediums. The painting depicts a blacksmith with cheerless eyes and an expressionless face, wearing wrinkled clothing, who wields tongs and a hammer. Albright’s model for the painting was Hugo Kleinwachter, an immigrant blacksmith who spoke little English. The title Among Those Left relates to the disappearance in America of craftsmen suc...

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In the painting Albright took a literal approach, in the rendering of the shapes he used throughout the canvas. This gives the viewer a realistic perception of what the artist was studying. Because, Albright painted this in a realism fashion he must have an adequate knowledge of the antimony of the human form as well as how the muscles would react to the pose he has chosen for his model. Since this is in fact a piece done by Albright some abnormalities can be founds. The most noticeable irregularity is how the artist betrayed the light source. When you first examine the painting your eye is instantly drawn to the man’s face, than the eyes move down the canvas with the left arm acting as a guide. From there your eyes move down to the man’s legs and feet, after that your eye will move around the wheel back to the face.

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