Laughing Elephants

Gerdine Duijsens was born in Utrecht, Netherlands and studied at the Art Academy and the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium. The work of Gerdine Duijsens is a synthesis between figurative and abstract art. In their unguarded moments, Gerdine displays her characters with slight derision as their vulnerable and insecure selves, when in their seemingly unobserved moments they briefly try to escape from a world in which status, knowledge, protocols and power keep them prisoner. Her people are bon-vivants, somewhat blasé, comical, cheerful and bored. The partying, dining, happy single and Botox paintings have become Gerdine's trademarks and have generated a steadily growing club of collectors internationally. We recognize the people on the canvasses, they're our families, they're our friends, they're us. They move us and make us laugh. We love them and want to have them with us. We want them with us because they make us happy.

Figurative art, as opposed to abstract art, retains features from the observable world in its representational depictions of subject matter. Most commonly, figurative paintings reference and explore the human body, but they can also include landscapes, architecture, plants and animals — all portrayed with realism.

While the oldest figurative art dates back tens of thousands of years to cave wall paintings, figurative works made from observation became especially prominent in the early Renaissance. Artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance masters created naturalistic representations of their subjects.

Pablo Picasso is lauded for laying the foundation for modern figurative art in the 1920s. Although abstracted, this work held a strong connection to representing people and other subjects. Other famous figurative artists include Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Figurative art in the 20th century would span such diverse genres as Expressionism, Pop art and Surrealism.

Today, a number of figural artists — such as Sedrick Huckaby, Daisy Patton and Eileen Cooper — are making art that uses the human body as its subject.

Because figurative art represents subjects from the real world, natural colors are common in these paintings. A piece of figurative art can be an exciting starting point for setting a tone and creating a color palette in a room.

Browse an extensive collection of figurative paintings on 1stDibs.