Jacques Bodin is a French based painter who realizes truly exceptional hyperrealistic paintings. His superior technique allows him to excel in every subject he decides to represent, passing from portrait to still life and natural scenes with great mastery.
So, he creates some different series, but one of the most recognizable and interesting is “De Dos”, where he depicts mainly female subjects portrayed from behind, while observing a natural landscape on the blurry background.
In the first issue of Hyperrealism Magazine, Jacques told us something about his work, explaining the meaning behind these particular portraits:
One of your first series represents people portraited from
behind. What’s the meaning of this uncommon choose?
I started painting the “De Dos“ series twenty years ago.
I found some help in old masters. The reference was Caspar David Friedrich with its “Wanderer Above The Sea Of Mist”.
I worked on the theme of the human figure turning one’s back to the viewer. It was a conception of the portrait showing what is never detailed: the back and through it the interiority of the human being. The models contemplate a mysterious scene, admiring and probably experiencing a deep introspection.
The viewer and the model are the witnesses of the same scene. This situation invites to contemplation, not to confrontation.
I made about sixty paintings on this theme and frequently with more attention to what became an essential theme: the hair.
The hair becomes a kind of abstraction separating the subject from ordinary reality and endowing it with a life of its own. It becomes a world in itself, a microcosm. I focus on the essential, the spiritual oneness of the hair; there is, indeed, a connection between this magnified section of human physiognomy and the universe.
You can read the entire interview of Jacques Bodin in the Hyperrealism Magazine #1:
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https://www.jacquesbodin.com/
exceptional work.