Vincent van Gogh's Perspective Frame

Van Gogh's Perspective Frame

Perspective Frame

The first sketch in charcoal was probably done with the aid of a perspective frame which he mentioned in an early letter Arles, justifying its use by maintaining that earlier masters had employed it. This device had very important for Van Gogh from the beginning of his career.

I think you can imagine how delightful it is, he wrote enthusiastically to his brother in 1882 about the first perspective frame he owned.

To turn this spy-hole frame on the sea, on the green meadows, or on the snowy fields in winter, or on the fantastic network of thin and thick branches and trunks in autumn or on stormy day.

Long and continuous practice with it enables one to draw quick as lightning - and, once the drawing is done firmly, to paint quick as lightning too.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the The Real Van Gogh - the Artist and his Letters is the letter which illustrates the perspective tool which Van Gogh used and a sketch of him using it!

> Read more ... A sketch by Van Gogh using the perspective frame (Letter 253)

> Read more ... A little scratch of that perspective frame (Letter 254)

Perspective Frame used by Earlier Masters

Leon Battista Alberti, 1404 - 1472, wrote the first general treatise Della Pittura on the laws of perspective in 1435.

Alberti's Perspective Frame was the name of the most successful of the drawing devices invented. This drawing machine is made up of a square wooden frame, across which horizontal and vertical threads are stretched at regular intervals to form a grid. In front of this gridded frame is a rod, the same height as the distance from the bottom of the frame to the middle of the grid. This rod is important because, by lining up the eye with the rod and the centre of the grid, the eye is always fixed in the same position when looking at things.

> Read more ... Leon Battista Alberti, 1404 - 1472

> Top Van Gogh Paintings Project