Art Manikins in the Met's New Mannequin Exhibition
A wooden art mannequin (commonly referred to as a manikin) can be an invaluable aid for artists learning the human body through drawing. Adaptable enough to mimic many lifelike positions, its flexibility helps artists understand proportion, scale, foreshortening and pose analysis - it even assists students as they navigate more complex drawing projects! Perfect for practicing freehand figure drawing techniques as it comes in various sizes to accommodate any budget!
Sculptural manikins have long been an indispensable and often-overlooked tool in artists' studios from Renaissance Europe to early 20th-century America. Not only are they vital tools for learning anatomy and understanding how the human form works, but their use also ignites creative inspiration and allows for deeper levels of artistic expression.
This exhibition of 19th century mannequins dates from the first half of that century and represents an intriguingly complex evolution of figures. At first, they were used by sculptors as teaching aids; later however, technology improved and artists experimented with different forms and proportions to produce more realistic depictions of human bodies in various poses; eventually creating unique figures with unique expression and personality for themselves and other artists to learn from.
This display of mannequins includes two children, their parents and an older man made entirely from hardwood. There is also an exhibit featuring an articulated mannequin designed to mimic human form as closely as possible for use as an educational model - made by French sculptor Jean-Desire Leblond in 1849 as a revolutionary advancement of an earlier form, with joints in arms, legs and torso that could be adjusted to replicate different positions and poses of the human body.
George is another recent addition to The Met's collection and an example of advances made at that time towards creating more realistic figures for figure drawing. It features an elaborate interior structure filled with horsehair and cotton stockinette to provide much more realism to its figure than had been possible before.
As was often done at this time, combining multiple mannequins together into family groups was a popular Artist Canvas trend to demonstrate how various aspects of human biology worked in tandem. Groupings, like this pair of child-sized mannequins, might vary significantly in scale but have been placed together so as to suggest some sort of taxonomy based on shared characteristics or details that appear similar. Such sculptures raise questions of what defines a "family," how we might use similar works today as political symbols or even as political tooling against political agendas or political oppositions.
