Rückenfigur
Rückenfigur
The compositional device of presenting a figure from behind
Rückenfigur is a German term meaning "figure from the back" or "back figure."
Jamie Wyeth, Record Player, 1964
Jamie Wyeth’s painting shows a crouching figure transfixed by a phonograph that we only know about from the painting’s title.
Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" (1818)
German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich popularized the use of this device in the early 19th century. The figure stands looking out at a landscape, inviting the viewers to imagine themselves in the place of the figure.
Rückenfigur einer stehenden Frau in Landschaft (Studie) - Eugen Dücker
Rückenfigur creates a sense of mystery by obscuring the figure's face and expression. It mediates the viewer's experience of the landscape or scene. It can also evoke feelings of longing, contemplation, or awe.
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As an artist who enjoys the relationship of language to the visual arts, I appreciated this segment, even given its brevity. To my mind it is not academic elitism, but the natural extension of vocabulary that evolves within an inner culture, in this case highlighting a terminology from the German school. Thank you!
It took me 40 years and your post to understand, but now I know why one of my SUNY Buffalo art professors, Harvey Breverman, was obsessed with drawing people from the back. Thanks for that.