Art Ideas for the Final Project, Option #1

From Edward Gorey--see link below

For those of you looking for art to examine four of the principal characters in Dracula, be sure to look through the artwork I posted on this blog site throughout the semester (one of the reasons I always try to include art in the posts). However, here are some other artists and artworks to consider that go especially well with the characters and events of Dracula:

Francisco de Goya, who made many Romantic portraits and Gothic works of uncanny horror, especially the Portrait of Dona Isabel de Porcel: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/francisco-de-goya-dona-isabel-de-porcel and his Self-Portrait: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/334004

Caspar David Freidrich, who specializes in Romantic/Gothic landscapes, which could depict the inner world of one of our heroes (or villains), such as Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderer_above_the_Sea_of_Fog

The English impressonist landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner, is often paired with Dracula and other late 19th century works because of the strange, menacing nature of his art, such as The Burning of the House of Lords and Commons: https://www.nga.gov/features/slideshows/jmw-turner.html

James Whistler, an American painter of this period, is also very evocative of the late 19th century feel that Dracula invokes, especially in the ghostly portrait Symphony in White No.1: The White Girl: https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.12198.html

Rene Magritte, the Surrealist painter who I've used in class before, particularly for his uncanny paintings (such as "Not To Be Reproduced," the painting with the man looking into the mirror and seeing himself from behind--a few posts down), or the even stranger, Time Transfixed: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/34181/la-duree-poignardee-time-transfixed 

Many paintings of the late 19th century movement known as the Pre-Raphaelites would work beautifully here, some of which we looked at earlier (such as The Baleful Head, a few posts down), but also including Millais' haunting painting of the dead Ophelia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophelia_(painting), or Burne-Jones' mysterious and symbolic The Beguiling of Merlin: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/beguiling-of-merlin

Frida Kahlo, whose paintings mix the uncanny with Mexican folklore and personal biography, but beautifully explore female identity, such as The Broken Collumn: https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-broken-column.jsp#google_vignette

Man Ray, an earlier photographic artist, has works that dabble in the uncanny valley between Surrealism and the Gothic, such as Tears: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/1043YV

Also, Edward Gorey, a book illustrator, was obsessed with the 19th century Gothic, and often created grim images of childhood that would not be out of place in Coraline (and must have inspired Gaiman); he even did some illustrations for Dracula! You can find some of his iillustrations here: https://www.goreyesque.com/gorey-images

REMEMBER, anything goes as long as it helps you visualize some aspect of one of the characters. It DOES NOT have to be a portrait; it can depict some inner drama or struggle or even a specific scene involving this character (either literally or symbolically). Just try to help other people, especially students who haven't read the book before, see a specific side or idea of this character visually. Any way you do that is fair game, and it can be any artwork in the past or present. Hopefully the above links will give you some rabbit holes to fall into!