How many ways can a picture be broken into thirds?
Three is a magic number in art. Threes cause movement yet feel complete, as in a three-part sonata or three-act play or a three-chord song. Twos can be very stable but may have a movement that feels like bouncing back and forth. Threes have a more complete movement.
For adults, I get into geometry and more complex pictures. For the kids, all I have to do is ask them to look for threes and triangles. The fun starts when we examine additional paintings that are not part of my lecture.
In this painting by John William Waterhouse, the single figure takes a triangular pose. Waterhouse gives us a second triad in the post with a pyramid top and a third triad in the three candles. The woman feels static, but the artist did not center her. He creates angles that feel triangular in breaks in the trees and the direction of the stairs. Keep looking and you will find more. The painting is three units tall and four units wide--a ratio that includes the number three and is a perfect fourth in Western music.
Here, the figure again takes a triangular shape. It's very easy to make a triangle with the human form. But James McNeil Whistler balances the triad with at least six or seven rectangles of different shapes and sizes. The figure is again off-center.
Georges Suerat has created groupings and divisions that feel like triads, and yet, it is not possible to definitely pin them down as intentional. This creates a much more interesting effect. For one thing, there are many triads. For another, they are of varying sizes, types, and angles. Finally, we can't be certain, without hearing from the artist or comparing this to his other works, whether or not he designed it as I've schematized it. This painting is two units tall and three units wide. This is another ratio containing the number three. It is one of the Fibonnaci ratios and it is a perfect fifth in Western music. A 24x36 panel is this ratio, as is Leonardo's Mona Lisa.
Gustave Caillebotte is working with triangular groupings and forms, but also working in groups of threes. He has placed three figures on the right (one cut off for variation) and three on the left (of different sizes and positions, actually forming a triangular shape between them). The building in the back speaks for itself. Interestingly, the canvas is divided in two with one lamppost in the middle, which contrasts somewhat awkwardly with the dynamics of the triads. Another good example to look at is David's Oath of the Horatii.
This is an excellent example of using three with variety. Jean-François Millet has painted three figures, but two are grouped and one is separate. One, Two, Three.
Here is an interesting use by Diego Rivera of both a triangular shape and a triad of individual forms. Like Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks, this artist has made a triangle that is actually four figures. Color plays an important role here in balancing numbers of forms. The central figure stands out as one against the other two seated figures, and the cross shape makes for a pair of forms. Here, as in Leonardo's Virgin, the shapes and gestures of the figures give the implied triangular shape a circular movement. Rivera has repeated smaller circles within the larger circle form. So there is much more than a triad, here.
A common way of working with threes is to balance them in counterpoint with one, two, and four intervals. I use a Pendant from 1069-715 BC Egypt owned by the Cleveland Museum of Art and a painting called Canoe by Alex Katz to illustrate this concept. In the painting pictured here, Lorenzo Di Credi is working with intervals of shapes in fours, threes, and two in the top panel. There are four circular windows, three arches, three columns, and two figures. The open space in the center is a bit unsettling, and the work feels like it needs a stronger singular element somewhere.
Here is a famous work by Winslow Homer. These boys, playing a game, create a triangular shape in the two dimensions of the picture plane as well as in the imaginary three-dimensions that he represents. The wedge-shape moves toward the corner. The sides of the angle break the group into four on the left and three on the right, with a slight negative space separating them. At the far left are two who have fallen off the line. In various ways, we can visualize the boys grouped into two, three, and four figures. Homer repeats the triangle shape in the hills and roof.
This painting is three units high by five units wide (another Fibonnaci ratio). If we analyze it geometrically, the center line connects all the boys' heads. The division between the third and forth unit from the left coincides with the corner of the barn. The same division coming from from the right coincides with the foremost figure and divides the group into wings. The top of the barn is exactly at the two-thirds height. And the construction circle I've drawn coincides with the change in color in the hills and the direction of the tumbling boys. The other blue construction lines intersect with important events and follow lines of movement in the figures.
All of these design considerations are clearly intentional, however the exact geometry may have been the result of unconscious decisions. The artist may have been working intuitively when he made the visual measurements that I've diagrammed.
Finally, here is a very successful piece by James Tissot with the triad written all over it. We find three figures--one red male and two females with white umbrellas. All three figures are connected with plaid pattern, and the colors red, white, black, and cream. The figures and the rowboat create a triangle and we can find triad forms in the bows and masts of the ships. Tissot includes negative triangular shapes in the water around the row boat. All these threes are balanced with horizontal lines and rectangles.
