Hands

(Click on the image to see it bigger)

Here is a montage of hands by master artists, but which artists? Is it possible to tell the artist from just one little part of a picture?

Hands are considered to be difficult things to draw and paint. Artists often avoid them, using a variety of devices to keep them out of the picture. However, if the artist has the skill, hands can express character and mood to an amazing extent, as the montage shows. Here are some labels to describe the way I read the types, mixed up, not in the numbered order:

• No-nonsense hand
• Shy hands
• Earnest hands
• These hands mean business
• Man-about-town hands
• Expressive hands
• Debonair hand
• Decisive hands

Click here for the artists who painted them and the way I read the types. The pictures are bigger too.