Archways In Composition

Russian artist Boris Zvorykin (1872-1942)

As a framing device, arches, archways and arcs are useful to illustrators. Below are various examples of archways in art and illustration.

If you look up symbolism of the arch, you’ll be taken to the underworld of tarot readings and superstition. These days, the archway is considered a practical and aesthetically pleasing architectural structure, but in fiction and art still functions as what academics might call a boundary into liminal spaces. Fantasy enthusiasts might think of it as a kind of portal.

These ideas around archways (and similar structures) transcend time and culture.

What’s the inverse of an archway. You probably won’t think spontaneously of ‘meadow’, but Ruth B. Bottigheimer made a study of fairytale illustrations. Because there are so many collections of illustrated fairytales, she focused on fairytale collections in which each story featured a single image. Which part of a fairy tale do illustrators consider the most worthy of capture? Bottigheimer honed her study down further to the tale of “Goose Girl”. The paper is called “Illustration and Imagination”, and lists the three main conclusions:

  1. Overall design of illustrations remained constant over decades.
  2. Particular details within the illustrations gradually changed in ways that reflected changing cultural expectations.
  3. Illustrators’ choice of illustration moment in “The Goosegirl” reliably predicted how the same illustrator depicted heroines in other tales: archway illustrations were associated with a heroine’s humiliating degradation, while meadow scenes correlated with a heroine’s shining triumph.
Kawase Hasui, The Great Gate, Shiba, in Snow, 1936
Kawase Hasui, The Great Gate, Shiba, in Snow, 1936
Shinohara Katsuyuki, poster for Demon Fantasy, 1974 arch
Sarah Louise Kilpack - Coastal Scene
Sarah Louise Kilpack – Coastal Scene
Kay Nielsen East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1914)
Kay Nielsen East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1914)
George Dunlop Leslie - Kept in School 1876
Kept in School 1876 George Dunlop Leslie 1835-1921
Edith Hayllar (1860-1948) British
Henry George Brandt for House and Garden September 1922
Music at Pendragon by Paula Harris

In some cities and towns, street architecture offers many beautiful views.

E. Merrill – Cowport Gate, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland 1898
John Collier – A Street in Jerusalem
God Speed by Edmund Leighton (1900)
René Bull (1872 – 1941) 1913 illustration for The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam
Victor Gabriel Gilbert (1847 – 1933) The Milk Seller in Winter
Anton Franciscus Pieck (19 April 1895 – 24 November 1987) European market
Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs (1904 – 1987)
William Andrew Pogany
Achille Wildi, 1969
Graham Petrie
Mead Schaeffer (1898-1980) Forbidden Lover illustration for Ladies Home Journey 1932
Anton Pieck (1895 – 1987) 1937 illustration for Franz Schubert by Lou van Strien
Vittorio Accornero

The examples below are two-point perspective, using the archway as a simple frame, or a diptych (almost a triptych) in the example by Franklin Booth.

Trina Schart Hyman, American, 1939-2004, The Sleeping Beauty
Trina Schart Hyman, American, 1939-2004, The Sleeping Beauty
Trina-Schart-Hyman-1939-2004-1977-illustration-for-The-Sleeping-Beauty
Trina Schart Hyman, American, 1939-2004, The Sleeping Beauty
Franklin Booth

When illustrating The Sleeping Beauty, Trina Schart Hymen made much use of archways in framing. Aside from the compositional reasons, we can pinpoint the practical: a storybook (Medieval) tower features archways for windows. But the arches of Sleeping Beauty are equally symbolic, functioning as a ‘keyhole’ view of the world. This is another young woman cossetted in an attempt to keep her safe. See also Rapunzel and many other fairytale princesses.

The arch is a strong structure — a ‘pure compression form’ in engineering terms, and often the last thing standing after a castle ruin.

See: How Bridges Work from How Stuff Works.

East Gate, Winchelsea, Sussex circa 1807-8 Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851

The archway isn’t always a simple arc. Here is a decorative example, with a mise en abyme arch-within-an-arch effect. The rich people in the gallery are as removed from the plebs below as the plebs are removed from the fiction playing out on that stage.

The Rossini Opera House in Pesaro (Rossini's hometown) - Illustration by Achille Wildi, 1969
The Rossini Opera House in Pesaro (Rossini’s hometown) – Illustration by Achille Wildi, 1969

Trees can form a natural, beautiful arch, turning a natural scene into a type of dwelling, almost a cathedral in this case. The forest is nature’s cathedral.

Bonomi Edward Warren - Woodland Scene in Summer with Children on a Path 1871
Bonomi Edward Warren – Woodland Scene in Summer with Children on a Path 1871
Maxfield Parrish The Doctrine of Divine Light 1954

And an arch isn’t always an archway at all. Garth Williams uses the arch in a compositionally similar way to how the artist above drew the audience in the theatre. Two girls, emotionally separate from the parents, but with parents guarding their safety. Though this family occupies the same space, the girls are having a different experience from the adults.

Garth Williams (1912 - 1996) for Little House On The Prairie 1953
Garth Williams (1912 – 1996) for Little House On The Prairie 1953

Archways are a common feature in landscape design. Below is an example illustrated by Beatrix Potter.

Beatrix Potter, Fawe Park Garden, 1903
Beatrix Potter, Fawe Park Garden, 1903

The garden arches below are functioning more as an umbrella might function, to draw attention to the character, who might otherwise get lost in this busy birds-eye composition.

Punch cover, May 1961, by Norman Thelwell

But the viewer isn’t always meant to notice the arch. Sometimes the arch frames a character. In the illustration below, Thumbelina and the rat each want something different. There’s a border between them. It’s subtle, but it works.

Thumbelina by Hans Christian Andersen illustrated by Vittorio Accornero de Testa
Thumbelina by Hans Christian Andersen illustrated by Vittorio Accornero de Testa

Certain types of bridges make perfect framing arcs.

The Pied Piper by Margaret Evans Price
Austrian artist Heinrich Lefler (1863-1919)
Anton Pieck (1895 – 1987) 1943 illustration for 1001 Arabian Nights The Story Of The Strange Khalif

Fantasy illustrators can find any number of ways to incorporate an arch into composition.

(A virtual trip) From Milan to the Moon and back ... Cover by Walter Molino, 1958 archway
(A virtual trip) From Milan to the Moon and back … Cover by Walter Molino, 1958

Archways are used in home architecture and interior decoration. The canopy bed also offers a natural arch and framing device. There are many, many examples of canopy beds in art and children’s illustration.

An Art Deco bathroom from the 1930s
An Art Deco bathroom from the 1930s

In the comical illustration below, the eye is drawn to the man trying desperately to get out of his parked car. Artist Dick Sargent makes use of the rule of thirds, and intersects the man’s head with the beam of an archway. The archways also insert distance between the man and his car, and the people catching the train. He struggles; they get onto their public transport without fuss.

Dick Sargent, 1960
Dick Sargent, 1960
Omnia magazine March 1932
Omnia magazine March 1932

Header illustration by Russian artist Boris Zvorykin (1872-1942)

CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)

On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.

Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:

1. Get a pet dog

2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.

PAPERBACK

KINDLE EBOOK

MORE INFO

error: Content is protected